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Yuna Aoki 青木祐奈: Rocker Skating Interview · The Rocker Skating Podcast

• 0:00
  I'm with you Aoki Anades talk out skating for the guest today
• 0:05
  at Yokoso. Well, I am so excited.
• 0:13
  I've been trying to get this interview to be happening for
• 0:17
  quite a while, but I have Yuna Aoki on the podcast.
• 0:21
  Yuna, thank you for joining me from Japan.
• 0:24
  Right. You're you're still in Japan.
• 0:26
  Yes. No.
• 0:29
  I love that. I love that you're here.
• 0:32
  I it's just like I've been wanting to talk to you for so
• 0:35
  long. But you you're heading to Europe
• 0:40
  soon, right? To get be on Art on Ice.
• 0:43
  Is that right? Yes, I.
• 0:46
  Suck it. Tell me about your season.
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  It it started off OK, right? You were you, you were
• 0:53
  competing. It was it was you were putting
• 0:56
  some good skates out there, but not not things that you were
• 0:59
  incredibly excited about. But then came the sensational
• 1:04
  performances at Japan Nationals and at 4 Continents.
• 1:07
  Tell me about how your season has gone so far this year.
• 1:20
  I. Yes, as you say, the first part
• 1:37
  of the season was not such a good one, but the around the the
• 1:43
  second-half of the season starting from nationals and the
• 1:48
  four continents, things really went up and the results also
• 1:53
  followed. My performance went up and the
• 1:55
  results followed. So overall, so far this season,
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  I'm thinking it was a very satisfactory or satisfying
• 2:02
  season. Was there anything you did
• 2:06
  differently going into Japan nationals that made it such a
• 2:12
  huge leap forward for you? Yes.
• 2:49
  So during the Grand Prix season, there were many mistakes that I
• 2:54
  made. And so I needed to analyze that
• 2:56
  and also find out what the reasons were behind those
• 2:59
  mistakes. And so I was always thinking
• 3:02
  about how to sort of remedy or address those mistakes going
• 3:07
  into nationals. And also what I did during
• 3:10
  training was to really mentally focus and think while I was
• 3:14
  training. Obviously during the performance
• 3:17
  itself, I know that I was I was going to be more nervous and so
• 3:22
  my mind might not be all there. So that that's why I needed my
• 3:26
  body to memorize everything and then sort of rely on that memory
• 3:30
  to go into the performance of the day. 4 Continents was
• 3:36
  thrilling. You are the Four Continents
• 3:39
  champion now. You, you, you.
• 3:42
  You defeated a lot of really wonderful skaters, and I still
• 3:49
  remember when you found out that you won, you were so happy.
• 3:55
  You had your hands in your, your head in your hands, like your
• 3:59
  face in your hands, like just you.
• 4:01
  You couldn't believe it. It's been about a month now, and
• 4:06
  if you reflect back on that competition, what maybe
• 4:11
  surprised you the most about how you did?
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  The. For going into 4 continents was
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  in itself something that I was really grateful for.
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  I was very happy to be there. And so I didn't really have a
• 4:59
  particular result or a goal in mind that I had set myself.
• 5:04
  The, the, the goal really was to be able to put it all out there,
• 5:08
  everything that I had trained for.
• 5:10
  And then the result itself, the final result was a surprise and
• 5:14
  was very happy, but I was very happy about it.
• 5:16
  But I think I was more happy about the fact that I was able
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  to really put all everything that I had trained for into the
• 5:25
  performance and that this is where the satisfaction came from
• 5:29
  mostly. Well, and then you went and did
• 5:33
  a couple more domestic competitions and you skated well
• 5:36
  there too. Like it, it was it just like the
• 5:39
  momentum of the the season like you were just on and you were
• 5:44
  automatic, right. Like, how did those two
• 5:47
  competitions feel? Yes, as you.
• 6:29
  Say, I think I might have been in that kind of automatic mode.
• 6:35
  I was able to not put too much pressure on myself.
• 6:39
  However, having said that, the title of four countenance
• 6:42
  champion did create a little bit of a pressure on me.
• 6:46
  So going into those domestic competitions, I did feel a
• 6:49
  little more, more of a sort of a tension, shall we say, compared
• 6:54
  to the other times that I participated in those events.
• 6:58
  However, really the momentum was there.
• 7:00
  There was a good flow and also I believe that I was in great
• 7:03
  shape. The fitness was all there.
• 7:04
  So I think that I was able to put it all into my performance
• 7:09
  and that was reflected in my performance.
• 7:12
  Well, we're so happy that you are still skating because a
• 7:17
  couple of years ago you said you were going to retire and then
• 7:21
  you had a really great Challenge Cup competition.
• 7:25
  And I think that was when you said maybe I should do more,
• 7:29
  maybe I should keep going. What motivated you to continue
• 7:35
  skating after, you know, kind of deciding that you were going to
• 7:39
  retire at the end of that season?
• 7:58
  Mother. A lot.
• 8:34
  Of doubt was in my mind whether I should continue or not.
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  But eventually, I mean ultimately I decided that I was
• 8:44
  able to. I was still, there was something
• 8:47
  left in me that I could continue.
• 8:49
  And also last season, at the beginning of last season, the my
• 8:54
  coach, Mr. Nakanova said he would want, he would like to see
• 8:57
  me skate a little more. So that gave me the confidence
• 9:00
  to continue. As far as the motivation is
• 9:03
  concerned, I think that until last season, I was really
• 9:07
  thinking about getting results and performances as a skater,
• 9:11
  continuing as a as a skater. But I also put found some kind
• 9:18
  of new motivation for myself of figuring out how to improve my
• 9:23
  expression and my artistry going forward, really in the looking
• 9:28
  farther into the future, further into the future.
• 9:34
  Well, Speaking of which, the skating world knows you both
• 9:38
  really as an all around skater, but also like one of the real
• 9:41
  artists of the sport. I, I, I have talked to skating
• 9:46
  fans, commentators, you know, people who know the sport really
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  well and you know, I myself love your skating and, and so do
• 9:57
  many, many, many people. How did you develop your style
• 10:02
  growing up and and who have your kind of artistic inspirations
• 10:07
  been? No.
• 11:06
  I was always interested in the artistic part of skating, and as
• 11:11
  far as my expression, I was always into that ever since I
• 11:14
  was a child. And my coach, Shui Chiro Suzuki,
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  really taught me a lot when I was much younger.
• 11:26
  So that started all there. But as I worked with my
• 11:29
  choreographer, Misha G, he really taught me the joy of
• 11:33
  skating and expressing myself through skating.
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  And also he really sort of broaden my repertoire, shall we
• 11:41
  say. And then I started working with
• 11:43
  Alex and he taught me something completely different from Misha.
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  They're very different, but I learned a lot.
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  This piece on the music of La La Land was a totally different
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  challenge, and I think I was able to grow through this new
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  cooperation, this collaboration with Alex.
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  So I think that learning from various people really sort of
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  made me the skater that I am today.
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  I love that you work with Alex Johnson.
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  He's one of the, you know, when he was a competitive skater in
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  the US, he was always known as one of the more artistic ones.
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  He's he's not known to be a so he's not a well known
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  choreographer right now. And you've kind of put him on
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  the map in a lot of ways because of the, the Lala Land program.
• 12:34
  How did you start working with Alex and why did you decide to
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  work with Alex? Alex.
• 13:14
  So about Alex, I saw some of the videos that he posted on his
• 13:19
  Instagram account one or two years ago.
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  And as I was watching him skate, I could tell that the way that
• 13:26
  he was moving to the music and sort of picking up the notes on
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  the music was really something that I liked.
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  And I thought instinctively that it would be a great match for me
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  and I was wanting to work with him and he would be able to
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  bring something out of me that was not there before.
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  So that's why I decided to contact him and work with him.
• 13:55
  And so artistic inspiration, skaters you've looked up to, you
• 14:00
  know, outside of obviously Alex and Misha who you've worked
• 14:03
  with, anyone else that have influenced your style?
• 14:25
  I know. I.
• 15:14
  So I started skating. I was really looking up to
• 15:17
  Shizuka, many skaters obviously that I look up to, but she was
• 15:22
  one of the main people that I looked up to when I started
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  skating. Really, I am into beautiful
• 15:28
  skating, shall I say, And a lot of the skaters from sort of past
• 15:33
  generation, one generation before ours, for example,
• 15:38
  Carolina Costner or Stefan Lambielle, those beautiful
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  skaters really taught me a lot and I really looked up to them
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  and they, those skaters, I was lucky to meet them and being
• 15:50
  taught by them in during camps. And so they were my inspiration.
• 15:55
  And there's one more thing that I really recently discovered or
• 16:00
  rediscovered was that the Skater Marine Honda, we competed, we
• 16:06
  from the same generation, we competed at a lot of
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  competitions together. And I realized that I really,
• 16:13
  really liked the way she expresses herself through her
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  skating. And she is my inspiration.
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  She was one of my inspirations also.
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  So I will include her. Well, it is.
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  It's February. You've had now a few weeks to
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  come down from the highs of four continents in Japan Nationals, I
• 16:38
  know you're off to Europe soon. Can you tell me what your plans
• 16:41
  are for the next few weeks? I.
• 17:24
  As for this next season, I haven't really made-up my mind
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  whether I will continue or not, so I'll need a little bit more
• 17:30
  time to reflect on that. But in a few weeks I'll be able
• 17:34
  to go to Europe, as you say, to Art on Ice, and I'm really
• 17:38
  hoping to show everybody some very good performances.
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  So I'm looking forward to that. After that, I also have one
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  other show lined up. It's Kasoya that was produced by
• 17:52
  Daisuke Takahashi, and so I'm looking forward to that.
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  And there's one more little domestic competition that will
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  be taking place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and it's called the
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  Lady Cup. So that will probably be my last
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  competition of this season. Well, we're always looking
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  forward to skating wherever it is, whether it's art on ice or
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  domestic competition. So thank you so much Unison for
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  joining me. It's it's been a pleasure
• 18:24
  talking to you and best of luck and and enjoy the shows in
• 18:30
  Europe. Yes.
• 18:34
  Thank you.