Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis: "We still have room to improve"

March 28, 2025
By Reut Golinsky
Photo © Eva Maria Jangbro (EMJO), International Skating Union (ISU)

Ice shows provide a wonderful opportunity to chat with skaters in a relaxed and friendly setting. A few months ago, during the "Music on Ice" show in Bellinzona, we had the pleasure of speaking with Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis, the 2023 European bronze medalists from Finland. This meeting was perfectly timed, just ahead of the 2025 Europeans, allowing us to reflect on their programs and discuss their future plans.

Juulia and Matthias have participated in "Music on Ice" since they teamed up, making their first appearance in January 2017. You could say they grew up within this show, evolving from unknown young ice dancers to European medalists. "It was quite a huge honour to participate in this show as a new ice dance couple," Juulia recalled. "Even before, as a single skater, I never did any kinds of shows, so being part of this cast was really nice and a very new experience for us. Since then, it's always enjoyable to come here in the middle of the season to perform for the Swiss audience."

"Music on Ice" shows are known for their creative storylines that weave through all the performances, uniting them with the help of little sketches featuring cast members. Juulia and Matthias spent a significant amount of time on the ice, not only skating their programs but also "dancing in the club" and, evidently, posing as an exemplary couple.

"It's a story of a city," Matthias explained, "where people are not getting married and not having kids. There's no love anymore, so they call for the 'love doctor' to fix it and bring people together again. We represent a couple that is living happily together and serves as a good example. So we personally don't need this doctor; he likes us and says: 'You're okay, everything is good with your couple.'"

Both of their programs this season required a lot of hard work as they embraced the challenge and stepped out of their comfort zones. They executed it brilliantly, all the while maintaining their unique style.

"It was hard to choose the [rhythm dance] music for this time period," Matthias admitted. "We felt that the 70s were too close to the 80s, which we didn't connect with as much, so we preferred music from the 60s. The requirement was for it to be social dancing and something more energetic. If we had a choice, we would probably go for something slower."

"But when someone tells you that you can't do what you want, it pushes you to explore, step away from what you usually do," Juulia added. "Actually, our experience in ballroom dancing really helped us. The things we learned, like Jive, for example, contributed a lot."

For their free dance, they chose a tango theme. "We had this idea already last season," Juulia said. "While we were looking for new music, Matthias found this tango, and Massimo (Scali) said, 'Yes! We should do a tango!' We were both really excited to do it."

"We feel this program is growing; during practice, we're getting deeper into it. We've been working with an actress on the emotions we are feeling throughout the program. We probably have a clearer story in our minds now and know what emotion should be present at every moment. It really needs that clarity. We want to know what and how we feel so we can show that to the audience. It requires a lot of practice. When we do it during practice and really think about it, and prepare ourselves for these characters every single day, it becomes automatic during competition," they explained when asked about how this dance has evolved over the course of the season.

While this bolder and more passionate style is new for the team, some fans might have already seen them in a similar aesthetic during the off-season when they performed an exhibition program to "Hungarian Rhapsody" in Stéphane Lambiel's show in Champéry.

"Yes, there was definitely this stronger character in Rhapsody, especially in the part where the music was building up," Juulia agreed. "Stéphane was the one who chose this music for us. We received the music before our summer camp, and we practiced this show number at the end of the camp. However, we had already decided on our free dance by then; the music and style of our free dance were, of course, chosen before that. Overall, the show was a really nice experience, with the live piano music - it was truly special. We would have loved to do these kinds of shows more often."

Their last season's free dance to "Mass (Re-Imagined)" and "Loss" by Phoria - abstract and filled with unusual movements that created original body shapes - definitely stood out and received praise from many. "Actually, I would say that we got more comments this season for our tango, both from judges and people around us," Juulia said. "But last season's free dance was also well-loved by the audience. It was a very different concept. I remember how Massimo showed us what he had in mind, his vision for that dance. I immediately felt that it was going to be something different, but also difficult. It took a lot of time to create those movements."

Juulia and Matthias have worked with Massimo Scali for years now, and their collaboration has been no doubt fruitful. "The first program fully choreographed by him was Mozart (free dance from the 2018/19 season). We went to Canton, Michigan, for a few summers, and that's where we met and worked with him for the first time. When we were starting, Massimo was working there with Marina Zueva."
"As a single skater, I was also going to Detroit, so I already saw and knew Massimo from there. But I never worked with him as a single skater," Matthias added.

Outside of figure skating, Juulia has studied economics and leadership at the University of Helsinki. However, she has currently paused her studies to focus entirely on her skating career. Matthias has transformed a hobby into a profession: he arranges and composes music. Among his works is, for example, an arrangement for Deniss Vasiljevs' "The Lion King" free skating last season. Matthias now has a home studio and has started his own small business. This is something he definitely sees himself doing after retirement: "Hopefully, but probably as a part-time endeavor. I like to have different projects, so it might not be full-time, but it would be nice to continue with this."
Of course, he also arranges all the music for their own programs and even composed a percussion part for their free dance this season.

Since our conversation, Juulia and Matthias had a remarkable outing at the 2025 Europeans, where they achieved personal best scores in both segments, breaking the 200-point barrier for their total score. This was a goal they came close to reaching in 2023 when they won European bronze at home with a score of 198.21 points. And they finally accomplished it in Tallinn, although they missed the podium by just 0.33 points.

Interestingly, the last time the European Championships were held in Tallinn, during the pandemic in 2022, the couple was unable to participate because Juulia had caught a mild case of COVID-19 and continued testing positive even after her recovery. "It's wonderful that we have been able to get here and fight for medals. I didn't even watch it on TV in 2022 because I felt so miserable then," Juulia confessed.

Between the Europeans and Worlds, they also competed in the "Road to 26 Trophy," an Olympic test event in Milan, which they won.

One of their main goals, as they mentioned in Tallinn, is: "Just keep improving. We still have room to improve." We wish them luck in achieving that goal and look forward to enjoying their dances one last time.