By Matteo Morelli
Olivia Sensible and Tim Dieck accomplished their second season after becoming a member of forces as a brand new partnership representing Spain. Each of them are skilled ice dancers. Becoming a member of forces, they shortly went from a primary season understanding how their partnership might work, to reaching necessary outcomes on this second season simply ended.
Tim Dieck (TD): We’re actually completely happy and actually happy with our efficiency. It was just a little extra nerve wracking than standard, however the crowd helped a lot.
Olivia Sensible (OS): It was a dream come true second. It has been some time since we now have competed on the Europeans, and to be amongst all the highest groups as such a brand new group is sort of a blessing. We need to be up there the place we need to battle for a podium.
Listening to them and seeing their enthusiasm, one virtually forgets that their partnership continues to be fairly new. The concept of turning into a group began to form up round three years in the past, however in a little bit of an uncommon manner.
TD: It’s a good story, really. It began with a no from Olivia: after I heard that she stopped skating with Adrián (Díaz), I knew that I wished to skate along with her. I had a tryout deliberate in Montreal, and I knew that she was nonetheless there. Earlier than that tryout, she was the primary one I texted, however again then she was in a distinct temper, as if she stopped along with her profession. However then, after I went to Montreal, the coaches noticed me skating and determined to maneuver issues ahead.
OS: I used to be invited over for dinner at Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon’s home. After a few glasses of wine, they stated I wanted to have a tryout with Tim. Every week prior, I simply signed my Dancing on Ice contract, so I requested why they thought I wanted to have a tryout with Tim, and so they advised me that he was in Montreal and regarded very robust, and this could possibly be my alternative if I wished to proceed skating. I stated I might do the tryout, but additionally talked about I used to be going to do Dancing on Ice and go away for eight months, which meant no coaching. So, we had our tryout, and it was a no brainer for us each to proceed, even when we each needed to sacrifice the time of me being away doing Dancing on Ice, which gave us a later begin into our first season collectively. It was a sluggish however regular begin, and an uphill climb from there.
Contemplating how a lot they achieved already, it has certainly been fairly a speedy climb!
TD: To say that we didn’t qualify final season for the Europeans, and now we’re within the prime 5! It’s nice.
OS: We name it our “accelerated programme”. We’re each very robust personalities and we’re each Aries, so we bump heads typically, however we now have essentially the most wonderful group that has taught me for years how you can handle my feelings and power. Now Tim is on board and he’s studying himself: it’s cool to look at any person you’re so near going by way of the identical studying course of you probably did, and I’ve realized rather a lot watching him be taught and develop as nicely. We have gotten an excellent powerhouse collectively, utilizing our weaknesses as strengths.
After the European Championships, they focussed on coaching to enter the World Championships in Boston in the very best form attainable: their sixth-place end there in all probability exceeded their expectations, however confirmed how their “accelerated programme” is already paying them again for all of the laborious work they’re placing in. After their small bronze medal within the free, they couldn’t fairly imagine what they achieved.
OS: I’m speechless. I’ve by no means had a smile on my face like that! The sensation of it, the connection we had collectively: I used to be so emotional all day. If you happen to would have requested me two years in the past after we first held one another’s palms that we’d be right here at present, I might have laughed in everybody’s face. However we made it!
TD: Each second, I actually felt the reference to Olivia on the ice.
OS: Now we have constructed so many followers and relationships by way of this (free) programme.
From their storytelling to their characters impersonation, their free dance on music from the film Dune was certainly one of the vital in style of the season.
TD: It was really Olivia’s concept. She got here into the ring someday and instructed Dune. Then we each went to look at the film once more with our dance coach (Sam Chouinard).
OS: I used to be in search of a chunk of music with robust feminine vocals. I really like listening to robust, ethereal feminine vocals, one thing very whimsical that offers you chills. After which I watched the film and thought it was precisely it. I believed that perhaps it’s too cliché to do Dune, as a result of it had simply come out and perhaps lots of people had been going to do it. Nobody did it in ice dance, and some different individuals did it within the different disciplines, however it turned the film of the yr for individuals to make use of. I’m very proud that we could possibly be the ice dance group to place it ahead.
Their costumes, designed by Madison Chock and Mathieu Caron, stand out all through your entire programme, and earned them the 2025 ISU Skating Award for Greatest Costume.
TD: Mine was by Mathieu, I caught with the primary model of it.
OS: We had two variations of mine. An excellent programme wants an entire vibe and power, together with the costumes and the look. That’s what ice dance is, the look is an enormous a part of it. After Nebelhorn Trophy, I spotted that I wasn’t 100% positive of what my costume was and I used to be going to alter it anyway. I had these concepts on paper and photos, however I couldn’t put all of them collectively and make up a design, so I went to Madison for assist. She already helped me with my Olympic season costume, and he or she nailed it with this one.
The ice dance discipline they left of their earlier partnership just isn’t precisely the one they discovered after teaming up: from shows to costumes and music kinds, the self-discipline is evolving in many alternative methods, with new instructions of journey being explored.
OS: I might positively say that the inventive persons are pushing the boundaries. Yearly, individuals should suppose outdoors the field and the creativity is shifted, not simply from the youthful groups but additionally from the highest ones: you’ve got Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri doing a really trendy, robotic programme, Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud doing a techno one like what we hear after we exit at golf equipment, Lilah Concern and Lewis Gibson skating to Beyoncé. Issues are so totally different to what we had been used to, however individuals pushing the boundaries additionally implies that everybody pushes one another due to that. It’s attention-grabbing as a result of, for instance, how do you choose a Beyoncé programme towards a robotic programme? It’s actually tough, however I assume that’s what makes our sport attention-grabbing to look at as nicely. It isn’t simply tango after tango after tango, and I do know there are lots of people which are lacking that fundamental dance idea of waltzes, tangos, and foxtrots. I’m not going to lie, I’ve by no means completed a golden waltz or something like that and I might like to in some unspecified time in the future. It will be cool for the rhythm dance to see that come again just a little bit after which have full inventive house for the free dance, however I do know they’re making an attempt various things yearly with the rhythm dance, and it’s good. We are going to see the way it evolves, with the theme altering yearly it actually retains us on our toes. However with the free dance, I feel persons are simply going to maintain pushing boundaries of what they’ll do to not simply entertain the crowds but additionally to get the judges consideration, as a result of if the judges don’t like your programme, you aren’t going to be getting the scores you need. You must please everybody, not simply your self.
The best way the rhythm dance is evolving is especially attention-grabbing, however seems like it’s posing some challenges on the identical time.
TD: Particularly relating to the Olympic season, the place more often than not the ISU is making an attempt to grasp what crowds would love. It is extremely tough, however I agree with Olivia that it could be good to take a step again once more, again to the “classical” half the place you possibly can actually examine one another’s skating expertise, after which you possibly can have full freedom for the free dance.
One other change we’re witnessing within the discipline is the longevity of some groups on the market. With Olivia and Tim of their late twenties, might we count on to see them for some years to return?
OS: Our important targets because the group is, after all, to compete on the Olympic Video games collectively, so that’s our subsequent long-term aim for 2026, the Olympics. We did say we’d actually re-evaluate yr by yr how we’re doing and the way we’d need to put together for the subsequent season. We love what we do, and with the uphill climb we’re having proper now, it will likely be laborious to step away from it after the Video games. Each of us additionally know that there’s life past skating, however we each have an excellent steadiness in the meanwhile and we’re simply going to maintain one another in line and in verify with how we really feel and the place we’re at, taking it season by season. If we see there may be a gap there for us, I don’t suppose we are going to miss that likelihood.
That is very true for each of them, however significantly for Olivia, when serious about her determination to simply accept the chance to enter the Dancing on Ice expertise within the UK (and win it!).
OS: I realized rather a lot doing that present. One of many greatest the reason why I did it was as a result of Marie-France advised me that I might be taught a lot from it, from partnering expertise to endurance and power administration. I might say the most important studying I had was endurance: it took time, work and endurance to enter a brand-new partnership the place each of us have very totally different skating expertise and mindsets and making an attempt to get these aligned. I used my expertise from competing in a group sport with my celeb companion Nile (Wilson), as a result of he was used to compete alone (he’s a former creative gymnast for Nice Britain, winner of an Olympic bronze medal on the 2016 Video games in Rio de Janeiro). I’ve additionally realized rather a lot by way of efficiency expertise on the ice, that irrespective of how you are feeling, how nervous you’re, you simply do your job. I had plenty of these moments on Dancing On Ice: for instance, after I lifted Nile, I used to be essentially the most nervous I’ve ever been, and I used to be on reside tv however I needed to do it, and I simply did! Once I go into competitors now, even when I’ve all these ideas or I’m nervous, I feel that I’ve to do it. And if I don’t do it, I don’t do it, however I do know I can and I’ve to do it.
It’s clear that Olivia and Tim have discovered their steadiness and are actually having fun with their partnership, on and off the ice. I wished to conclude our chat by asking a key query: Olivia is well-known to like canines, together with her personal Linda in Montreal and the various canines in her household. Is Tim additionally an enormous fan of canines?
TD: In fact! I’ve a canine at residence in Germany, and at any time when Olivia is busy in Montreal, I deal with Linda. I completely love canines!
Thanks a lot to each for the time spent speaking with us, and better of luck with the subsequent season.
