Artem Plakhotnyi Inna Berlizyeva
So whose idea was it?
[Artem]: It is a good story actually. When Inna found herself without a partner she did not want to continue to dance. At that time I split up with my partner who moved to New York. So I was looking for a partner. I did not want any try-outs because I actually wanted to convince Inna to return to dancing and be my partner. It was six months when there was no decision and at some point she said: do you want to go practise? I said: are you kidding me? She said: let’s just go practise. And that’s how we started. Within one month we decided to dance competitions. We had a bunch of good results in the US from the beginning.
[Inna]: We are really excited to dance because I feel like both of us had a break and were really hungry to dance again. We had that passion to go back to the dance floor and compete. When you take a break, you can think of everything and you let all the other things, whatever you had in the past, go and you can move on to start something new.
Are you together in private life?
[Inna]: Yes
What came first?
[Inna]: First, we started dating and it took us couple of months to have the idea of starting dancing together. In our case, dancing came after we got together. But a lot of times it is opposite of course. I believe it is very important to have a harmony in a relationship. All the successes are coming with this.
How does it influence your dancing? Or perhaps how does dancing influence your private relationship?
[Artem]: We are really, really good about this. I am a person who likes to let things go. If something doesn’t quite work at the practice, if we get angry with each other, we never fight. But we get angry with each other. But when we go home, anger disappears.
[Inna]: I can also add that, maybe because we were when young in the same studio and had the same coach, we have the same mentality about dancing and practice. In our dance studio nobody was allowed to talk during the practice. Our coach was pretty tough about it. If you were at the practice, you were to practice and that’s all and it was not the time to talk or to argue who was right and who was wrong. The teacher told you that. So we take things really easy now. If you do something wrong, you are OK with it. You just accept it.
[Artem]: If anything, we blame ourselves for the problems.
So I guess, your private relationship helps as you can support each other.
[Inna]: Yes, of course. We have respect for each other and understanding. You really think first before you say something. This is really important I think because a lot of times you get frustrated when things do not go well, you get angry with yourself and you need to accept it.
[Artem]: When things are not happening in dancing, when things go wrong at the practise we just stop and go home to relax. Have a glass or two of beer, or something stronger (laughing) and let it go.
Do you have life outside of dancing?
[Inna]: Yes, we do a lot of things
[Artem]: Are you sure? (laughing)
[Inna]: We have lots of friends and actually, because we moved to US and did not have family there, we met people and they became our family! We have lots of friends outside of the dance world. They are supporting us as well. We like to spend time with friends, invite them over for birthdays, New Year and Christmas parties. We also like cinema.
[Artem]: For Christmas we have twenty people over at our house who came from different places in the US. We wanted to spend Christmas together because all of them moved to USA from different countries and they do not have any family there either. Usually we got together to celebrate holidays. I have lots of holidays actually. I do almost everything. I play golf. Sometimes the coaches who come to our town like to play golf, so I take them there. When I have free time, I play golf. I like to play video games. This is one of my hobbies too. I play on Wii, Sony Playstation, computers… I like to be sometimes on my own and concentrate on something else than dancing.
Any favourite game?
[Artem]: Right now it is StarCraft. I also play tennis with friends
And what about you, Inna, when he is doing all these things?
[Inna]: I am actually making dresses. This is my hobby. I make dresses for friends, other people and sometimes for myself. I enjoy design and the creative side of it. Unfortunately I do not have much time because of our crazy travel schedule. I like to cook, I like to decorate our dance studio. Every holiday is my big project to decorate the dance studio.
[Artem]: She is spending most of her time talking to her friends on the phone!
[Inna]: I like to communicate with my friends! Just to catch up with things. Lately, I started with real estate. I got interested in that.
It is rather different from dancing!
[Inna]: Yes, very different but so far, it is a little hobby which can develop into business. I quite enjoy that as well.
What can you tell me is your partner’s best side?
[Artem]: Business. She has a very good sense in business.
[Inna]: I am good in everything!
[Artem]: She is good in making stuff happen. In dancing, she is a very strong dancer. She is beautiful, she is strong and she is good in following. She is really good in everything!