Alexey Polovnikov and Olga Shcherbina: “strong opponents are always interesting!”

Alexey Polovnikov and Olga Shcherbina are a unique dance couple. In just a few months of partnership, they achieved great success in American smoothie: they became Russian Champions, winners of the Russian Cup, Dutch Open in Assen and competitions WDC World Series in Moscow at the “Autumn Moscow” tournament. The dancers told us about the path they had traveled and their future plans during a break between their training sessions.

- Guys, we know about your successes in previous lineups, but how did you come to this dance style, American smoothie?

Alexey: At first I was offered to dance American Smooth in Pro-Am, then I decided to discover a new direction for myself and agreed. This was around February-March. I went to Pro-Am tournament in Blackpool, where I met with Eldar Dzhafarov and Olga Krasnyanskaya, after which they suggested that I try to dance Pro-pro American smoothie tournaments. I thought for a long time about who I could try this with - Olya agreed, and everything went from there.

Olga: I was interested in trying something new, expressing myself in dance in a different way. I liked this direction even from the stories, even before the first try. And after two weeks of joint training, we already won WDC World Series in American smoothie at the Autumn Moscow tournament and beat the current European champions. True, at that time we did not yet know what kind of couple they were; everything happened by itself. This was an impressive result and we decided to continue. We successfully danced two tournaments in England, continued training with Eldar and also won the Russian Cup and the Russian Championship. And just recently we returned from Assen, where we unexpectedly and unexpectedly beat the world vice-champions and won Dutch Open. And, of course, after such a start, our interest in American smoothie only grew!

 

- What previous experience helped you the most in American smoothie?

Alexey: I think just a wealth of experience in performing in 10 dances. Smooth is a symbiosis of two programs, and it is very important to know the basic mechanics of movement of both standard and Latin.

Olga: If we had some serious failure in one of the programs, then it is unlikely that our variations in smoothies would turn out this way.

 

- Smooth is a young trend in Russia. Who helped you when you decided to dance smooth?

Alexey: We turned to Eldar Dzhafarov. We have known each other for a long time, and I knew that she and Olga Krasnyanskaya were just developing American smoothie in Russia. In addition, they regularly invite global smoothie experts. We studied with Olga Foraponova and Petr Perzhu from the USA. We had an interesting series of lessons that helped us understand the basics of smoothies.

 

 - But, as in other programs, does self-training play a huge role here?

Olga: Absolutely.

 

- It’s very nice that you began to bypass such status couples, without even knowing it. What goals did you initially set for yourself when you started dancing smooth?

Alexey: Just develop.

Olga: It was interesting to test my strength by trying something not quite familiar. It was just interesting, and the results came naturally.

 

- Not all professional dancers can boast of such an intense series of tournaments - so many competitions in just a couple of months! Did you manage to realize what happened?

Alexey: We did not expect that everything would be so fast, I would even say reactive. But we haven’t danced at tournaments for a long time, we really missed competitions and immediately started performing actively!

Olga: We joined in very actively, the smoothie literally captured us. All the tournaments are so beautiful, with history, where it is very pleasant to dance.

 

- How do you interact with the public? After all, smoothie is a young trend for Russia. Are audiences different in Russia and abroad?

Olga: Let's not hide it, the first time was unusual for us, this applies to the very first moments of entering the floor. We seem to be wearing European dresses and shoes, but it seems we are going to dance not in a closed position, but separately. But as soon as the music started, everything came naturally.

Alexey: People in Moscow always root for us, they know us, we have many friends here. There was also good support abroad, in Assen, but the public still couldn’t decide which couple they liked best, and the audience supported everyone. But in England the atmosphere in the hall was cooler.

 

- Which tournament made the greatest impression?

Alexey and Olga: Russian Championship in the Kremlin!

Alexey: We danced in the Kremlin for the first time in our careers, and it was very emotional.

 

- Four dances are included in the American Smooth program. Which one is easiest for you and which one is more difficult? Are there any priorities?

Alexey: I don’t know, it seems to me that everything is pretty stable here.

Olga: The slow waltz is very lyrical and romantic, it is very similar to the European program. Tango and foxtrot have a more Latin feel. And the Viennese waltz is also similar to the European program - light, dynamic. But since we are “teners”, each dance is interesting to us in its own way.

 

- Now competitive smoothies are the privilege of Professionals. Do you think this program can develop among Amateurs, Youth, Juniors and even Children?

Alexey: I think this is quite promising. Smooth is an interesting and watchable trend.

Olga: This is a great chance for dancers who dance 10 dances to express themselves in dance in a new way.

 

-Have you tried teaching American smoothies yourself?

Alekei: I teach smus in the system Pro-AmOf course, I would like to start working with competitive couples, perhaps even with children.

Olga: We really hope that smooth will become “younger” and Junior and Youth couples will also start dancing this program. This is very promising and very conducive to development: physical, coordination, emotional, and artistic. We would be happy if children came to Smoothie.

 

- What are your plans and goals now?

Olga: Now we set ourselves the highest goals, since we have already surpassed the current European Champions and Vice World Champions. So this is the European Championship and the World Championship!

 

- Over the past year, couples from Russia make up almost 50% of the participants in American smoothie competitions in Europe. Why do you think there is such interest among dancers now?

Alexey: Firstly, in Russia there are, in principle, more dancers than in other countries. And if something new appears, there are immediately followers.

Olga: Eldar Dzhafarov and Olga Krasnyanskaya are very actively introducing smus to the masses and getting people interested. They do a really great job! That's why there are more and more couples.

 

- How do you interact with the company? SRDS?

Olga: SRDS supports us in every possible way. The most important thing is mentoring. Of course, the dance environment is well known to us, but smooth has its own specifics. Eldar sets a program for us and is our coach - he helps us develop.

 

- What is the best way to prepare yourself for smoothie?

Olga: On the advice of Eldar, we began to practice gyrotonics - this is a training system aimed at developing flexibility. Not articular, but amplitude flexibility, which is demonstrated in movement.

Alexey: Smoothie also has its own base, and it is just as important.

 

- What music do you train to? Are there any special requirements for the musical accompaniment of American smoothie?

Alexey: The tempo in smoothies is slower, this is especially noticeable in tango and Viennese waltz. But it happens differently at tournaments. For example, at one competition in England the music was very slow, and at another, on the contrary, it was fast.

Olga: We usually train to music for the European program.

 

- What tournament are you preparing for now?

Alexey: There are a number of tournaments coming up in 2019, which will include: the WDC World Series tournament in St. Petersburg, the American Smooth World Cup in Moldova, Champion’s ball in April, Blackpool Dance Festival, Eastern European Championships in Azerbaijan, German Open in Mannheim.

At the moment we have only danced the tournament Moscow ball and are preparing for a performance in St. Petersburg on December 15! In general, complete schedule tournaments can be viewed on the official website of the SRDS company! We are going to dance every tournament, since they are all included in the company rating, and we will fight for the leading position in it!

Olga: The results only motivated us to do even more!

 

- You have switched to Professionals. What is the key difference for you?

Olga: Few tours! Previously, we always danced from morning until evening, but for Professionals, in all programs, competitions can begin immediately with the final. On the one hand, there is more opportunity to relax, but the difficulty is that you only have one chance to prove yourself. This is the difficulty, but this is professionalism.

 

- Let's hope that soon you will have many tours in American Smooth!

Alexey: I hope!

Olga: Strong opponents are always interesting! And we are very pleased, happy and have great fun dancing American Smooth!