Ahead of their Grand Prix debut at the 2024 NHK Trophy, I spoke to Japanese ice dancers Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita. Their answers have been translated from Japanese.
Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita, both born in 2003, hail from the Kinoshita Academy in Kyoto, Japan, where they are coached by former ice dancers Cathy Reed and Rie Arikawa. For Yoshida, it was compatriot Mao Asada’s performances at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics which sparked her desire to begin skating. As for Masaya, he went to a public skating session at the Kyoto Aquarena, and started taking lessons after enjoying the experience. When his level of skating improved there, he was invited by his coach to start competing as an athlete. After pairing up in 2023, the two began competing as a team in the 2023-2024 season, which saw them win the bronze medal at Japanese Nationals and take the highest score in the free dance. Looking back on their first season together, they remembered it as one of ‘daily practice,’ adding that ‘we could feel ourselves improving in our everyday practice, and that process was very enjoyable’.
Following this result, they were named to the 2024 Four Continents team alongside the other teams on the podium, where they came 10th, with a total of 166.13 points. ‘We could actually experience where we stood on the international stage, and the difference between us and the other teams, so our desire to be among the top teams was strengthened and served as motivation for this season,’ they said of the experience.
They both spent the off-season recharging for the year ahead. Yoshida said that she ‘went on day trips with my friends, went shopping, and went to cafes. During the summer, we also trained with teams in London, Canada, which was very fun.’ As for Morita, he ‘traveled with friends, ate lots of nice food, and felt fully refreshed!’
Are there any skaters in particular who inspire you, technically or artistically?
Utana: I’ve looked up to Madison Hubbell for a long time. Among the skaters competing right now, Christina [Carreira] & Anthony [Ponomarenko] and Marjorie [Lajoie] & Zachary [Lagha] for their artistry, speed, and I really like the way they create an atmosphere to their skates- I study them.
Masaya: Piper [Gilles] and Paul [Poirier]. The smoothness of their skating, of course, but I also really admire the way their performances establish an atmosphere or tell a story.
This season, Yoshida and Morita will skate to ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ and ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’, choreographed by Cathy Reed, opting for a 1950s music and dance style. ‘Masaya portrays Elvis Presley, and I play a woman who seduces him. We skate to give the audience a taste of the ‘50s atmosphere, and so that they can also enjoy the program itself,’ Yoshida explained. When asked to describe their rhythm dance in a few words, they answered, ‘mature and cool (shibu-kakkoi)’.
Their free dance strikes a very different tone, and sees them tell the timeless story of Romeo and Juliet, performed to Prokofiev’s classical ballet score. On the process of choosing the program, they commented that ‘when we were talking about it, we both had our own characters, and were saying that we wanted a program in which we could tell a story and create an atmosphere within it. It was one of the pieces we came up with as a possible music choice’. Their coaches agreed with this, ‘and so the music choice was decided smoothly,’ they added.
The program maps out the narrative of Shakespeare’s tragedy, opening with the scene where Juliet wakes up to find Romeo dead, before showcasing the scenes of their meeting and the conflictual relationship between their two families, and moving through to their times of happiness together. The fact that the program is closely based on the story makes it ‘easy to connect to it emotionally’, they said. Their commitment to the narrativity is evident in their performances, and the team furthermore worked with renowned choreographers Scott Moir, Madison Hubbell, and Adrian Diaz to focus on conveying the story of Romeo and Juliet still more through their choreography and gestures. The choice of skating to it is always a popular one in skating, but Yoshida and Morita highlighted that their take on the story uses the Prokofiev version, rather than film scores: ‘It is ballet music, but it has a modern feel and the composition of the program is such that anybody who watches it will know that we are telling the story of Romeo and Juliet’.
What do you want audiences to keep an eye out for in both your RD and FD?
In the rhythm dance, we want the audience to feel the 1950s atmosphere and have fun with us!
In the free dance, we will put our all into portraying Romeo and Juliet, and will try hard to tell the story through each and every one of our elements!
In September, Yoshida and Morita competed at the Nebelhorn Trophy, where they finished fifth with a total of 171.59 points. The team will make their Grand Prix debut this week at the NHK Trophy, in front of a home audience, which they both said was the competition which they were looking forward to the most this season. Ahead of the event, the team is honing the ‘balance between the accuracy of our turns and the expressivity and musicality of our performance’, explaining that ‘if we focus too much on the artistic aspect, then the turns become less accurate, but if we only focus on the turns, then the level of artistry drops’. Ahead of NHK Trophy, they both said that the nerves were there because it was their first Grand Prix competition, ‘but we also want to enjoy soaking up the atmosphere!’
The team shared that their goal for the season ahead is to produce a 180-point total for the rhythm dance and free dance together. Beyond this specific objective, however, they are equally aiming to improve their unison as a team, and to ‘put out a performance that draws the crowd in’.
Yoshida and Morita can be seen competing at the NHK Trophy from the 8th November, in Tokyo, Japan.
