Isabella Flores and Dimitry Tsarevski aren't perfect – and they're OK with that. The American junior ice dancers have only been together 16 months, and although they're proud of their accomplishments, they know they have room to grow. This season, they want to improve as a team while enjoying their first experience on the ISU Junior Grand of Figure Skating (JGP) Prix circuit.
Flores and Tsarevski, known as "Bella" and "Dima", are both 19 and live in Colorado, where they train at the Broadmoor World Arena with coach Elena Dostatni. The couple has quite a height difference; Flores is 5'0" and Tsarevski just under 6'0" tall.
Flores was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. "My parents both graduated from West Point and were officers in the Army. They were deployed, so that's why I was born in Germany. I'm still a U.S. citizen," Flores explained. "We came back to the United States when I was about 2." She has one younger sister.
Her parents' service brought them to Colorado Springs, where Flores began figure skating at 5 years old. At 8, she started working with Dostatni, first for skating skills, then to learn solo and ice dance. When Flores was 10, her family moved to Anchorage, Alaska, for two years. She continued to skate and stayed in touch with Dostatni until their return to Colorado Springs.
"It wasn't until I moved back [at age 12] that I really got competitive with dancing," Flores said. "My interest in it grew over time; the artistry and the connection with your partner."
Tsarevski grew up in the Denver area. His father immigrated to the United States from the Kyiv region of Ukraine, where he was a collegiate athlete.
"After college, he got into climbing mountains. He climbed several mountains in the U.S. and Canada," Tsarevski said. "Then he was going to go back to Russia, but ended up meeting my mom, and so stayed here." His father now coaches cross-country skiing and rowing. The Tsarevskis have seven children; Dima is the third oldest.
Tsarevski started hockey lessons at 5 and singles skating at 7. He participated in both sports until about 12, and learned double jumps. But at the time, he preferred hockey, and lost his jumps due to lack of practice. At 13, he got a call from Dostatni, asking for a tryout with a partner in Colorado Springs.
"At first, I thought it was pairs," Tsarevski noted. "I said, 'I can't jump.' And Elena told me, 'That's OK, we're not going to jump.' When I learned that there was no jumping in ice dance, I said, 'This is great,'" he recounted with a laugh.
Flores and Tsarevski both skated in Dostatni's group. When they were 14, Dostatni put them together for an extended tryout. "I don't even remember it as a tryout," said Flores. "I just thought we were skating together because we were both single [without partners]."
At that age, Flores and Tsarevski didn't click as an on-ice team. "I think we weren't mature enough to make it happen," Flores said. They both went on to other partnerships.
But in May 2020, both skaters were again looking for partners, and Flores reached out to Tsarevski. This time, the partnership felt right.
"We had the same technique, because we had the same coach," Tsarevski noted. "That made the transition easier. We were able to go straight to working on programs, rather than learning each other's technique [first]. And Elena is not an easy coach; she's pretty tough. That's what I really like about her. She pushed us to go further and harder than we would have ourselves."
"Dima and I are like best friends off the ice," Flores said. "So we can test each other's boundaries in a comfortable way. We're not afraid of offending one another." Tsarevski currently lives with the Flores family during the week, going home to his family on weekends.
Flores and Tsarevski found unexpected success in their first season, capturing the pewter medal at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Now, the duo is starting their second season. With former choreographer Christopher Dean in England, Dostatni asked professional ice dancer/choreographer Joel Dear to create their new programs.
For their rhythm dance, Flores and Tsarevski are skating to "Oh What a Night for Dancing" by Barry White and "Perm" by Bruno Mars. Flores selected the music.
"I pride myself on this one, because finding music is always
such a pain," Flores noted. "My sister was playing 'Perm' on replay, and I was like, 'What if we skated to that?' I played it for Elena, and she loved it. For the Blues rhythm, I wanted something funky/Motown. I was watching blues patterns from the past, to get ideas. I found it from Piper and Paul." (Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier used the song for their disco short dance in 2016-17.)
Flores and Tsarevski's new free dance, set to "Nuvole Bianche" by Ludovico Einaudi and "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson, is contemporary in style and theme. The program is about two innocent children maturing and learning of the world's problems but finding hope.
The team have already debuted their new programs, most recently at the 2021 Lake Placid Ice Dance International, where they won gold.
"We really enjoyed competing at our first international competition," Tsarevski said of the event. "And we were ecstatic to finally [score above] 60 points in the rhythm dance and 90 points in the free dance."
Flores and Tsarevski will next compete at Junior Grand Prix events in Courchevel, France, Aug. 25-28, and Kosice, Slovakia, Sept. 1-4.
"I am very excited to represent the U.S. at a Junior Grand Prix event," Tsarevski enthused. "We're going to compete our best for ourselves, and our coaches, and our country."
The team hopes to medal and possibly reach the Junior Grand Prix Final.
"But we both know that's a very lofty goal," Flores said. "So, we're just hoping to compete well. We're excited to show the world what we can do."
Off ice, both skaters are starting college – Flores at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Tsarevski at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs.
Tsarevksi is also preparing to audition at music schools, where he hopes to pursue a music-related degree (working remotely). Tsarevski has played the cello since he was 7 and wants to become a cello soloist.
Flores, meanwhile, manages the team's social media presence on Instagram. Her amusing videos and photos from their training allow fans to see their day-to-day progress, not just the end results at competitions. Flores has found quite an audience.
"It's taken off a lot," she said. "I went from 1,000 followers to 30,000. I think it's a really good way to show [us] as athletes. Especially as ice skaters, everything has to be so perfect. But you're not perfect. There's much more of a story behind us than just showing up six minutes prior to our competition, getting our scores, and looking pretty."
Learn more about the Junior Grand Prix Series and follow along on our competition central page.
