Last three days Tallinn have been welcoming Europe’s best figure skaters at its main hall Saku Suurhaal - the European Figure Skating Championships 2010 are about to start. Jana and Sergei’s trainings have been bringing a lot of attention to all those who came to the ice rink. No wonder – in Estonia they are debuting with their dance called "Zhar-Ptica” ("The Firebird”). First impressions of the new program both from specialists and fans are more than positive – everyone agrees that it is greatly made. The brilliance of the dance, the expressiveness of the movements, and the creativity of the costumes prove that the program was worth working!

"The theme of the dance is taken from Russian fairytales but we decided to step away from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet piece" - says Alexandr Svinin. Jana and Sergei perform two opposing characters that symbolize Good and Evil – the Firebird and the Black Crow. The idea of creating such a dance had been in mind for a long time but it was very hard to find the right music version. Finally, they found a good one which made the dance look powerful and dancelike.

A lot of work was done to create this program. Jana says they had to watch many videos of the ballet staring Diana Vishneva, Nina Ananiashvili, and Gabriella Komleva which helped to get into the theme and copy the ornithic moves. Also they spent a lot of time in the gym working on the choreography with Igor as it is important to refer to the origin. Jana and Sergei did some research on the "ice history” of "Zhar Ptica”, and though no one has used this particular piece of music before it was very useful too watch Toller Cranston, Kurt Browning, and Midori Ito in their interpretations of it.

This year "Zhar Ptica” is one of the main hits and we are sure that the first ice dance based on Stravinsky’s music will become one of the brightest moments of the Olympic season. Keep focused on the European Figure Skating Championships 2010 in Tallinn, it’s coming soon!