by Matteo Morelli | On ice photo by Yoriko Suzuki

This July, we visited the Ice Dance Summer Camp 2024 in Česká Lípa, a small town about 1.5 hours away from Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I was joined by our photographer Yoriko Suzuki, who took wonderful photos that you can find on our website.

Led by Coach Matteo Zanni, Italy’s Young Goose Academy returned to Česká Lípa for a second consecutive year, however this time they partnered up with Maurizio Margaglio’s school in Finland and Luca Lanotte’s school in Italy to bring together a team of 14 coaches and specialists, including Barbora Řezníčková, Katharina Muller and Michal Češka, to name a few. 

With such a team of professionals in place, it is no surprise to hear that the summer camp was joined by an astonishing total of 35 ice dance teams, probably making it one of the biggest camps of this kind.

17 countries were represented: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Georgia, France, Finland, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Hungary, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Spain.

The skills level at the campus was very mixed: from junior skaters to very experienced ones that have competed on the international circuit and at major competitions, but also solo ice dancers and new names that are training to become the next generations of skaters.

“It is a new experience for me, to be with some of the best couples in the world,” Artem Koval of Ukraine said.

“It is interesting to be with more experienced couples, to look at their programmes, at the process of how they work with their coaches,” Koval’s partner Iryna Pidgaina added.

The work at the summer camp

In the off season, we know skaters continue their training to skill up and focus on the selection of the music and building of their new programmes. Summer camps offer them the chance to intensify their training regime, thus benefitting from more focused work with multi-disciplinary teams to support them.

Each ice dance team joined the summer camp with different objectives in mind.

“This season, we are training to get better, more powerful, to gain better skating skills and add better elements,” Slovakia’s Aneta Vaclavikova (pictured, right) shared.

She was there with her partner Ivan Morozov. The two are getting ready for their first ever Junior Grand Prix.

Daniel Mrázek and Kateřina Mrázková were happy to be in their home country to prepare for their second year as senior ice dancers.

“We came to the summer camp without our programmes, so we are focussing on that with Matteo (Zanni), working on the choreography and polishing the programmes,” Mrázek said. “We are focussing on different aspects, to add more difficulty.”

The teams in Česká Lípa were offered the chance to join the entire summer camp over its 5 weeks of duration. With a non-stop Monday to Friday plan, the schedule was quite intense: very often, classes would start in the early hours of the morning and continue all the way through until quite late in the evening.

Every day, they had a lot of on the ice and off the ice activities. On the ice, a lot of work went into upskilling skaters, refining what they already know and adding new skills, whilst also working on the programmes for the new season, which are being refined for some, or created anew for others.

Off the ice, there was a lot of work with different specialists, from dance classes in the studio to targeted physical preparation with specialists on site, and some media training with our support and that of Daniel Linden from The Ice Capture.

“We do a lot of hours on the ice and off the ice, our day is full from the morning to the evening, we are practicing a lot,” Carlo Roethlisberger of Italy said.

“It is very intense, but the training environment is really nice,” Finland’s Juulia Turkkila (pictured, left) shared.

Zimní Arena in Česká Lípa allowed the organisers to provide the participating teams access to all they needed for their training: on top of having exclusive use of the ice for the entire day, skaters could benefit from using a dance studio, a gym, and the wider infrastructure that the arena offers.

“We also have a physiotherapist with us all the time, it is really good that you can book an appointment on the same day and fix something if you have some issues”, Matthias Versluis of Finland said.

The benefits of training together

I already knew that these athletes put a lot of work into what we only get to appreciate in a few minutes at competition, however witnessing in person the efforts that they put in and their incredible dedication to training was certainly an eye opener.

The skaters I spoke with shared that they were very happy to have a chance to work with such a large group of athletes.

“During the winter we are so much in Finland, we are 4 couples in our group,” Juho Pirinen said. “It is a great motivation to share the ice with someone else and it is also something new for us. In Finland, we can use the music all the time, while here we have to let the others also do that. It is very positive that we have all these skaters with us”.

“We are very happy to be here, we are working a lot and it is very intense, but we love it,” France’s Natacha Lagouche shared. “It is very different for us, but it is fun. We have some moments of exchange, seeing what others are doing for the upcoming season. Sometimes it feels like we are so many, so we have to be very efficient. If we have to be on the ice at 10:00, it has to be 10:00, not 10:01!”

Mixing teams with different experiences brought different learning opportunities to the ice.

“It is interesting for us to see how other couples are doing, to see how they approach the new season,” Daniel Mrázek said.

Coaches have the task of helping their students navigate their potential, showing them the way to develop into the skaters they want to be and to work towards their objectives and ambitions. The athletes were really happy to have the chance to access the wide and varied team of coaches available at the summer camp.

“It is a really nice experience to work with different coaches, to take their experience and advice,” Mariia Pinchuk of Ukraine (pictured, right) said. “The atmosphere is very warm, it is fun and productive at the same time.”

“I love working with the other coaches, because there are always different techniques and approaches and it is so nice, we can collect all the pieces of advice and take them with us,” Finland’s Yuka Orihara said.

Different coaches bring different teaching techniques and styles to the ice, however this has been welcomed by the teams at the camp.

“It is so cool to see that every coach has some different point of view,” Filip Taschler said. “Sometimes it is nice to add extra things that our coaches didn’t see, this collaboration is really cool.”

“We listen to our coach every day, but when other coaches share tips it helps to look better and get higher in our rankings”, Iryna Pidgaina said.

“It is a pretty good experience for us working with other coaches,” Cyprus’ Ilia Karankevich shared. “Everyone has their own technique of coaching, I really like that this camp is made like this.”

“I like working with many different coaches, we can take something different from each of them. It is more fun! Even coaches can feel that the atmosphere is much more fun,” Ilias’ partner Angelina Kudryavtseva added.

A very positive atmosphere

One thing that was immediately noticeable as soon as I arrived was the positive atmosphere and good vibe between skaters and the coaching team. We are used to see skaters at competitions, where they are under pressure to perform and are in the zone to make sure they are fully focussed on their objectives. Despite of the hard work going on at the summer camp, it was refreshing to see the skaters not having that tension from competition on them. The atmosphere felt quite relaxed, with them having fun and supporting each other whilst going through all the hard work they committed to do.

“We all get a bit stressed and tired over the season, so it helps to hear different voices and opinions,” Italy’s Victoria Manni shared. “Skaters talk to each other, coaches talk to each other, so we all feel very much as we are not alone.”

“We have a lot of fun every day, sharing the struggles, the tiredness together,” Natálie Taschlerová said. “It is a new experience for all of us.”

On the ice, there was a lot of support going on when teams were having run thoughts of their new programmes, with a lot of clapping and cheering.

“Everyone helps on the run through, they scream, ‘let’s go guys, you can do this’, and it is really helpful,” Pidgaina said. “The guys are really supporting us.”

Off the ice, the vibe was equally nice, with skaters spending time together chatting, laughing, bonding. Within such a large group, old friends could reunite and spend some time together, and new friendships were made.

“We met new people, some that we saw on big competitions,” Angelina Kudryavtseva said. “It is really nice to see how they are working, to be friends with them. We are enjoying this and getting something from them.”

The new rhythm dance theme

I also had a chance to ask about the new rhythm dance theme: social dances and styles of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Overall, it seems that skaters were quite excited about it and you can definitely get a sense of fun from all of the teams.

“I think this year will be exciting for sure, the musics are exciting and uplifting for the audience and hopefully also for the judges,” Natálie Taschlerová (pictured, left) shared. “It will be harder because the tempo is super-fast, but we are excited to bring something new and we have amazing dancers to do the choreographies with us here.”

With such a wide range, a lot of research went into finding the right music, but most seem to have enjoyed the process of exploring these decades.

“It took a while to find the right music, but we got the best music ever!” Aneta Vaclavikova said. “Our new RD is full of energy, very disco.”

“I did a lot of research to see the style, the dances, the vibe, the costumes and even the makeup,” Filip Taschler shared. “I really like to research everything, to get as much as possible into the character.”

“It is really fun that the theme has such a long range, we can choose from different styles,” Mariia Pinchuk said. “It will be really interesting to watch competitions and different couples will show something different.”

Upon reflection and after having seen some of the rhythm dances at the camp, I think we can anticipate a fun season ahead of us!

The Summer Gala show

Well into the second half of the camp, a Summer Gala show allowed the audience that came to Zimní Arena to enjoy the skaters performing a different variety of programmes: from the beauty and sophistication of Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis and the intensity of Natacha Lagouche and Arnaud Caffa, to some entertaining classics like the Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler’s Madonna routine, Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen’s flight themed gala programme, and the energy of Daniel Mrázek and Kateřina Mrázková’s tango.

It was a really fun evening, with skaters watching and cheering for their friends and with a finale with all of them on the ice ending the show on the famous song from the Dirty Dancing movie closing scene.

Final reflections

You can definitely see that these summer camps are giving skaters what they need to get ready for the new season and keep improving themselves. However, they also offer them a chance to bond, support each other, share experiences and create some good memories. This is not only great for their professional development, but also for their personal development.

Congratulations to Matteo Zanni and everyone in the management team for all the incredible work that went into organising and running such a comprehensive summer camp.