Arntgolts/Staviski Interview in "Ice" magazine

TATIANA ARNTGOLTS AND MAXIM STAVISKI :WE BOTH HAVE OUR OTHER SIGNIFICANT HALF




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Tatiana Arntgolts :

Born March 18 , 1982 in Kaliningrad in family of actors from the regional drama -theater . After her graduation from lyceum ,she and her twin sister were admitted in Institute of theater “Shtepkin” .She became famous after her role as Katia Trofimova in TV serial “ Please forgive the truth “ .She was also in movies “Delusion” ,TV serial “ Love charm /talisman/” , “Gloss /luster/” , “In search of happiness “”Marriage by will” , “ Still - I love “ and etc.






They compliment each other very much: beautiful , talented ,captivated by the ice. Frail, fragile , but purposeful Tania and strong , manly but romantic Maxim .He calls her workaholic and she calls him - tolerant .As a child she wanted to be a sports journalist , now he is dreaming about cinema. He loves to give women flowers , she considers flowers and sighs on the park bench superficial.


TATIANA ARNTGOLTS AND MAXIM STAVISKI :“Each of us has their other significant half”










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Maxim Staviski:

Born November 16 , 1977 .He started to skate at age of four. At first he was a single skater , later he continued with ice dancing /the translation is not very accurate here because I couldn’t’ see and read all the words / .His first partner was Anastasia Belova.Since 1996 he is skating with Albena Denkova and competing for Bulgaria. Medalist at EC. Under the supervision of Natalia Linichuk and Genady Karponosov he became two times World Champion.





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Maxim and Albena

“When I skate with Albena , we don’t need to fake love ,we express our feelings with our movements"


We met with Tatiana Arntgolts and Maxim Staviski in the dressing room of the ice rink. After less then half hour came Averbukh and impatiently reminded them that they have a training .But still, they manage to tell us something : about themselves , about each other , what is the similarity between actors and skaters , about the attitude that arises on the ice. But more importantly that both of them -Tania and Maxim , believe in successes and want to overcome all difficulties.

Q.-Maxim you are a figure skater ,for you to skate -is something normal .But you ,Tania, weren’t you afraid when you decided to participate in “Ice Age”?
T.A.-I,ve heard a lot about this show from my colleague-artists , who had already participated .They were delighted .I was thinking ; It should be great to try my skills on the ice .I was dreaming about it. When I find out that I was invited in “Ice Age” I got scared. But I accepted right away , without thinking because in “Ice Age” they have a very strong team. Not everyone can make it .I know many actors who wanted to do this but weren’t invited.



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MS-After all, this is just a work -for me and for Tania.A pleasant work where every week we can try ourselves in different kind of role. For actors this is very important. I know that the rating of many of previous participants increased o lot after the show.I myself couldn’t perform last year but when Averbukh invited me again I accepted immediately .Moreover, I am able to keep myself in a good shape, meeting new interesting people and trying new stuff.Last year many of the skaters performed in TV serial and Roma Kostomarov in a movie. Here actors are becoming skaters and skaters actors.

Q.-Maxim, if somebody invite you in a movie , would you go?

MS-For now I don’t have any invitations. But if somebody does invite me ,yes, I would go. I’ve been in sports for 26 years .It is time to try something new. However I doubt ,that I can go on stage and tell a monologue ,like the real actors do .I will psyche out much more then Tania does when she is on the ice .I will forget and mess up every word and step of the stage completely ashamed.

TA-In my opinion Maxim has very appropriate looks for movies . Of course, because of his lack of experience, he will be very nervous in front of the camera too.
MS- Well ,of course I would be ! But if it comes to this ,I will overcome my fear. Tania also is dealing with her worriment when she steps on the ice . Before every performance she is very nervous but as soon as she goes on the ice she would perform no matter what / I am not sure what means сучка-задорники /


Q.-Tania do you feel like a skater?

TA- I wouldn’t compare myself with professional skaters. We are not sportsmen and we would never go to the Olympics to defend our country,s pride. Every human being needs to do ,whatever he is doing the best. And to try yourself in something else , like “Ice Age” for example is just for the show .A game. We are not skaters and we will never become skaters.

Here everything is different ,nothing like I am used to. In actor’s profession the effort is different-emotional, psychological ,here is physical. I am busy with ”Ice Age” most of the time. I am literaly teatring myself in many pieces-trying to combine rehearsals , spectacles and trainings.



“Mom had the feeling, something bad had happened with the kid”

MS-Our stars neever get tired.Mahsa Petrova told me that Kostia Tszyu works without a break ,he never stops. She is already tired and he still works, and works and works .Tania also never gets tired.I am telling her “Common let’s have a break .We would sit , tie the skates… ” and she would answer “ I am not tired” She is some kind of Perpetuum Mobile!

Q.-Tania , have you learned already how to tie your skates or Maxim is still helping you?I know one needs a very strong arm to do it.

TA-On our first training Maxim showed me how to tie my skates so they won’t get loose and move around. But I still can’t get it right.


Q.-Do you think Men-skaters are different than actors with whom you work ?

TA-Figure skaters were taught by the sport and they are organized in a different way. Actors are more emotional and unbalanced inside ,skaters on the other hand can put themselves together in the necessary moment. They are predictable in a good way. I like that .When I go on the ice with Maxim I know that nothing bad could happen with me.

MS - What else? They give me such a girl . I can’t let anything bad happen to her.

TA-We would do a lift. And is high, very high. He is just saying -”Don’t worry.” I would reply “But I’ll be falling from much higher point than you “
And he would say again “Don’t worry, you will fall on me .I will manage and you won’t get hurt.” When you hear this from a man is very nice. Like a real man.
Q.-Maxim, have you watched any of Tania’s movies?

MS.- While we were living in America we didn’t have time or ability to watch everything new and interesting from Russia.But when I find out that I am going to skate with Tatiana Arntgolts of course I was curious to see who she was and her movies. I watched many movies and I was ready to meet her.

Q.-Were you disappointed ?


MS-Of course not. If I have to be honest I already knew that Ilia wouldn’t put me in pair with a bad person.

Q.-How about you Tania? Were you interested in figure skating before the project?

TA.-Everybody in our family was watching figure skating. While I was watching the skaters I was thinking with a little envy - how appealing they are, how beautifully they are moving, how amazing are their costumes…I knew everybody! Not only those who are now in the project ,but also the champions in the past.






]

VIKI! Many thanks!

Eleonora in Bulgarian forum has translated it completely into Bulgarian. Viki, maybe you can copy it from there, send it through a translator, and then only correct the English? Would save you a lot of time (at least some hours ), I think!
Eleonora worked hours on that...

...and the article is really worth being translated into English... it´s a wonderful one ...

Thank you ,Petra.I already did Page 4. but it will be very helpful .I just never work before with google translator but i'll try.



...here is the rest

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But personally I had never thought that I may become figure skater. Kaliningrad is a seaside town - winters there a very light and wet ... Basically there is no ice . But we loved the sport and me and my sister Olga decided to become sports journalists. Our parents were terrified : "What happened to our daughters, have they lost their mind!" - And so we were sent to theater class, where we had a wide range of humanitarian subjects. We got carry away with the theater , which affected our choice of profession. Once we graduated , we went to Moscow ,where we attended the Theater Institute.

Q- You and Olya are twins and have the same profession. Have you ever used your similarity to switched places ?

TA: - Only once in the institute, when Olga had to perform in a circus play with many complicated tricks. At the beginning of the show she hit her knee on an iron bench. She couldn’t walk or play - the guys had to carry her behind the stage. And then I had to wear her suit and go on the stage .. Our mother, who came from Kaliningrad especially to see this show, nearly died of fright, when she saw that I was performing, not my sister. She understood right away ,that something bad had happened to her child

Q- Aren’t you afraid that Figure skating is a very traumatic sport?

TA - The project is very hard. indeed Many have already left because of injuries. Zhigunov broke his leg, Kortnev - rib, other suffer from back and knee pain ... But Maxim is a reliable partner and it is not scary. My friends were telling me : You are so brave! I am not brave,i just trust the partner. He will catch me if I fall . Moreover - he is dealing great with the pressure! I would go out on the ice - and I would be trembling. But when I feel that Maxim is calm ,I could revive quickly. If we both jitter, it would be just awful.

MS-And I got lucky with my partner! Tanya patiently and diligently works on herself. The moment she understood that she should skate more in solo, she started comming to the rink twice as often. And the result were not delayed. She is especially good with the lifts Some professional athletes are doing them even worse than Tanya. She is fearless and does very precisely everything she was asked to do.
QMaxim, how was formatted, the famous figure skating pair of you and your wife and partner Albena Denkova? You are two times world champions after all?


HE AMAZED ME WITH HIS LIGHT CHARACTER FROM OUR FIRST TRAINING SESSION


MS - Albena and I are not married, although we are already 8 years together - for us is just unimportant formalities. We communicate in Russian and Bulgarian- whatever comes easy . We become a skating pair only by chance. .I was left without a partner in Russia, she - had no partner in Bulgaria. Bulgarian Figure Skating referee met our coach - Elena Tchaikovsky - and they decided that we should try together. Sometimes to get together a couple takes months, even years, but we fit immediately ! Then the Russian coach Alexei Gorshkov came to a skating camp in Bulgaria - , we worked for a while with him and decided to continue ... All and all it was a result of happy chance and coincidences ...


Q-I know that in Bulgaria Figure skating is not a very popular sport. You probably are their only star couple. Is it true that the president of Bulgaria is your admirer?

MS -He actually is. He was very excited for us when we competed, he was present at many of our show programs. In Bulgaria people are well related to us .

Q -Where do you plan to live in the
future - in Bulgaria or Russia?


MS: - We are so tired of the nomadic life that we want to settle down somewhere. We don’t want to work here and there as we joke with ourselves. We feel like living on the plane . But where is better? Probably where the work is . Right now “Ice Age” is going and I'm busy here. If we can’t find job in Russia but we could in Bulgaria - we, of course, will go there.

Q- I 've heard that you often call yourself “ lighthead” .Is this part of your character ?


MS: - Yes, and not the very best! I am often erratic but I try to fight this. Well, you can’t tell this about Tania - she is true workaholic.


TS- It is so not true, he struck me with his character form our first training session . I was looking at him and I thought: "How patient he is! How can he repeat the same movement for a thousand times?"

MS - All my life I work so I do not think it’s complicated.

Q-Do you have a dream - to perform a dance or interesting program? In general, do you have an opportunity to be creative in this project?







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Max and Tania - "Luna"

From their first dance we all got the impression ,like they were skating together their whole life




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MS: - My favorite dance is the tango. The one we dance with Albena doesn‘t look bad. I think with Tanya we’ll be able to skate it too , moreover, we will have this theme in the project . On the other hand , the folk dance was difficult to choose from and we weren’t very enthusiastic about this theme. But ... we found "Polovetsians dances“! Dream, or no dream, we shouldn’t go beyond the project. However- sport is not an easy work, there is no time or opportunity to dream . Dreams very often don‘t come true.. We can choose ,of course, the music, but even then we still have to consult with Ilya. However the dance must be likeable not only for us but also for the audience.

Q- Are you involved in the production ,the choice of choreography for the dance?

MS: - Well, of course, whatever we do, we do it together. We can't only follow the commands of the coach - do it like this , or do it otherwise, we have to put our hearts in the dance. I and Tanya are offering our versions of the dance and then we decide together which is better.

Q- After all this, do you still have time for something else?

MS: - To be fair , I must to say no ... Now, maybe, we can go with Albena and watch a spectacle with Tanya. Igor Vernik /Albena's previous partner in "Ice Age "/ also has promised to invite us in MHT /Moscow Theater of Art /. But usually we have no strength for anything, we are so exhausted.

Q- I can see that communication goes beyond the project. This is nice. How about the previous participants - are they visiting you, do they share an experience?

MS: - Constantly! Sasha Dyachenko comes very often ,Dima Maryanov ... Marat Basharov is here all the time! It is understandable - they are missing the team ,their former partners, the communication with each other ...



TA: - I can understand, why they are missing all this. The atmosphere of the show is close to ours - cinema and theater. Before I didn’t have the chance to mingle with athletes. So I didn’t know how easy and pleasant is to talk to them. We are absolutely on the same wave! We have extremely interesting and variable discussions during the show .... Former participants were telling us that when they were done with “Ice Age” ,something was gone from their lives





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ACTIONS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING A MAN CAN DO FOR WOMEN.

Q- Do you have strength for something else ?

MS: - I read a different kind of literature. I love Pushkin and Yesenin.

Q- Haven‘t you ever tried to write poetry?


MS : I tried. Once I wrote three pages of poetry, some time ago in Bulgaria when I was bored.. But for this you need specific inner state of mind.

Q- How you romance the girls ,how you impress their imagination?

MS: -At the beginning of our relationship with, Albena I was giving her flowers, gifts ,whatnot I did …Poetry, as a matter of fact, I never wrote to her.

TA: - I can’t stand all this - flowers, Serenade, beautiful words ... I like guys that do something. Flowers - are nothing serious .

MS: - Well, why? Flowers - this is not so bad! Albena loves flowers. And when I bring her a bouquet, I am so happy to see how much she enjoys it , and says : "How sweet is the smell of these flowers , how beautiful they are ..." I always want to do something nice for a woman! I am like this - I like to give a joy. Well, of course ,it doesn’t always work.

TA: - I should feel comfortable with the man. To feel that I am protected by him. And not only now ,but tomorrow, after a month ,after a year. Always. His actions are more important to me. Actions are the most important thing a man can do for women. He must show her that behind him she is like behind a stone wall.

Q- People say, it is impossible to play love, if you are not at least a little bit in love with your partner. On the ice during the dance ,are there any romantic fellingd arising ?

TA: - There is a fair truth about this statement . I can’t imagine how is possible to work with a partner if there is any confrontation ! How can you express love in this case? The viewers certainly will feel the falseness. But to say .when playing love ,I am falling for my partner ,no... I rather trust him at this point - fully and completely. Now I am working with Maxim ,spending much time with him and he is the one responsible for my health and my life. In "Ice Age" the most important person for me is Maxim.

MS: - You probably, want to know if there is a romantic relationships between me and Tania ? I am answering immediately - NO. Each of us has his own life, his other own "half". In figure skating we have couples who truly can’t stand each other. Yes, it could be like this... But I can’t understand it. With Tanya , when we go out on the ice to perform a romantic dance, we embody love immersion and we dwell in the world of made-up feelings.

TA: - The same is in the cinema and the theater ... It has no relation to our real personal life!

MS: - People who can't act, can’t be accepted neither in movies nor in theater ,even in figure skating! Such a person can only be an amateur . When I dance with Albena, we don’t need to fake love. On the ice we don’t have the possibility to express feelings in words, we do this by movements ...

Q- Finally, the main question - do you want to win?

MS - First, we want to bring people a joy. But one thing does not interfere with the other - we are persuading this goal by all means.

TA: - Here I disagree with Maxim. He is as competitive as probably all athletes. To win and this is it ! For me victory is not as valueable as the participation. It is more important to give a pleasure to the audience and to feel happy. Anyway - I would lie if I say that I don’t care about our placement .Of course ,I am not disinterested .. I want to look worthy in this project. I believe that we can make it .

Q- It turns out that you are not only workaholics but optimistic?

MS: - Yes, we actually are ...There is no need to dramatize life unnecessary. If we get very seriously about everything , we may lose our minds. In sports sometimes there are so many sad situations that if every time you fall into depression, you will eventually end up in psychiatry. It is very difficult to live with pessimism . It is much better to be an optimistic, but to be able to see your real chances and opportunities. We had many arguments with Albena on this topic ,she thinks I am light-minded.. I just consider that the problems should be solved according to their priority.
Tanya -is a strong fellow ! She didn’t like our first performance and nothing - no depression. Together we decided to work better. To sit and spill bitter tears? It wouldn’t help anyone.

Svetlana Lepeshkova

Viki, thanks for this interview and for the photos. We have so few interviews with Max or Albena in the last months that I enjoy every new info

Thanks again!

Well done, Viki !!! And Vania, you´re right: This is really something we can enjoy ...

Besides : Viki, have you realized that when you are searching for "Staviski, Arntgolts" with google (at least with German google), your translation is listed at number 6 in the search engine today!!!!!! Greeeeeeeat work !!!!!

Thank you very, very much, Viktoria, for this translation!
You must have done nightshifts!


It was a pleasure to read it!

Thank you , girls,the interview is good and sweet and i don't mind spending few extra hours ,besides is a good practice for me.

Petra wrote:

Besides : Viki, have you realized that when you are searching for "Staviski, Arntgolts" with google (at least with German google), your translation is listed at number 6 in the search engine today!!!!!! Greeeeeeeat work !!!!!

Petra ,i haven't but ... i guess is true that Google is one big Internet Village JK .

Vania wrote:

Petra wrote:

Viki, have you realized that when you are searching for "Staviski, Arntgolts" with google (at least with German google), your translation is listed at number 6 in the search engine today!!!!!! Greeeeeeeat work !!!!!

Sorry for the off-topic, but type "sin&john kerr" or "nath & fabian" in google and you'll see what is the first page that appears

CONGRATS to our good old "heavenforum" ...