Salomé Brunner – Queen of grace
Text
by Magdalena
Osborne
Photos © EMJO
Millions saw her in the Kiss and
Cry on their TV screens, as the winning score for Stéphane
Lambiel unfolded after his freeskate. He was then crowned
the men’s World Champion in Moscow, surrounded
and supported by his coach, Peter Grütter, and
his long time friend and mentor, choreographer Salomé
Brunner. Never boisterous or flamboyant, but rather
a silent but solid support, she prefers to stay in the
background, out of the limelight. She doesn’t
give a shy impression, but one of deep humility, natural
grace and kindness. |
 |
“I was born in Zürich, Switzerland. I’m the youngest of 3 girls, and my Mother brought all of us to the rink. I liked it right away so much I wanted to skate several times a day! I started as a single, but soon I pair skated as well. We became the Swiss novice champions, which wasn’t so difficult (since there wasn’t much competition). I also made Swiss junior champion as a single, and I skated singles and pairs at the same time for a few years; I even competed as both in some competitions. In 1970 I started ballet dancing, and through the dancing I realized that I liked ice dance better than pairs, so eventually I switched. I was too tall for my pair’s partner anyway, he couldn’t lift me well. We tried to make him stronger, but it wasn’t working, so the last 5 years of my eligible career, I was an ice dancer. I went to Worlds in Ottawa with my ice-dance partner Markus Merz in 1984.”But skating wasn’t the only thing that kept her busy. In 1981 she enrolled in a professional dance education in Zürich. It had a classical base, but she also learned other styles like modern dance, flamenco, jazz and tap.
“I danced during the day and skated in the evenings,
it was a physically demanding time. I wanted so much to dance,
but back then a professional career in dancing wasn’t
the thing to do. Since I was 15, all I wanted to do was dance
and skate, it was my only interest. The school had its own
dance company, like a dance theatre, and I was in it. We performed
on stage, and we went on tour for 6 months. That’s when
I got the offer to skate in the Torvill and Dean tour, which
was a little bit like Stars on Ice, and we toured big parts
of the world. I was on the tour for two years with people
like Lea-Anne Miller, Kelly Johnson, who is now a choreographer
in Toronto, and John Thomas, they were a Canadian dance team.
We had dance and jazz choreographers, and it was such a wonderful
experience. But then Christopher Dean broke his hand, and
the tour was put on hold. We were told it would continue,
but that didn’t work out. Some of the cast were experienced
enough in show life to look for other skating possibilities,
and some of us were inexperienced, like me, and we waited.
I waited a long time, and then I could join the Holiday on
Ice Company. Some of the others had joined too as we all felt
we were not done with our skating yet. I enjoyed the Holiday
on Ice tour, it was also a great experience and we traveled
all over. I went to Sweden and to the Globen arena in Stockholm
when it was still very new. It’s still an impressive
arena. It was a great time, but it would still be a while
before I started choreographing.
When we were on tour we went to see many performances in our time off, and I had the opportunity to dance in many dance schools. I had a chance to see a lot since we were traveling all the time. We also had a dance class every day, either at a school or in a hotel convention room. During the last year of the tour, I met my husband in Mexico City. After the tour ended that year, I didn’t go back to it, and my husband moved to Zürich. Our son, who is 5 years old, skates too, but he’s not sure whether he wants to be a hockey player, a figure skater or a musician, like his father.” |
 |
When I met with Salomé she was on a short visit in
Malmö, Sweden, to work with Lina
Johansson. (At one time Salomé and Ela
Magnusson, Lina’s coach, were in the Holiday
on Ice Company together.) She’d come alone thought,
without her son, and when I asked her about him, she smiled.
“Sometimes when I travel he comes too, like usually
to Sweden, just not this time. But for the summer training
with Stéphane, he is there with me. And when it’s
not working out, family and friends will take care of him.
But maybe now if he gets more serious about skating, it’ll
be easier to have him along. He will be getting some lessons
from Peter this summer.”
It was truly inspiring to watch Salomé working with Lina. She not only explained the moves, but actually showed them on the ice, and it was done with such grace, Lina confessed it made her feel clumsy. Not that I agreed with her, Lina couldn’t be clumsy if she tried, but most people would look and feel that way next to Salomé. |
 |
Time flew and in less than 2 hours, the first minute of Lina’s
new free program was put together. They continued after our
interview, and when Salomé left the next day, the whole
program was outlined and Lina could start practicing it on
her own. Salomé explained that she likes to visit her
skaters if possible.
“When I start putting the program together, I like to
have both the skater and the music on the ice, because then
the music sounds different to me than when I’m at home
listening to it. I usually get the music already cut, but
Lina had sent me the whole 6 minutes with some ideas for the
jumps and the spiral sequence. I wasn’t so thrilled
about the music at first, but that happens a lot. Many times
my idea of music for a skater is different than theirs, but
what the skater wants is important. You can’t really
oppose the music choice of a skater, because even when they
are only 15 – 16 years old, they have many feelings
connected to the music. The most important thing to me is
that the skater loves the music, because then they can really
do something with it. But there are times when the coach will
say that this is not working, and then maybe we’ll change
the music, but usually we can find a way to make it work.
There’s a solution to most things!
 |
For Lina I have this vision to do something cute, funny and a little bit chic. That’s what I see for her right now. We did a show program last year and she picked up on that style very easily and I liked it for her. (The program was set to Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ.) Now she sent me 2 serious programs, and we’ll see if she’ll like my suggestion to have one serious and one funny program.” |
When asked about preparing programs at home, Salomé
cringed a little.
“I actually don’t prepare much at home…
Whenever I try, it ends up getting changed anyway, and that
takes the motivation away. I can have a feeling about the
music, and sometimes there will be a part that requires a
particular move or step, and that I prepare, but that usually
comes later in the work. Then there are parts of the music
where no one has any idea of what to do with that moment,
and then I need preparation too. It’s all a chemical
thing between the skater, the choreographer and the music.”
The chemistry part was easy to pick up on, as was Salomé’s
ability to emphasize Lina’s skating strengths.
  |
|
"This is now the third year we work together. We had a try-out year where I only decorated the programs she already had; she did very well that season. I think this past season was difficult for her, it was the first time she skated as a senior only, she had the injury, and big competition from other skaters. She’s also maturing and her body’s changing. But she’s very young and still has a lot of time and I believe she can go as far as she likes!”
'Cutting the music and listening to the result'
Creating a new program is certainly a lot of hard work for
everyone involved. Many skating fans probably don’t
realize just how much goes into the programs they get to enjoy.
“It takes about 8 - 10 hours to make a 4 minute draft.
Sometimes programs change in the process, but not so much
with Lina. She takes everything very seriously and wants to
be able to do all the steps the way we constructed them. Stéphane
is the same way. He never wants to change his programs; he
wants to practice them so much that he can do them the way
we planned. But there are a lot of skaters who try to adapt
the program so it’s technically easier for them. Stéphane
told me once 'I can only get better if I do things that are
hard for me'. That’s one way of looking at it…”
