The latest from Evgeni

Plushenko sits down for a chat

December 17, 2003

My music

The music for my new program comes from my coach. It’s about a dancer, Vaclav Nizhinski. My coach comes to me and says maybe we’ll take that style for the program. I say ‘How is that possible?’ That was 40 years ago. But I read the books on him, looked at a lot of pictures of him, and just started to do the program. I feel it. I feel the moves. My coach says, ‘That’s your program. That’s your style.’ First, I like to read the books about his life, how he started, how he’s growing up. Then we put the program together.

In the first part of the program, I am just thinking about what I am going to dance to later. Second part, I start to dance to show audience what the dance is. So first part, thinking; second part, dancing; third part,do steps and jumps.

For St. Petersburg, I just wanted nice moves. The music is from “Criminals of Russia.” We named it St. Petersburg 300 because we wanted it to be nice, not criminals. The movie was one of the most revolutionary movies done after the fall of the Soviet Union and was well received in Russia. It got the best ratings and was the first movie in the new Russian cinematography.

My coach, Alexei Mishin, and I work on the programs together. Of course, if I feel this move or want to do different moves, we discuss it. We’re a team. If I say “I don’t like it”, we’ll discuss it. I have been with my coach for 10 years. We are the best of friends. We are friends everywhere, on and off the ice. We play tennis. I played him five or six years before I could beat him. He used to beat me all the time. I knew I could run faster than he could, but he still beat me. He’s still competitive and plays to win, but I can beat him now.

"I go out every time to win"

I don’t think about records or keep track of wins and losses. I just go out every time to win. It’s hard work to keep winning. I work hard every day, two times a day. It’s hard to get on top and harder to stay there. My workout begins around 10 in the morning when I arrive at the rink. I do warm-ups for about 45 minutes, running, jumping on the floor, go through the short and long programs on the floor. Then I go on the ice and skate, spending time on elements such as spinning and jumping. Then in the morning I go through the short program several times. Then I am finished for the morning.

I come back and go through the same routine, arriving about 4 p.m. for warm-ups and then and hour or an hour and 15 mintues on the ice. I go through my long program in the afternoon practice.

"My mom gives me great food"

I don’t eat out. I eat at home. My mom gives me great food, and I like what she makes – meat, chicken, Japanese food. I like very much the borscht she makes. In the mornings, she make fresh-squeezed orange juice for me. I don’t have dessert during training. But sometimes after a competition, I will have dessert. My favorite is cheesecake. No toppings, just plain cheesecake.

"Commercials are hard work"

I am now an official sponsor of Art on Ice in Switzerland and Germany. And I’ve done commercials for Chupachups, which are very popular commercials in Europe. Commercials are hard to do, I arrived at 10 a.m., and all day I am there with makeup on. We didn’t finish until midnight. I will also appear in the Aeroflot magazine ad in January.

"I'm a fun guy"

I’m a fun guy. I like to have fun. Everybody likes to have fun. But at competitions, that is business. Competitions should be serious. But when you’re on tour, like with Champions on Ice, we play jokes on each other. One year I did a number where I wore a hat. Before I went out, someone had filled the hat with shaving cream, and, of course, I didn’t know it, so I put the hat on my head and all the stuff started running down my face!

Learning from others

When you’re starting out as a competitive skater, first you have to learn. You learn from Petrenko, Boitano, Browning, Hamilton. Then you develop your own style. You learn how to feel the audience. Now I know how to present myself. It has to come from inside. I can see the people when I am skating. Sometimes they are smiling and I smile back. Sometime in competitions I even play with the judges by making eye contact, especially with the women!

New Year's is big holiday

I have been on two holidays this year. In Turkey and the Russian resort of Socjki. I enjoyed it very much. I went swimming and fishing. Christmas is not a historical celebration in Russia. But New Year’s is. That is our big holiday. I will spend it with my friends. I bought a new house in this year and I will invite my friends over a lot. Two rooms of my house will be Oriental style, because I like that style. It’s relaxing. The other rooms will be more European/modern. My trophies are just everywhere in my home, on the mantles, on the shelves. All the stuffed animals I get I give to children who don’t have anything.

"I like clothes a lot"

I like fashion and I like clothes a lot. Some of my favorite designers are Prada and Versace. I also like Abercrombie and Fitch.