Meet Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen
January 29, 2025
By Ayaka Okumura
Photo © Jeongmin Lee
Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen are an ice dance duo representing Finland, coached by Maurizio Margaglio and Neil Brown. Skating together since 2019, they are the 2019-2020 national champions and four-time national silver medalists. Yuka, originally from Japan, previously competed for both Japan and Canada.
We caught up with Yuka and Juho during the NHK Trophy to discuss their goals for this season, their costumes designed by Shizuko Orihara - a renowned costume designer in Japan and Yuka's mother - and the differences in skating styles between regions.
Did you feel our warm welcome? There was a big crowd and a lot of Finnish flags...
Juho: There were so many! And the arena is so huge - it's so wide that you don't even see the second balcony.
Do you know there's a shop that sells flags, and Finnish flags are sold out?
Juho: Just for us!?
Yuka: Really? That's so nice!
You have back-to-back Grand Prix events, and in less than a week, you have the Finlandia Trophy. What do you plan to work on in the coming days?
Yuka: I think today we don't have time to fix anything, so we'll just try to rest and keep it calm.
Juho: Keep it calm but stay focused. When we get back to Finland on Tuesday morning, we'll have a couple of days to practice, and we'll just do run-throughs. I feel like now we are in a tunnel for two weeks-a "Grand Prix tunnel." Half of it is done now, so we just have to keep going without adding much stress but staying in the bubble and staying focused. At the same time, we'll try to rest because this schedule is demanding and tiring. Also, since we had competitions first in Japan and then in Finland, there were more time zone changes than if it had been the other way around. But we had already done it two years ago, so we knew what to expect.
Yuka: The mental impact is actually much greater than you'd think.
Is the feeling going to be different competing at home next week?
Juho: Even though we represent Finland, this is Yuka's home country, so...
So it's actually good that you have Grand Prix events in both of your home countries.
Yuka: Yes, that's really nice!
Juho: For me personally, I know that Finland is going to be great because the competitions are always at a very high level, and this year, I'll have a lot of my relatives and family coming. So, of course, I'm really looking forward to that. But NHK was very special, too, especially for Yuka, so it's very hard to say which one is more special.
Yuka: I actually feel that it's Finland. Maybe because we've done it so many times. We had Finlandia Trophy challengers and Grand Prix events, so I feel like we're getting more used to the Finnish audience.
Which competitions do you have after the Grand Prix series, and what do you plan to focus on?
Juho: We will have Nationals and then Europeans. We want to work more on improving our skating skills, and we also have to be more precise with the levels.
Yuka: Yes, we lost quite a lot yesterday.
Juho: So it will mainly be a lot of technical work. I don't think there is anything major that we need to change in our programs because they are working very well.
Last season, you were 10th at Euros and 16th at Worlds. Do you set any specific goals placement-wise?
Yuka: For Europeans, it will be a little bit harder this year because some couples are stronger there, but we always try.
Juho: Of course, we would like to maintain the top 10 - that's what we are aiming for. We'll see, and in order to make it happen, we have to be very strong.
Yuka, your costumes are always created by your mom. Tell me more about the creative process.
Yuka: Sometimes my mom has her own ideas, and sometimes we send her pictures from Pinterest. But we usually let her do her thing and see how it turns out. It also really depends on the music.
Juho: This season's free dance, "A Chorus Line," was a bit harder and took time to figure out. Yuka's mom was consulting with us because there were movie costumes to take inspiration from, but also musical costumes, which are different. "A Chorus Line" has those famous golden costumes, but we couldn't just go with golden ones because the first part of our dance is still the audition... But in general, yes, all our costumes are Yuka's mom's ideas.
Yuka: Yeah, I think so. "Chicago" was my mom's idea. "Mermaid" was also her idea.
Juho: We trust her because she's so creative and very professional in what she does.
Yuka, you grew up here in Japan, you had a Japanese partner, a Canadian partner, and now you have a European partner, Juho. How is the approach to ice dance different in different parts of the world?
Yuka: To be honest, Canada and Finland aren't that different. I think a lot depends on the specific federation. Both the Canadian and Finnish federations give you more freedom in the decisions you make.
Juho: For example, in Finland, we can decide which competitions we want to attend. We just update our federation about the events we prefer, and they sign us up.
Yuka: While the Japanese federation, I feel, was a bit more involved in everything. We couldn't decide on international competitions ourselves, obviously, and for every single competition, they were more involved. I have to say, that added a bit more pressure.
Juho, and for you, what was the difference between a Japanese and a European partner?
Juho: My first partner was Finnish, and now I skate with Yuka. The main difference was the language, of course, but Yuka speaks such good English that we don't have any problems with communication.
I feel Yuka has a very traditional Japanese style of skating - great gliding technique and lower knees. So, when we started skating together, we obviously had different foundations, and it took us some time to adapt. We're still in this never-ending process of refining our partnership. But when it comes to the partnership itself or communication, it doesn't matter whether your partner is Asian, European, or North American. As long as you get along well, that's what really matters.
You were in the cast of the "Ice Explosion" show in Japan a few years ago. Do you have any plans to come back for Japanese ice shows?
Yuka: We don't have any plans right now, so please invite us - any kind of show, please!
Juho: We would be more than happy to come! Those two "Ice Explosion" shows we did were so memorable, and we had an amazing time. We really hope to have such opportunities again in the future.
Next season is an Olympic one. Do you think you have a chance to qualify for the Games?
Juho: Last season in Montreal, Juulia and Matthias (Turkkila/Versluis) were ninth, and we were 16th. Since we qualified for the free dance, we secured two spots for Finland.
Yuka: Based on last year's results, we could have gotten the second spot. So, I think it's very realistic for this year as well. I'm not sure how everything will unfold, but we would love to secure our own spot, for sure.
Juho: Of course, the Olympics are on our minds, but there's also the issue with the passport. We're working on it - the process is ongoing. The federation and the Olympic Committee are supporting us, but in Finland, these things take time.
Yuka: For me, the passport isn't my main concern right now. My priority is to focus on the season. And if everything leads us to the Games, that would be wonderful.
Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen will compete at the European Championships this week. The rhythm dance begins on Friday, and we wish them great performances and an enjoyable time in Tallinn.