This is your first ice show since turning pro. What is your state of mind going into this event?
Uhm, I started to plan everything, including the venue, after holding the press conference announcing that I would turn pro in July. While there was not much time, I was able to create this while relying on many staff and having (them) fulfilling my requests. First of all, I’m full of gratitude just for that alone. About this show “Prologue”, to me it is the prologue to the story from here onward. This might get really abstract, but from now on, I’ll hold a new resolution in my heart and take one step at a time towards my goal, my dream: what I’ve experienced, and the strength that I received from everyone. I planned and constructed this show thinking that I’d like to share those things with everyone once again and want to connect them to my next steps.
(Can you say something) about your arrangement of the first 6-minute warmup?
To be honest, when I thought about the placement and the order of the performances, where to put what, to me there was the press conference, then I went back to the past a little bit, there was the Pyeongchang Olympics. After that, I thought once more about how my life has progressed until now, and with the exhibition at Beijing at the very end, I wanted to make that akin to reaching the present. I first skated SEIMEI, which is also a representative program of mine at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Having the 6-minute warmup and skating with all of the lights on, which is unthinkable for ice shows, are all my ideas. To be honest, I wondered what kind of reaction I would receive. Also, I couldn’t help being anxious, wondering how focused I could be doing the 6-minute warmup at a venue that’s not a competition. Actually, I haven’t heard everyone’s feedbacks yet. But my impression after finishing the first day of Prologue is that everyone was really satisfied, judging by their expressions and reactions, so in that sense, I think that might have succeeded.
Is “A Fleeting Dream” the program that you choreographed yourself?
Yes. It’s the program that I skated after “Romeo & Juliet”. It’s a bit hard to express (the concept) in a few words. What I wanted to put in it when I first choreographed it is that, when I just let the music play as I skated, the cool down movements that everyone likes just clicked into place. It fits this program, or should I say, this song. At that time, everyone did say that they would love to see the cool down routine. As there were fans who said that seeing the cool down alone would be enough for them to be satisfied, my first thought was “well then let’s put it into the program”. After that, I got deep into the song, including its title ‘A Fleeting Dream’… Also, I really really love Final Fantasy X (which was the source of this piece) and it was from my generation. I thought about various things while creating it, including my own dreams. My original ‘dream’ of becoming the 2-time Olympic champion. After that, I once again set my dream on the quad Axel and chased after it. In a sense, I couldn’t accomplish it as an amateur, competitive skater. In a sense, I wasn’t able to become the first person to ratify the quad Axel under the ISU system. In that sense, it might have been a dream that unfortunately ended, so it’s a fleeting dream (lit. a dream that would end some day). Somehow I couldn’t do it although everyone expected me to. I wish that I can, yet I’m so tired that I don’t want to do it anymore. Somehow, the more people cheered me on, the more I was neglecting my own feelings and breaking down. I didn’t want to hear it anymore, but I still want to live up to everyone’s expectations; I intended to express that dilemma I have in my heart (in this program).
I asked for MIKIKO*-sensei’s help with “A fleeting dream” and the last program “Haru yo, Koi”. It’s the first time that I included this much projection mapping into my performance, so I think everyone’s perspective of a figure skating program has also changed. Moreover, I actually think that the skate that you see if you are in the venue and really close to the rink, from a point of view similar to mine, versus if you look down from above or through the camera are totally different. Therefore, it’s a program that I hope everyone will definitely enjoy in those aspects as well.
*T/N: MIKIKO is a Japanese choreographer and director who has worked closely with J-pop groups such as Perfume and BABYMETAL. She helped create Japan’s hand-over segment at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Closing Ceremony.
