We talked to Nikita Brovko and Olga Urumova from Russia, winners of the Amateur Latin at Blackpool 2015. Since winning Blackpool they won pretty much everything the danced including the International Championships and UK Open 2016.
I develop as a dancer and, as a future teacher, I gain knowledge. It is not only about the feelings but also about what, how and why.
Congratulations on winning the Amateur Latin yesterday – lovely performance. You must be very pleased
[Olga]: Yes
[Nikita]: For sure!
Let me start with asking you my usual question. How did you start dancing?
[Olga]: I started when I was seven years old because my Mum was dancing. It was just a social dancing but she liked the dresses and all the glamour. So she brought me to the dance school in a small city we lived, in Lviv in Ukraine. I loved it straight away, from the first day I walked in there. I kept asking my Mum to bring me there again, and again. After three years of dancing I became a champion of my town.
Did you just dance Latin?
[Olga]: No, it was both Ballroom and Latin. It was in the early nineties. Then I got a partner who was already a Ukrainian champion. His name was Dmytro Wloch, and we were dancing together for like 13 years. Together we moved to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. We were still dancing both styles. I think that it was 2008 when we decided to dance just Latin. We dropped Ballroom then, but we have already been World Junior Ballroom champions and World Youth 10 Dance champions.
In 2009 we split up and I started dancing with Stefano di Filippo. I can tell you a short story about that. It was our teacher Richard Porter who got us together. He told Stefano, when he split from Anna, that he had one girl, very good, very talented, and that she is not famous at all (laughing). Stefano did not know me and he contacted me via Facebook asking me for my recent videos. I said, I don’t have any (laughing), but we decided to try-out anyway. So I came to Rome to see him. We had a try-out and he said, OK, I will dance with you. But I said, don’t you want to try with other girls first, you are a Blackpool champion and I am just a 24 year old girl… But he said, no, I want to dance with you. So we started dancing together. We split up after two years because of various reasons, without going into details I can tell you that everything was hard for me. Stefano is a nice guy but I was not able to live in Italy really. So we stopped. I didn’t know what I’d do, I did not have a new partner, I did not have any plans… I went back home to Ukraine and after six months of not dancing I started to miss it very much. But there was no suitable partner, nobody was available at the time… Nikita was still dancing with Nastya at the time, all the other good dancers were in partnerships.
I was waiting for somebody to become available. Then my teacher Sergey Ryupin suggested he has somebody from Yekaterinburg in Russia and that I try-out with him. I wasn’t very keen on that, he was from the top 48 and I was the finalist in Professional Latin. But Sergey insisted that he is very talented, and I agreed. We had a try-out and I really liked him. I thought he had potential to be really good in the future. So we started together. It was very hard, I wanted to practise a lot. I wanted to come back to the floor and get good results. There were expectations, I was Professional finalist, I needed to get back to form after the long break. We practised together for nine months and our first competition was the International. We danced and we ended up in the quarterfinal. It was actually a good result considering but I was a little frustrated. I understood it wasn’t possible to get straight to the top, it needed time but I was still a bit unhappy. Shortly after that I heard Nikita split with Nastya. And we got together.
[Nikita]: My story begins in Nizhnevartovsk in Russia, in western part of Siberia. It is about three hour flight from Moscow. My parents were dancers and my grandparents were dancers so naturally they were my teachers. So it is like I am a third generation of dancers in my family. They did not push me into it, I really liked it so I started when I was four or five years old. I was not so successful in the beginning but after few years I became the national champion. I also won the Juvenile and then Junior events at Blackpool. I had lots of titles when I was young. When I moved to Junior and then Youth I was three times World Ballroom champion already. But never in Latin (laughing).
[Olga]: We were both more into Ballroom at that age
[Nikita]: Yes. In Latin I was never a champion in the World championships but was in Ballroom and 10 Dance. I always had my best results in England. In Russia sometimes it was good, sometimes it was not. I was always liked in here, from Juvenile and Junior age through to Amateur. I started to dance Amateur quite young with Alina, and got to the semifinals in Blackpool and the International.
[Olga]: You were 18 years old then, I think
[Nikita]: Yes, something like that. Then I danced with Nastya Melnikova, the sister of Anna. After we split up, I started dancing with Olga.
How did you meet?
[Nikita]: We knew each other before.
[Olga]: We were friends.
[Nikita]: I had some friends in Moscow. When Olga was coming to Moscow she quite often would call them and stay in their apartment for few days. So we had a chance to know each other, we celebrated New Year together and so on. When I split from Nastya I did not know who my next partner is going to be.
Did you split up because you wanted to dance with Olga?
[Nikita]: No, no. We just split because Nastya had problems with her knee and decided that she is going to stop dancing. I had few girls in mind I wanted to try-out with. And I had few try-outs. Olga was in partnership then with Denis but I decided to write to her anyway and ask if she would be interested. So I texted her on Facebook.
[Olga]: I immediately texted him back saying, oh, why didn’t you ask me a year before! Because you know, Denis and I already spent a year working together building a partnership. Of course, Nikita was much more experienced but it would be a shame to have all that work wasted. I said, OK, let’s have a try-out but just for fun. I was thinking that we cannot look good together as I was older and I was already a Professional while he was still a young Amateur. I was saying, no, no, I will look like your Mum (laughing)! Anyway, we decided to try for fun.
[Nikita]: I did not want to make a decision right then. I just wanted to have several try-outs, wanted to make a videos, have a good look and then make a decision.
[Olga]: But from the first moment we tried together it felt really good.
[Nikita]: It felt good straight away. It make the decision easier that I knew her privately, it helps when you know the person. I saw her on the floor many times as well. It felt good but it still takes time to build the partnership. In the beginning it may feel good but it is not like a real couple. I think it takes about two years maybe more.
[Olga]: Yes, to understand each other.
So how long it took you to realise it will actually work? Do you remember that moment?
[Olga]: I think it was last Blackpool.
[Nikita]: Actually, at our first Blackpool together we were 4th. It was our second competition, the first one wasn’t that good. It was the Freedom to Dance two weeks earlier and we were 7th. Only two couples from the Blackpool final were in this final, I think, the others were from the semi or quarterfinal. So we did not feel it was a good result for us.
[Olga]: It was stress. But after two weeks we went to Blackpool and it was great
[Nikita]: Of course, Blackpool gives you inspiration and it feels different as well. We needed that adrenaline. Anyway, I feel that from the 2015, from January, we started to feel like a couple. We started to think of partnership as well, not just our individual technique or movement. We started to be more consistent.
[Olga]: We both came from different teachers as well. Nikita came from Bryan, Hans and Carmen and I came from Sergey Ryupin, Tone Nyhagen and Donnie and their style was completely different. When I danced with Stefano I was with Caroline Smith and Richard Porter which was also very different. So for me it was hard because I needed to change for Nikita. It was stressful for me because I did not feel it was my style. I don’t know, I did not enjoy this type of dancing.
And now?
[Olga]: Now I enjoy it, because now we are so similar in what we want from dancing and what we feel. We don’t do it for anybody, we like to feel it inside. We think together. Also, I learned a lot from Bryan, Hans and Carmen. Many things were new for me. I believe I improved my own dancing with that new knowledge. We enjoy dancing and our results show it as well. So the whole package now is good.
Would you want to have lessons with Sergey and Tone as well?
[Olga]: Well, when Nikita and I started to dance together, I texted Tone and Sergey telling them that Nikita had a different group of teachers. They understood that it was not a matter of liking them or not but, to be a couple, we needed to build a one consistent style. So that was that.
Wouldn’t you prefer to have two different types of teachers and decide yourselves how and what to use from that?
[Olga]: It is possible, we tried it with Sergey and Melia. It helps. We feel we improved a lot generally, thanks to them as well.
[Nikita]: I think that at the moment it should not be completely our decision. When you are with one teacher, or one group who you trust, you should believe in what they say and trust their advice. Actually, it was Bryan’s idea to go to Sergey and Melia. I trust my teachers when they say what is better for us and why we should do something. It is rare that we work with other teachers.
Does each teacher work on different parts of your dancing?
[Nikita]: My parents will always be the first and closest teachers for me. They know me best. When I have problems I can always ask them for advice. I know they have my very best in mind. We also have Bryan, Hans and Carmen. All of them work together on us, but each of them in a different way. Bryan helps me a lot with leading, rhythm. Hans is more about the body action, mechanics, and information of how to use your body to create a movement. Carmen is great when it comes to create an image, also partnering.
[Olga]: She is great teaching me partnering from the woman’s perspective.
[Nikita]: I think it is a good combination as we can take something different from each of them. It wouldn’t be good if they all spoke the same or gave the same information. I really like what they do. I feel I develop as a dancer and, as a future teacher, I gain knowledge. It is not only about the feelings but also about what, how and why.
[Olga]: Of course, we plan to teach after we stop competitive dancing. Not every good dancer can be a good teacher. I know many champions now who cannot explain things well. And our teachers are passing that knowledge to us which will help us to become good teachers ourselves. Not everybody can do it.
What aspect of dancing is most important for you? Do you see it more as an art or sport?
[Nikita]: For me dancing is a combination of many things. I feel it is more an art than a sport. For instance ballet - it is actually harder than our dancing. My friend from the university did ballet. I’ve seen her repeating the same thing every day to perfect one movement, even till her feet almost broke. It is a regime. Every movement must be perfected. If ballet is not a sport, our dancing certainly is not a sport.
[Olga]: Oh, I don’t know
[Nikita]: Of course, you have to be fit to do our dancing.
When you are on the floor what feels stronger, the desire to win or to express yourself?
[Nikita]: For me it is always difficult to have this pressure, I need to win, I need to win…. Before the competition we felt the pressure building, because many people had so many expectations from us. I try not to think about it. I try not to think of a result when I am on the floor, just want to think of dancing as best as I can. I want to give my best.
[Olga]: After the first round we were actually very calm. We felt really good, like we already won (laughing). Of course we did not know what the results are going to be, but we felt really good and the pressure was gone like it already happened. We asked Bryan if what we did was good enough, if the energy was there. And he answered that we looked very positive, very strong and told us to keep this feeling to the end. Some couples try to struggle, try to fight but we needed to be calm to look good.
OK, now Nikita tell me what you don’t like in your partner
[Nikita]: There is nothing major really (laughing). Difficult question actually.
[Olga]: It feels really good that he cannot find any faults in me (laughing)
OK, what about him?
[Olga]: Because I know Nikita for a long time I know him as a person quite well. He is a good guy. Not all dancers are like this, especially boys (laughing) and I always tried to keep some distance from them. But there are some things I learned about him after we started dancing together which I don’t like very much. For instance, he doesn’t like to practise a lot. For him it is OK to stop when he feels like it, but not for me. I was angry with him for that.
How many hours do you practise?
[Olga]: Two to three hours a day. We also have some ballet.
Is this not enough for you?
[Olga]: No, it is now. But when we started we needed more, we had to change many things and I felt we needed more practice. I felt we needed to work, work, work. But he is different. He has a dream but he works towards through the power of calmness, I don’t know how to say it. And I must say that he always gets there, so perhaps his way is better. It gives me the confidence now that I don’t need to push and push because we have a way to get there and it is working.
So he is more patient than you?
[Olga]: Yes, I am more emotional and impatient. So, this patience and calmness was what I did not like at the beginning. It looked like he was lazy but I understood it would have been completely wrong to force to change him.
[Nikita]: I believe that everything what is meant to be, will happen. Of course, I understand I have to work towards it, practise but still, if you are meant to get there, you will (laughing). You need to prepare mentally as well, and I don’t want to get double stressed about things. Just accept, life is life.
[Olga]: This is perhaps because he is used to winning since Juvenile. So he was already successful. But for me it was different, it was always very difficult from the beginning. I wanted to be in the final, I wanted to be on top and kept pushing and pushing and it was always very hard. When I got to the top with Stefano it felt it was too much. I felt I did not deserve that position that I did not do enough to earn it. I had that feeling all the time with Stefano and it disturbed me. Now, I finally feel that we both deserve what we got (laughing).
[Nikita]: Yes, this is the problem with her. She is very hectic, very animated, and it is too much for me sometimes. And because of that, sometimes she speaks first and thinks later.
[Olga]: All my partners were saying that
[Nikita]: This is what her problem is really.
OK, who is more logical and who is more emotional?
[Nikita]: I am logical, she is emotional (laughing)
Who is organising tickets, booking hotels?
[Olga]: Nikita’s father is helping a lot with that. He is like a manager
[Nikita]: Yes, he is. He takes care of that. We are really grateful to him! We try to share these kind of tasks and make decisions together. We get now a lot of emails so I started giving some to Olga because it is now too much for one person. After Blackpool, Olga and I will meet at my parents and decide the plan for the future, such as what competitions to go to, when to practise, where to work and so on.
What do you like to eat? Perhaps you follow a special diet?
[Olga]: I could eat everything, it didn’t matter to me. When I danced with Stefano in Italy I started paying more attention to what I eat. Stefano said to me, that we Russians eat too much salads with mayonnaise, everything fried, and heavy food. But for me it was OK, I was slim, I felt good. I could eat in MacDonald and still it did not affect me. But he said no, it is not good. In Italy they eat a lot of pasta, chicken, fish and very healthy food actually. So I started eating that. It is not diet, but you just eat the right things. And I started feeling different, particularly at the competitions. I felt my body was stronger, so it mattered. When I went back to Ukraine I also went back to eating our home food. And I noticed it did not agree with me anymore. I am not saying don’t eat stuff like that at all, but eating healthy makes you feel good and your body feels better as well. So I am back eating mostly healthy foods just like in Italy.
Italian food?
[Olga]: No, Ukrainian or Russian but in a different style. I can buy chicken and fish but cook it in a different way my Mum or Grandma would do. Not in a Russian style, not fried with lots of fat.
Do you like cooking?
[Olga]: Not really, I can, but I don’t really like it much. Also, I don’t have much time.
[Nikita]: I also can eat everything I like, I don’t need to be on any diet. I am lucky enough that if I feel I need to lose some weight, I can go on salads and it is easy. I like to try new foods. I probably wouldn’t try things like insects or bugs they eat in China because I cannot face it (laughing). But I like to try new things in different countries, cultures, different cuisines.
As you travel around the world for various competitions do you combine it with holiday or sightseeing?
[Olga]: It depends
[Nikita]: After the Worlds championships in Paris we planned two more days there. My parents were there as well and we just enjoyed Paris.
[Olga]: Or in Amsterdam
[Nikita]: But sometimes we just come, dance and go. When I was little every year we used to come to Cervia to Italy to dance the festival and always stayed there for one extra week or so. It was nice. But now we don’t have so much time. We need to think of work.
[Olga]: Of money
[Nikita]: Yes, we need money (laughing). So if we go to competitions, we usually come, dance and go back home. I prefer to go on holiday to places I don’t need to dance. There is no pressure, you just enjoy the place.
What do you do outside of dancing?
[Olga]: Nothing. We teach…
[Nikita]: Before, I enjoyed football a lot. I played, of course as a hobby. That was when I was in school. I remember that after school we used to go playing football with the guys and after that I would go practise dancing. It was nice of course, but at some point I decided to stop as it was too easy to get an injury and I needed more time for dancing. Now I only play football on the PlayStation (laughing).
[Olga]: I don’t play on the PlayStation for sure (laughing). I don’t have any special hobby but I don’t feel I need it. Friends and family are a big part of my life. I think that without them I would not be able to function. I have really good friends for good and for bad.
Are they also dancers?
[Olga]: Some of them yes, but some are not. In Kyiv I have few friends who were dancers before. And I have friends in Moscow as well. I like spending time with them. I go back to Ukraine to visit my family perhaps ones in two months. After Blackpool I will go again as I learned my Grandmother was in the hospital with heart condition and it was a lot of worry for me just before Blackpool. Nowadays it is quite dangerous to travel in Ukraine, the current political situation and the war it makes it difficult to travel between Russia and Ukraine.
[Nikita]: I am Russian and I also think this is really awful situation. I have many friends in Ukraine but I feel, of course it depends on a person, that many Ukrainians blame it all on ordinary Russians.
[Olga]: I try not to speak with people I know in Ukraine about it because people have very strong views. Some even say that if I love my country I should stop dancing with Nikita because he is Russian. I love my country but why should I stop doing it now. I worked for years to get where I am. But anyway, the political situation is such in Ukraine that it is dangerous to enter the country, particularly for men. They can be stopped, their passports confiscated and they can be taken to the army. I know dancers who are now afraid to go back.
[Nikita]: We are not interested in politics, we just want to dance.
What do you think about the split between WDSF and WDC?
[Nikita]: Everybody was together before this, we were all friends. These were good times. It upsets me that this changed. It is getting better I think, I can see many people from WDSF coming here to watch.
[Olga]: Dancing styles became different now.
[Nikita]: There are different priorities as well. I know, I was dancing in WDSF before.
[Olga]: It is not good or bad, it is just different. My Mum took a lot of pictures of dancing couples and she was saying to me, why do they push so hard now, why is it so fast? So for her, for non-dancer, the visual difference is very apparent.
How do you manage financially?
[Olga]: It is hard but we manage, we do teaching and shows
[Nikita]: We do a lot of work in Russia. We travel to different towns and cities.
Who designs your dresses?
[Olga]: For a number of months now, since the International Championships, Vesa sponsors my dresses. This is really great. They did a great job for the Blackpool. Carmen said that yesterday, because the dress matters, it helps to create an overall look and the results depend on it.
[Nikita]: I don’t have any sponsors for my outfits. I have a sponsor for my shoes. It is a Russian company called Aida. I have some places in Russia where I can have my outfits made. I prefer that because I want to try them on before I wear them on competitions. I don’t understand how people can have things made in Japan or China, it is too far, and I want to be able to discuss it, express what I want and try it on first.
So how does it work for you Olga?
[Olga]: Vesa makes a design and sends it to me, I immediately send it to Bryan for opinion. I want to know if he likes it, if not, we go through more designs. I really value Bryan views on it, I wouldn’t go against it. But it is Vesa who designs it.
[Nikita]: I also discuss my ideas with Bryan. But it is much easier for me than for Olga. The man’s outfit is so much simpler. I generally like simplicity. It is not my style to go overly decorated.
[Olga]: Yesterday many men had like 5 different shirts, but Nikita was dancing in one plain shirt. Bryan said, you look good, don’t change.
[Nikita]: For me it is very important to feel good in it. Sometimes I wear something with a lot of stones, very rich, but sometimes I don’t feel comfortable in it. It depends on a competition and on my mood.
How do you keep in touch with friends and family?
[Olga]: I use Skype to talk to my Mum, Facebook of course to communicate with friends, Viber, WhatsApp on my phone. Somebody stole my phone yesterday in the changing room so I cannot even text my Mum!
[Nikita]: Better not to leave anything there. It is sad as it is only dancers who are there. The phone was in a small bag inside a bigger bag, but somebody still managed to remove it. I wish there were cameras in the changing room (laughing).
[Olga]: After we won the competition I was so happy that nothing else mattered (laughing).
What other dancing websites do you visit?
[Olga]: We often visit dancesport.ru which is in Russian. I also used to look at the Ukrainian sites but not so much anymore.
[Nikita]: I only visit two sites: dancesportinfo.net and dancesport.ru for some news and videos from some Russian competitions. It did live streaming from some competitions.
[Olga]: I like to go to dancesportinfo.net and then the couple profile to see the pictures
[Nikita]: I like that you do not change the layout all the time like some other sites. I get used to the interface and don’t like when people keep changing. I think your layout is simple and it still allows for new things to be shown there.
So you think we should not change anything?
[Olga]: I like it as is.
[Nikita]: No other site shows the results so fast after the competition. This is very useful. If you change anything, please don’t make too many changes and not too dramatic. Keep it simple.
What are you dreams?
[Olga]: It was to win Blackpool
[Nikita]: But it feels now, it was only in Amateur (laughing). My dream was always to win Blackpool in Professionals. This is still a dream.
[Olga]: It is too boring now (laughing). People asked Nikita why he stopped Ballroom, he was so good in it, and he said it was too boring as he was winning everything (laughing).
[Nikita]: No!
[Olga]: I stopped because I felt that the girl cannot express herself in Ballroom as well as in Latin. For some people it is OK but not for me, I am a different character. And it is OK for men, they lead, they are in control. IN Latin we girls can do something.
[Nikita]: Dancing Ballroom is great if you can do what you have in mind, if you have a right partner and skills. It is a nice feeling which comes from the movement, the control. But yes, perhaps it depends on your character. I enjoyed both Latin and Ballroom but it is difficult to do both on the high level.
[Olga]: I think the last great dancer was Marat Gimaev, he was in the semifinals of both Latin and Ballroom at Blackpool I think. In Amateur.
[Nikita]: Perhaps we should turn Professional and to Ballroom. It would be a surprise (laughing), but interesting.
Thank you for an interesting conversation and the feedback as well.
All pictures by Peter Suba
