Lights, camera, skate: How elite figure skaters get into character
The ice is a blank canvas for top figure skaters. The athletes are able to transport spectators to different worlds – be that the dancefloor of the Moulin Rouge, a Trojan War battlefield, or a shipwreck – with a swish of a skate blade and some masterful acting. Olympics.com spoke to a handful of the world’s best to find out how they get into character for their memorable performances.
Figure Skating
There are no Golden Globes or Academy Awards given out in figure skating, but if there were, the competition for the best character portrayals on the ice would be fierce.
Every detail – from music and costumes to hand movements and facial expressions – counts, as figure skaters bring condensed versions of beloved screen and stage stories to the ice and embody a variety of roles, be that star-crossed lovers, kings or vampires.
On-ice training and choreography lessons can only do so much to help athletes polish their storytelling abilities. Olympics.com dived into the secrets of the world’s best skaters to find out how they get into character to better transport spectators into their many fantasy worlds.
Learning the craft: Figure skaters in theatre class
Lorine Schild has a packed agenda during the figure skating season. There is the usual training at the arena to perfect all her technical elements as well as dance classes to give her a better feel for choreography, but as of 2024, she is also trying out something new.
The French skater is going to a theatre studio once a week and is already seeing the benefits of these classes.
“We work on new tools to create different emotions, create different people, and we do improve. It helps to feel confident and to express emotion,” said Schild, whose Hollywood-inspired skates included programs set to music from Moulin Rouge! and The Hunger Games.
Belgium’s Nina Pinzarrone also took acting classes, though she opted for an intense one-week course in a small theatre group as opposed to Schild’s weekly sessions.
Initially hesitant to sign up for the course, Pinzarrone ultimately discovered a new side of herself in the process.
“My sister was going to do it, and then my mom was like, ‘You should do it too’. I was like, ‘I can't do theatre! I'm so scared’. But it was really interesting," Pinzarrone said. "I surprised myself with how I can let my emotions out because I thought I was way more shy than that. But I think it really helps.”
The theatre classes certainly came in useful for Pinzarrone, who is known for portraying elaborate stories on the ice. Her free skate this season is set to music from TV series The Handmaid’s Tale. However, rather than portraying the futuristic patriarchal society that writer Margaret Atwood first unveiled in her 1985 novel, the 18-year-old skater and her choreographer-coach Benoit Richaud created an original story that loosely aligns with the music's lyrics.
“I'm a girl on a ship and the ship sinks, so the girl is going to die in the water, but she's getting one more chance to see the world, see all her memories, all her friends one more time again. And then at the end of the program, she knows that it cannot last forever and that she has to go back in the water where she belongs,” Pinzarrone said, adding that having a detailed background story helps her to deliver better performances.
“I find it difficult to skate something on a music if I don't know a story. Then I find it difficult to express it," she said. "I want to have a story in my head so that I know the story, I know what to tell people.”
Belgium's Nina Pinzarrone portrayed a shipwrecked girl in her 2024-25 season free skate, set to music from The Handmaid's Tale.
From on-ice performers to theatre spectators
While going up on stage in theatre class may be a daunting prospect for some, figure skaters have found a less intimidating workaround for getting into character – learning by observation.
Beijing 2022 Olympians Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini made sure to get tickets to Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway when they were in New York a few months ago to pick up some extra inspiration for their “El Tango de Roxanne” short program this season.
The Italian skaters had already plucked out movements from the 2001 movie of the same name, including a memorable hand grip at the start of the dance, and also taken tango lessons to help make their skate look authentic.
“We tried to really understand our character in the movie and then in the program and put some of us in the character,” Ghilardi said. “We saw some parts of the tango in the movie and some videos and we tried to keep some parts also. With what was possible, we tried to put it on the ice.”
USA’s Camden Pulkinen, who skated his short program to “Come What May” during the 2021-22 season, also went to watch Broadway’s adaptation of the musical. His more recent free skate, set to the “E lucevan le stelle” aria from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, led Pulkinen a few blocks north, to New York's Metropolitan Opera, to watch a stage performance that both impressed and humbled him.
“I've gotten the opportunity to go to the Met Opera a few times and really watch theatre play in front of me. I skated Tosca last year and I just watched Tosca at the Met Opera and that was a really cool experience. I was like, ‘Wow, they did it way better than I did!’” Pulkinen said with a laugh. “They were moving around and singing and not just singing, but like, an opera.”
Lukas Vaclavik incorporated hand gestures from The Truman Show into his movie-themed free skate this season.
Slovakia’s Lukas Vaclavik, meanwhile, prefers to draw his inspiration from the big screen rather than the stage. An avid movie watcher, he has skated to music from The Godfather and Sherlock Holmes in recent seasons, and set his free skate this year to the soundtrack of The Truman Show.
“It's just something I grew up with and I really like,” Vaclavik said of his preference for movie-inspired programs. “I've watched most of the movies multiple times. I know them inside out and I feel I can portray that in the programs.”
Like Ghilardi and Ambrosini, Vaclavik has watched the movies he brings to the ice so thoroughly that some shots seep into his choreography. In the case of The Truman Show-themed skate, it was a gesture of pulling boat sails that he incorporated into the end of the program.
“I try not to skate the full movie, but I do take elements of the movie in my choreo sequence,” Vaclavik said.
A book adaptation on the ice
France’s Kevin Aymoz dips into a versatile palette to get inspiration for his programs. The six-time national champion went to the Paris Opera last season to watch a performance of "Bolero" before his on-ice adaptation of Maurice Ravel’s classic, and studied impressionist art for this season’s Vincent van Gogh-themed free skate.
While Aymoz feels a deep connection to all his programs, none is as close to his heart as the Gladiator free skate from two seasons ago. He was inspired to create this program after reading “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller.
"It made me cry. It made me think a lot. And I was like, 'Oh my God, how can I express this story by a book, but on the ice?'" Aymoz said. "There was so much thinking after. I love the process of creating a program like that.”
The next piece of the skate puzzle came with the addition of the “Now We Are Free” track from Gladiator, the 2001 Academy Award winner for Best Picture. Combined with Aymoz’s personal journey, it made for a memorable program that had the spectators spellbound by more than the athlete's sharp technical skills.
"I was really telling the story on the ice because I felt my story was matching the story and, oh my God, that was so powerful,” Aymoz said.
“Every program I make has a story behind (it) or something really personal or something really deep. It's easier to show something when you do it with the heart.”