Ice Dance - Blossom on Ice

September 29, 2025October 12, 2025

Elizaveta Pasechnik and Dario Cirisano: “If We’re the Only Ones Pleased with Ourselves, Something’s Amiss”

This past weekend in Saint Petersburg, the Russian national figure skating team held open test skates at the Yubileyny Sports Complex. The skaters showcased their programs as they prepare for the new competitive season.

Silver medalists from the Russian Grand Prix Final, Elizaveta Pasechnik and Dario Cirisano, selected music from the opera “Thaïs” by French composer Jules Massenet for their free dance. After their performance, Elizaveta and Dario shared their thoughts in the mixed zone.

Elizaveta:

Not everything went perfectly, but we were ready for it (smiles). We really tried our hardest to give it our all.

Dario:

We’re still far from our peak form; after all, it’s just the beginning of the season.

Elizaveta:

But it’s a solid start.

May 23, 2020September 19, 2024

Allison Reed/Saulius Ambrulevicius: “We try to be our best versions every time”.

Lithuania’s ice dancers Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius paired up in 2017. They are the national champions of Lithuania 2017-2018. At the European Championships, which were held in Graz this January, the skaters took 11th place with a total score of 174.24.

Allison and Saulius gave this interview a few weeks before a tragic event in Allison’s family – on March 14 her brother Chris Reed, a 10-time champion of Japan in ice dancing, a talented skater and a very kind and positive person, died suddenly. We offer sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of Chris.

Allison, you’ve had a very interesting career so far – besides Lithuania, you also represented Georgia and Israel at international competitions, while you were born in the USA and you have Japanese roots. Would you please tell a bit about that?

Allison:

Yes, I’m half American, half Japanese. My father is American, and my mother is from Japan. As for my career, my first partner was Georgian (Otar Japaridze – Blossom on Ice), and we skated for Georgia at the Olympics. After we broke up, I teamed up for Israel (with Vasili Rogov – Blossom on Ice) and, after that ended, I took a break for two years. I didn’t skate. Then, I wanted to come back. I met Saul, and we really hit it off. It wasn’t only on the ice, it was off the ice too. We got along really well, and I knew this was going to work. I knew this was going to be it for me, and I really hoped that we could achieve something great together. And I think we really are, and it’s meant the world to me.

December 1, 2019September 19, 2024

Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson: “We had 31 versions of the same music for our free dance and 40 – for the rhythm dance”

The 2019 British Figure Skating Championships took place in Sheffield this weekend.

Ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who competed for GB at this year’s European Championships and World Championships, placed first both in the rhythm dance and in the free dance to win the gold medal with 195.70 points.

In an interview with the “Blossom on Ice”, which Lilah and Lewis had given before the start of the tournament, the skaters told how the process of choosing music and setting programs for this season went, what records they set when cutting musical passages, who Lilah does interviews with in her free time and why Lewis switched from footballers to skaters.

This year, the music pieces for the rhythm dance should be chosen from musicals or operettas. What is your favourite musical so far?

Lilah:

Okay. That’s a difficult question.

Lewis:

I know mine, so I’ll go first and you’ll think about it (smiles). My favorite musical is “Hamilton”. It’s a new musical about American history. I feel like it would be really cool for the ice, but I don’t think it’s well-known enough yet.