Finnish ice dancers Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen have become fan favorites with their charismatic and upbeat programs. Anything GOEs sat down with them during a break in their training in Helsinki to find out their answers to the A-Z questionnaire (with a little extra help and commentary from their trainingmate Natálie Taschlerova)!
Favorite Animal?
Yuka: Cat. Capybara. And penguin!
Juho: What’s mine?
Yuka: Peacock! Peacock! Peacock!
Juho: Yeah, there you go! You know me better than I do! Gorgeous – when they open the tail!
Yuka: Oh, I also want the penguin, and the alpaca! The highland cow! I want everything [laughs]. But, okay, the capybara, the ones that take baths in the hot springs…
Bedtime?
Yuka: I try to go at 10 pm, but end up at 11.30 pm
Juho: I would say closer to 11, but I try to be 10, 10:30.
Comfort TV show/movie?
Yuka: Glee, and White Chicks.
Juho: This might be a bit surprising from my personality, but I hugely enjoy The Lord of the Rings.
Yuka: Really?
Juho: Yes. I watch it a lot.
A Dream you have?
Juho: Last night I had a dream that someone, a solo dancer – [to Yuka] we were watching a solo dance competition, you were there – and the girl was doing Spice Girls with exactly the same [pose looking at her] nails in the beginning. I’m like, ‘How dare she do that?’
Yuka: I used to always dream the same dream, but I don’t remember it anymore. No, lately not.
An Embarrassing moment?
Juho: It was 2022, Latin year, rhythm dance. [In announcer voice] ‘Next on the ice, from Finland, Yuka Orihara, Juho Pirinen.’ We enter… I fall right in front of the judges! I have the video here. This year, at Lombardia Trophy – we have a group with Massimo [Scali] and Mauri [Margaglio], and when Alysa [Liu] entered for the short, did you see it? Yes, exactly. So I texted Massimo in the group text that maybe me and Alysa should skate as an ice dance team, and we wouldn’t even make it to the starting position!
Yuka: I don’t know my embarrassing moment. [To Juho] Can you think of one for me? No, I always slay. Ok, skip.
Favorite Food from your country?
Juho: Salmon soup
Yuka: There’s too much! Japanese dumplings, gyoza.
Goal you’re working toward right now?
Yuka: Find my inner peace, and healing my inner child.
Juho: Maybe to have a successful season. Just that we can be happy about it.
Holiday memory?
Juho: This is a little bit related to skating, but after Worlds, we went to New York City. I really, really enjoyed it. I knew that New York is kind of a bit, like, dirty, but I was positively surprised, and I really want to go back. We were only there for three days, and we were running around Manhattan.
Yuka: I think I would say the same. New York was really fun.
Biggest Inspiration?
Juho: Natálie Taschlerova! [note: Natálie was sitting nearby]
Yuka: Musical theater.
Dream Job as a child?
Yuka: I wanted to be a mermaid, but my dad was like, ‘mermaid is not real.’ Sorry! That was my trauma… but anyways, to be a musical actress. I still want that.
Juho: I wanted to work in the zoo. I really liked animals, and I told my mom that I wanted to work in the zoo.
Favorite Karaoke song?
Juho: I’ve only done it once, in Japan, and it didn’t go very well.
Yuka: You sang some Italian opera!
Juho: First, I tried to sing Beyoncé, but her lyrics are so complicated. I tried to sing the… ‘You won’t break my soul’…it was too complicated.
Yuka: I don’t go to karaoke usually, and I don’t sing in front of people.
Juho: But you still want to be a musical actress!
AGOEs: What do you mean, you don’t sing in front of people!? I feel like I’ve seen you singing multiple times during training already today!
Natálie: She likes to sing in the shower.
Yuka: You like my concert?
Natálie: I do!
Language you’d like to speak?
Yuka: Finnish, I would like to speak! I think that’s very useful. But I don’t know, I also want to learn Korean.
Juho: Russian I kind of already do, so…Italian or French.
Favorite (or first) Musical?
Juho: Well, as I told you, I don’t know about musicals that much, but now, after skating three years to musicals, I’m more inside the musical world.
AGOEs: And you said you saw Wicked, so then you know at least four musicals.
Juho: I’ve seen Wicked, I’ve seen Moulin Rouge.
Yuka: It’s too hard.
AGOEs: What was your first musical?
Yuka: My first musical was, I think, Sound of Music. It’s too hard to pick. I love Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Spring Awakening…Hamilton, I love Hamilton.
Juho: Musicals, I don’t watch them, I just skate to them. I’m pretending that I know everything but…[laughs].
Do you have any Nicknames?
Yuka: Yukapeeeeee!
Juho: Well, they call me Yuhito.… or Yuhilio. But when I had Russian coaches, they called me Yuhochka.
Go-to Outfit:
Juho: Something classical.
Yuka: Lately… I’m kind of shifting right now. I like the boho kind of outfit lately.
Also, my figure skating costumes.
Juho: Made by her mom!
Favorite Podcast?
Yuka: I listen to podcasts lately about mental health. I just keep listening without any specific channel or person.
Quote you live by?
Yuka: Shit happens.
Juho: I have this one. Let me find it, it’s on my Instagram. There we go. “Rivers never go in reverse, so try to live like a river. Forget your past and focus on the future.”
Role Model?
Juho: I don’t really have one.
Yuka: Arianna Grande! Well, really, so many women, but not, like, one specific person.
Best Smell?
Yuka: Something floral, but at the same time sweet.
Juho: Something related to fruits, also sweet.
Skating performance you wish you could have seen live?
Juho: Maybe the free program of Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot when they won the iconic free at the Olympics. I mean, that was… from a video you get the chills.
Training day essentials?
Yuka: Coffee!!!
Juho: Let’s say, a cup of tea.
Who or what do you think is Underrated?
Yuka: Us? No, I’m just kidding. My mom’s costumes. I think everyone should wear them.
Dream Vacation destination?
Yuka: Maldives.
Juho: Bora Bora.
Your Whereabouts on a day off?
Yuka: London – if I had a door that just, like, brings me to London.
Juho: To watch musicals all day long?
Yuka: Yes. But also, I love to be in bed. In the house. I love to be comfortable.
Juho: At home. But I also enjoy nature a lot. If there is a chance to go to nature, I would love to visit it.
An eXperience that changed you?
Juho: I would say for me, the army experience… Me and Mattias [Versluis] did it at the same time, in the sports army for top-level athletes, and we were able to do the shorter amount of time, so only six months. Six months, but it was pretty intense, I have to say.
Yuka: Living in Finland.
A Year that you would like to visit if you had a time machine?
Yuka: 2030
Juho: Maybe I would also… I cannot give you a specific year, but I would go to the future. Not too far, but it would be exciting to see what life is gonna look like in 10 years, so let’s say, 2035.
What is your Zodiac sign, and do you believe in the zodiac?
Yuka: I’m Cancer, and I do believe what I want to believe. I love these things, like spiritual shit, I love it.
Juho: I’m a Scorpio and I used to not believe at all, but now, since these guys are talking so much about it in the dressing room – it’s one of the main topics, really – it makes me believe something. If they were not around me, I wouldn’t care at all.
More:
A to Z with Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel
A to Z with Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier
A to Z with Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps
