Nguyen and Kolesnik Reflect on How Skating has Shown Them the World

Competitive skaters travel the globe to represent Team USA at international competitions. Junior ice dancers Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik have already collected an impressive amount of stamps in their passports in their young careers. It is fitting that they are skating to two pieces, including "A Whole New World," from the Aladdin soundtrack for their Broadway-themed rhythm dance this season.
 
Skating has quite literally shown them the world. They've been to Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Belarus and Poland, and will be returning to Italy for a second time to compete at the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Torino from Dec. 5-8. When abroad, their primary focus is on training and competing, but the team does try to budget some time for sightseeing. In Ljubljana, Slovenia, they visited a castle with their coach and on the way home from competitions, Nguyen tries to squeeze in a Parisian visit whenever possible.
 
While in Zagreb, Croatia, for last year's World Junior Championships, they enjoyed a gastronomic tour of the town. "There were some really good restaurants we got to visit," Nguyen said. "We both love food and we try to explore as many new restaurants in the area when we're visiting."
 
As the dancers gracefully glide and soar across the ice, they truly embody the Disney characters they are portraying on a magic carpet ride. "It feels like we're floating, especially in the pattern dance," Nguyen explained. "That's when we use this music selection when Aladdin tells Princess Jasmine, 'I can show you the world,' and it's kind of what we're going for in our rhythm dance."
 
In their third season together, Nguyen and Kolesnik have formed a special friendship akin to Aladdin and the Genie. But they don't want to win skating medals and titles simply by having wishes granted.
 
"We would want to achieve [success] by ourselves with our own powers in our hands, not by some kind of magic," asserted Kolesnik. If he could, he'd wish for five more wishes, health and to continue enjoying skating just as much as they do now.
 
Coach Igor Shpilband is credited with suggesting the "Aladdin" concept and the team couldn't have been more thrilled. Over the summer, they spent time in New York City where they were inspired by the live Broadway production and Katelyn Weaver arranged for them to work with professional dancer Skye Mattox to help bring the essence of "The Great White Way" to the ice.
 
Nguyen and Kolesnik's free dance has a completely different look, feel and tone. It's set to a classical piece, "Piano Concerto No. 2" by Sergei Rachmaninoff, so they approach the choreography and delivery in a more serious manner. "It's definitely a very different genre," says Nguyen. "It's a challenging piece of music to skate to, but we love it so much and it's very emotional and special for us."
 
Team USA ice dancers have made their mark on the international circuit for well over a decade, and with up-and-coming junior teams as strong as Nguyen and Kolesnik, the future seems bright for generations to come. They aspire to follow in the skate strokes of teams such as Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and Meryl Davis and Charlie White. A few weeks ago, Olympic champion White offered the young pair some tips.
 
"He helped us so much," said a grateful Nguyen. "He's really good at explaining things and he kind of opened our eyes to like a whole new way of doing things and approaching how we work on the ice and he reminded us of why we love skating so much."
 
The current World Junior fourth place finishers aren't racing to advance to the senior level of competition. They are first looking to conquer the junior ranks by winning gold medals across the board. To accomplish that, they are focusing on skating two strong programs in all their upcoming competitions and earning as many Grade of Execution (GOE) points as possible, especially in their rhythm dance.

Nguyen and Kolesnik were the top qualifiers going into the Final and will join their senior role models Hubbell and Donohue, and Chock and Bates on the ice this week in Torino.

Watch the junior competition live on the ISU Figure Skating's YouTube page, and don't miss the senior competition on NBC Sports Gold's Figure Skating Pass.