Art on Ice 2024 Tour – Switzerland
Zürich (February 7-11) ᎒
When I arrived at the Hallenstadion Zürich I was both nervous and excited, because I have been participating in smaller ice shows many times before, but I have never seen a big, and so professional production like this show. Then there were the top skaters: Jason Brown, Ilia Malinin, Lukas Britschgi, and Loena Hendrickx.
The first two days we were only rehearsing the show, and it was so cool to be on the same ice with all the senior skaters. I tried not to stare a lot but I also wanted to learn as much as I could from them. We only had two days to rehearse the entire show.
Two junior girls from the Swiss National Team, Leandra Tzimpuokakis, Olivia Bacsa and I had a part where we were a trio, and we skated to the song „Everything“ by Michael Bublé. The original concept was choreographed to four of us, but Naoki Rossi got sick, and he couldn’t come. So I was left with the girls alone, but I think we did a great job.
The first show went pretty well for me despite my initial nervousness. Not everything went as planned originally, but ice shows are luckily not competitions so a little change in the choreo, or a missed jump is not resulting in bad scores. 😄
I was surprised how quickly the group of skaters learned everything, and we had four amazing shows, one after the other with a really great audience. It was such a new experience to me. The last show gave me a lot of pressure. It was “the last one”, it had to be perfect, I wanted it to be flawless. I should have never thought of that, because I messed up my 3T.🫠
After the show we had an aftershow-party. It was very awkward for me, because I don’t like parties. There is too much going on, and the loud music bothers me. I realized that I probably have to get used to this, because we had aftershow-parties planned every time during the rest of the tour.The next day we traveled to Fribourg with a carbus.
Fribourg (February 13-14) ᎒
There were two shows planned in Fribourg. The audience wasn’t as big as in Zürich. I did perform all my jumps without mistakes except the toe loop on the last show. Sometimes the toe just doesn’t behave. 😄 Once my spin was too slow, so it looked a bit strange. Surprisingly, the ice in Fribourg was way better than in Zürich. Although, in Zürich it was this thin layer of ice, and it had that satisfying crackling sound. It was also surprising to me that the audience was much more quiet in Fribourg than in Zürich.
I am a person that likes to be in peace and silence, and aftershow parties are mostly the extreme opposite, but I still attended the party. I felt so awkward at the first aftershow party, because as I said, I don’t like to be in loud and crowded places, but then I started to like them more and more. The food was always fantastic!
The next day we all were transported to Davos, the last station. We only had two shows left.
Davos (February 16-17) ᎒
Davos was my least favorite place. Not because of the show itself, but because I didn’t like the environment. The rink was the smallest of all. On the other hand the audience was the loudest, and I liked that.
In one of the practices I finally gathered my courage, and asked Jason Brown to do a video together for my social media. He was very nice and agreed. I felt so grateful and so honored. Until now I only watched videos of him on YouTube, and now here I am, sharing the same ice with him and doing a video together. 🥹 His Ina Bauer is so gorgeous. Jason, if you ever read this, thank you for being so kind to me, I will never forget these moments. 🥹
Final thoughts ᎒
Every good thing comes to an end, and when I look back, Zürich was the location leaving me with the nicest memories. The best ice rink of all, the big audience, and it was just ginormous from the inside.
I know I only had a very tiny part in it, but I still want to express my gratitude towards everyone who I shared the ice with, everyone who came to watch the shows, and everyone who made it possible. Thank you so much! I hope I will be able to join next year too, and be a part of Art On Ice 2025!
☙