Settled at the Senior Level, Carreira and Ponomarenko Elevate Their Skating and Aspirations

When comparing last summer to this summer, ice dancers Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko say it's like night and day.
 
Last year, the 2018 U.S. junior champions and World Junior silver medalists were preparing to make their debut at the senior level. They spent the summer working on making the transition out of juniors, skating as a unit and developing a more mature look.
 
"It was a very difficult transition," Ponomarenko said. "The summer that we spent training before the season started, (coach) Igor (Shpilband) worked very hard with us on becoming a senior team and having that senior look. It involved a lot of overall confidence, and a lot of stroking and skating skills."
 
It also proved challenging to go from being the big fish in a little pond to suddenly being little fish in a big pond.
 
"We went from not being the oldest, but we were the older age group of junior, to switching to senior, where we were by far the youngest," Carreira said. "That was hard, because they're all obviously much older and they have more experience than us."
 
They earned podium finishes at each of their ISU Challenger Series events – silver at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic and bronze at Nebelhorn Trophy – and earned their first ISU Grand Prix medal, taking bronze at Rostelecom Cup in Moscow.
 
"I think our competition in Oberstdorf, Nebelhorn Trophy, was a really great memory, just because that was our first senior international outside the country, and it was very new to us," Ponomarenko said. "It was a great experience, a very great location for it."
 
That newness took some time to wear off, but the duo earned a fifth-place finish at their first U.S. Figure Skating Championships in the championship-level competition.
 
Finishing so close to the podium – an impressive accomplishment or a frustrating miss?
 
"It was a little bit of both," Carreira said with a laugh. "The rhythm dance was really good. I feel like we skated probably the best we could have. But in the free dance, there were little mistakes, so I think that cost us fourth place. But overall it was a good first U.S. Championships as senior."
 
Shpilband didn't let them relish the moment for very long.
 
"We finished at U.S. Championships Saturday, and Igor told us, 'I want you on the ice Monday,'" Carreira said.
 
Thus, the 2019-20 season began almost immediately, but the summer offseason took on a very different feel.
 
No longer the new kids on the block at the senior level, Carreira and Ponomarenko have begun to take the reigns of their skating. The pair spent time training with Massimo Scali, and went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to train with Christopher Dean.
 
"This offseason was a little bit different," Ponomarenko said. "Igor gave us the option of working with a couple choreographers and just giving us the freedom of trying to improve ourselves, and working on what we know we need to work on. It's a lot more freedom, I feel, this season."
 
They've spent time working on more ambitious programs, including a free dance that began coming together that Monday morning on the ice right after U.S. Championships. Shpilband came with music and some flamenco choreography, and that's the program that they ultimately went with for this season.
 
"We knew exactly what type of free dance we wanted to do," Ponomarenko said. "But the rhythm dance was a little bit more difficult. We had trouble finding the music, and when we did, and choreographed it, we decided to scratch the idea."
 
"We had three different rhythm dances, I think," Carreira said with a laugh.
 
They finally landed on "Too Darn Hot" from Kiss Me Kate, and their choices have paid off thus far. They again medaled at their Challenger Series events – again, silver at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic and bronze at the Nebelhorn Trophy – and will compete at Skate America presented by American Cruise Lines in Las Vegas on Oct. 18-20, and at the NHK Trophy in Japan in November.
 
"We're happy with how we skated at the last two competitions," Carreira said. "Both us and Igor feel that our programs could have more energy and more power, so that's what we want to improve going into Skate America. There's a few technical things we had to fix, but overall we're happy with how it's going."
 
And now they have the benefit of some experience under their belts.
 
"We kind of know where we're at now and where we can improve," Ponomarenko said. "Last year was just kind of a shot in the dark. We didn't know where we were going to be, where we were going to place, how we were going to score, if people were going to like us. So we're just really happy to be in it."
 
This summer also involved some life changes, namely high school graduation. Ponomarenko is taking the semester off from school but has been accepted at Eastern Michigan University and plans to eventually pursue business. Carreira is taking psychology and political science classes at Cégep de Rosemont, an online school in Montreal. She hopes law school is in her future, but not until she's done with her skating career.
 
But for now, skating is still the main focus, and this season they have one specific goal in mind.
 
"We want to make the world team," Carreira said.
 
"Pretty ambitious goal," Ponomarenko added, "but that's what we're aiming for."