First half- post 2
It's fun to see she's super enthusiastic when she taught the little kids. It's very Mao.
A surprise skating lesson
(for a small elementary school students at an outside rink of the school whose students sent a letter to Mao for asking her to come when she was still competing)
Kids: wow wow wow
Mao: hahaha
Mao & Mai: Good morning.
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Mao: Stretch your arms!
Mai: Hold your right arm ahead of your body.
Mao: Good. Good. Good. Don't forget your right arm! Right arm. Right arm. Good!
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Mao: Cross your legs and put your foot inside of your another foot. It's OK if it's only a slight margin [at first]. (showing how to do it) Cross your legs. Try your best to cross your legs.
Mao: (to a kid) Good! Look forward! Look forward! Stretch your arms. Good!
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Mao: (to a kid doing spins) Good! You made two-rotations spins. Try three-rotations next time!
Kid: OK, three-rotations.
Mao: (to another kid doing a spin) You can't spin when you are looking up [at the sky]. Look straight forward! Look at the direction where Mao-chan is!
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Mao: I have a plan in my mind to skate lots of programs that I've skated until now. I'm grateful to lots of people who supported me. Thanks to them I was able to run such a long career. I want to return the favor to them. I want to do so by my own skates at various places.
Audition of the cast
(at Saitama Ice Arena in the middle of January)
Mao: (to the skaters who came to the audition) Don't afraid of making mistakes. If you can't remember the choreography, you can arrange it by yourself.
Sei Kawahara: I heard Mao Asada starts a new show. When I retired from competitions, I decided inside of me that I'll challenge various things. I'm taking this audition since I thought it will give me various inspirations.
Maral Erdene GANSUKH: My name is Maral Erdene Gansukh. I'm training in Chukyo University as Mao-chan did. I took this audition wishing I'll be able to practice together with Mao-chan once again.
Interview with Shiho (part 2)
Shiho: How long do you skate?
Mao: The show is a bit longer than an hour. (*80 minutes) I skate about a half of it.
Shiho: Great stamina is needed.
Mao: Yes. So I'm training hard right now. The show starts from May. It'll be about a year since I skated in a show last time.
Shiho: So you are excited?
Mao: Until I made up my mind to hold this show, I was not sure whether I can manage to skate or not. "I'm looking forward to it" is more suitable word to my feelings right now than "Can I do this?"
Practice
(in January at Osu rink where she trained under Yamada when she was little)
Producer: You look tired today.
Mao: I'm tired.
P: Is it different from usual?
Mao: It's the same as usual... these days. I'm still in the middle of the practice for the show. And I'm already this tired.
P: Awesome spins from you.
Mao: Nah. If I did such spins, [Sato] Nobuo-sensei will get angry and say "[Your spins are] noisy!"
P: Ah, making noises is no good.
Mao: Yes. It's no good to make noises.
Mao: (not satisfied with another try of spins) Nah.
Mao: Since I do spins in my show, I have to push them up to good enough level.
Group practice
(at Saitama Ice Arena in February)
Mao: (explaining the choreography of the group number to the cast) Now [Kawahara] Sei finished his part, and then I go to this direction, so please change the group formation from a big circle into a half circle.
Mao: (showing the choreography and explaining the meanings of them) Twinkle, twinkle and shine! Right, left, right, left, up and down. OK?
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Takahito Mura: I'll think about how to skate inbetween these parts. I mean from the 50 seconds of the music (=Bells of Moscow).
Mao: Please tell me when you have something to talk about the choreography.
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Mura: I'm grateful to what Mao did for years when I was competing. I want to pay it back. I'm glad if I can help her for making her wish come true. I'll practice hard. She has a great leadership. It makes our group work easier. It's so helpful.
Nagisa Hayashi: I haven't memorized the choreography, and yet we have to start working on group formations. I'm not accustomed yet. Kind of hard.
Narration: Nagisa is at the same age as Mai's. She's been in touch with Asada sisters since long before. She's a skating coach as well as a mother of two children. Mura is almost the same age as Mao. They both were good advisers for Mao.
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Producer: (to the three youngest members of the cast, Mari Yamamoto & Risa Kawauchi & Maral, who are university students) Are you tired? Are you OK?
Mari/Risa/Maral: I'm not tired.
Producer: Are you enjoying the practice?
Maral: Yes, I'm having fun.
Narration: Those three belong to the generation who started skating inspired by Mao. They are not on Nationals level nor skated in any shows. Mao thought it was one of her jobs to lead them up to the level where they can skate in MTT with good self-confidence.
Narration: What Mao talked about first of all was the importance of each posture.
Mao: (to the three) When you're standing still like this and if you take a careless deep breath, it shows more than you think.
Mao: (to all) [The first pose of reaching out an arm means] "Thanks" to the audience. And again you say thanks [by reaching out both hands]. Please try [these poses with understanding the meanings of them].
Narration: She talked about the way how to make yourself look beautiful even if you don't have difficult techniques.
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Ernesto Martinez: My name is Ernesto Martinez. I'm in MTT.
Narration: His nickname is Erni. He was a member of team Spain in the Jr field. When he was 17 yo, he gave up competing due to an injury. He liked Mao a lot and it inspired him to study Japanese to talk with her. He came to Japan to study fashion. And then he got a chance to take the audition of MTT. He used to copy Mao's programs for fun and he memorized all of her programs.
Mao: He remember the choreography better than me.
Producer: Awesome!
Mao: He's perfect.
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Narration: In the middle of February at a dance studio in Tokyo they had a practice of group numbers except the ones where Mao skates. Mai was the main member of them. She was busy with TV programs traveling around the country but she tried her best to join the practice. Mai also tried to talk with other members as much as possible. She thought it would lighten the burden on Mao's shoulders. It was 3 months before the ice show starts.
Mai: (to other members) We need more practice of this part. That said, we did well except the ribbon part. hehe Let's do our best!
