#ruslan zhiganshin

[figureskatingcostumes]

Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin competing in the 2012 Junior Worlds, skating their free dance to The Phantom of the Opera.

(Sources: 1 and 2)

[little-lynx]

even though I knew you are from russia- i had no idea you were following figure skating too!! but it totally make sense and if you ever do a painting on that please share it on tumblr too :D

also your paintings are amazing, basically the only reason I check tumblr some days!

Heeeey! ❤️ this post was in my drafts for foreeeeever 🙈

Well, yeah, THG and figure skating (ice dance in particular) are my main fandoms ;) actually my tumblr looked like ruslena’s fan page back in 2014 😅 (ruslena = elena ilinykh/ruslan zhiganshin, my forever favourite ice dance team, unfortunately not existing anymore). I was a little obsessed with them, haha. Ok, not “a little”. Ohhh…. My heart is forever broken because of them.

I try not to become very attached to any ice dance team anymore after ruslena’s split (that still hurts) but I do really like two teams right now.  Russian Aleksandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (Sasha is extremely beautiful 😍)

And US team Madison Chock/Evan Bates (they are so sweet! And give me everlark feels all the time)

Gifs by @findthatsynchronicity​ , illustrations by me ;))

It’s Olympics now so if you have time please watch Stepanova/Bukin and Chock/Bates programs, especially free dances, both are amazing! 

[ravensburgerwaltz]

Interview with Ruslan Zhiganshin for sports.ru

After retirement he didn't even had a break or chance to think abut his future - he started working and coaching right away.

Says that boys of course have some privileges in this sport - just because there are only very few of them, especially in ice dance. Usually, special tryouts are being organized to create a team, coaching teams are choosing the best female partner for the boy and etc. He also notes that it is much more difficult to start working with a team when a boy is new to ice dance and a girl already has some experience - vice versa situation is way more convenient.

About ideal partner - just like in real life, you can't find an ideal partner because people are different and the best thing about partnership is an ability to find compromises.

You can always spot the difference between Russian and American teams, for example - while Americans calmly discuss everything, we (Russians) are arguing and raise voices at each other. Sometimes he even felt uncomfortable because of that.

As a skater he used to hate their Russian folk OD and even asked his older sister to talk to the coaches and change the music, but coaches word is a law, so he couldn't do anything with it. By the end of that season the dance had really grown on him and he truly enjoyed skating to that program. Now, as a coach, he believes that it's way better to skate to Russian folk dances at the age of 10 or 11 rather than to Moulin Rouge or Carmen - way more age appropriate, both audience and judges are smiling, everyone is happy and etc.

Personally, he had always wanted to skate to 'Singing in the Rain' , really enjoys this music.

In Russian Ice dance skaters are taught to do everything like it's written in handbooks, while in America coaches may ask you to do anything and you should do it and realize that it's possible (he use inside rolls as an example). Russian ice dance school still most focuses on classics, but you have to feel the freedom of movement in order to achieve results nowadays. But at the same time this flow and constant movements actually takes less energy than programs in classical style. It's extremely important to breathe well. He wished he would understood it earlier because it saves 20% of energy or even more while performing.

He would like to train in Montreal for some time just to get new experience and new look on the process. It's important to keep the balance between moving from one coach to another too often and getting new experience.

Skaters not only say that they don't understand how they got some levels and scores to look good, usually they really don't understand that. He recalls 2013 Universiade when Vika and he got 4 deductions in the free dance and didn't know for what. Ok, even of two of those deductions came from extended lifts, what about two other? Those K&C reactions then quickly became a popular meme on Russian social media 

About Sochi Olympics - unique experience, the whole audience supported you and you got chills and were thrilled to take the ice. It seems that the ice was shaking in excitement as well. Very nervous but unforgettable experience that certainly was worth it.

The ice was not of the best quality there, ice in Novogorsk, Saransk and Quebec is way better, extremely great quality.

About the difference in size of the rinks in Russia and North America: it's very difficult to adjust, you have to control everything. The worse was with cha-cha-cha pattern.

He really enjoyed compulsory dances, thinks that he was good in it. Agrees with the host that the compulsories had always been a strength of Russian teams and school in general.

He doesn't like modern step sequences in ice dance - 'always want to ask and there exactly are the steps here?'. ISU reduced the amount of steps, before there were multiples difficult turns and steps and now step sequences are easier, more choreographic.

(not my translation, source is below)

[teatimefoxtrot]

jgpf and russian sweeps | ice dance

2010 | 🥇Monko/Khaliavin 🥈Sinitsina/Zhiganshin 🥉Stepanova/Bukin

2011 | 🥇Sinitsina/Zhiganshin 🥈Yanovskaya/Mozgov 🥉Stepanova/Bukin

2014 | 🥇Yanovskaya/Mozgov 🥈Loboda/Drozd 🥉Popova/Vlasenko

2018 | 🥇Shevchenko/Eremenko 🥈 Ushakova/Nekrasov 🥉Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov

[beautifulstorms]

Endless list of favourite programs [2/?]

Elena Ilinykh / Ruslan Zhiganshin, SD Carmen || Worlds 2015

[figure-skating-confessions]

“I think Elena Ilinykh is one of the most overrated skaters in a long time and other than her “attitude” doesn’t have the skating skills or potential people seem to think she has. Since Sochi both her partners (Nikita and Ruslan) have been showing better skating than she has.”

[peacocksonice]

Some more nice pics from the training camp.Photos by Konstantin Sokolov

[figureskatingcostumes]

Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin's free dance costumes at the 2013 NHK Trophy, 2014 Russian Championships and 2014 World Championships. They skated to Norma by Vincenzo Bellini.

(Sources: 1, 2 and 3)