Technically, the sport of ice dance  is defined by elements like twizzles, lifts, and footwork levels. But ice dancers pay equal attention to creating a mood and image that audiences will remember, and judges will reward. After seven years together, French ice dance champions Evgenia Lopareva and Geoffery Brissaud are still exploring different styles, but starting to find their own unique voice on the ice. 

Lopareva, 25, and Brissaud, 27, teamed up in 2018 and soon earned the respect of international judges by combining an eclectic approach to artistry with smooth skating and solid technical skills. Last season, things clicked into a higher gear creatively when Lopareva and Brissaud skated both of their programs to modern electronica/techno music. This style was an excellent fit with their natural speed and precision, and audiences and judges approved. The French duo enjoyed a breakthrough year, earning their first Grand Prix victory at Grand Prix de France, qualifying for the Grand Prix Final, and winning a silver medal at the European Championships. Lopareva and Brissaud then finished 8th at the World Championships for the second year in a row.

This season, Lopareva and Brissaud are continuing their exploration of modern, electronic-influenced music. Their 90s rhythm dance is set to songs by Daft Punk and Eiffel 65, and their free dance music is from avant-garde Icelandic artist Bjork. Lopareva and Brissaud just debuted both programs at this week’s Masters du Patinage event, where French figure skaters typically open their season. 

At Masters, Lopareva and Brissaud competed for the first time against the new (and much-discussed) French team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. Lopareva and Brissaud grew up watching Cizeron achieve legendary status in the sport with his former partner, Gabriella Papadakis. When Papadakis and Cizeron stepped away from competition after winning the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Lopareva and Brissaud turned to him for choreography. Cizeron created all their programs between 2022-25, a time period when they became France’s top team. Now, ironically, Cizeron looks to wrest that crown back.  

Last season, Lopareva and Brissaud split their training time between the Ice Academy of Montreal (I.AM), where they worked with Romain Haguenauer and other coaches, and their former rink in Lyons, France, where they collaborated with coach Roxane Petetin. The couple has since parted ways with Petetin. At the World Championships in March, we spoke with Lopareva and Brissaud about their career, the challenges of training on two continents, their favorite programs, how Cizeron’s comeback affects them, and more. 

How it all started

Q:  Let’s talk about your background and how you teamed up. Evgenia, you’re originally from Moscow, Russia. And Geoffrey, you’re from Lyons, France. So how did you–as a Russian and a French ice dancer, respectively–team up? 

Lopareva:  We met each other on Ice Partner Search, the web site for partners. I went to France to try out with him, and it worked out pretty well. 

Q:  At your tryout, what made you feel that you would be good partners?

Lopareva:  The lines were good.

Brissaud:  Yes. So much was good–the lines, our ages, the style that we wanted, and what we needed to improve. We both still had one season [left] in juniors, and it’s of course good that we had the opportunity to do one year as juniors. 

Lopareva:  Physically, it worked out pretty well. Also, Geoffrey had the same goals as me. That was one of the most important things for me when I was searching for a partner. So it was a match. 

Q:  What were your goals? 

Lopareva:  To go together to a high level. To the highest place we can in figure skating.

Q:  Wouldn’t that apply to almost any top-level skater?

Lopareva:  No. Because, when I was looking, some guys were like: ‘Well, yeah, I will try. But I’m not sure if I want to really go maximum into the sports career. Maybe in a few years, I’m going to start [skating] in shows.’ This was really unserious. I wanted to do, like, a serious career. Not just skate for a few seasons and finish up. 

Q:  How did your personalities match up? Do you get along well, and do you have similar interests?

Lopareva:  Hmm, that’s a hard question. I think Geoffrey and I have pretty different personalities. He’s a little bit more calm than me, in general. Me, sometimes, my focus is everywhere. It was difficult in the beginning–because, besides having different personalities, we also spoke different languages. So it was hard to understand each other. With time, we started to speak better and to know each other’s nuances. It’s a work that has built up during our career, all these years. Now, I think we’ve found the most efficient and productive way that we can work with each other.

Q:  Did you initially speak English with each other? 

Lopareva:  Yes, in the beginning, I was speaking English, and it was very bad English, because I didn’t really practice it in Moscow. Then it became better, and then I learned French. Now, we speak mostly French.

Q:  When you teamed up, you first trained in Russia, correct?

Lopareva:  Yes. Geoffrey came to Moscow to work with my coach. We worked there for a few seasons. Then, when covid-19 happened, Geoffrey couldn’t come to Moscow, because of all the restrictions. But, as a French athlete, I could get permission to come into France. So, for the first time, we moved to France and started to work in Lyons.

Training on two continents

Q:  Then you moved to I.AM in 2022, but continued to work also with Roxane Petetin in Lyons. What was your arrangement between I.AM and Lyons? (Note: In the months since this interview, Lopareva and Brissaud parted ways with Petetin.)

Lopareva:  It depends on the season, on which competitions we do. For example, this [past] season, we had summer preparation in Montreal, and we did Masters de Patinage and Shanghai Trophy. Then we went back to Montreal for a few weeks. We had Skate Canada, so it was a smart thing to do–no jet lag. After that, we had the Grand Prix de France, and we stayed in France, because we had two Challengers in Europe, and then [French] Nationals and the European Championships. So it was smarter to stay in Europe and work with Roxane. Afterward, we went back to Montreal to prepare for Worlds, which was also comfortable, because there’s no time difference [between Montreal and Boston]. That’s how did it. 

Brissaud:  At the beginning of the season, we tried to see which competitions we needed to do, and to figure out how we would manage between Montreal and France. It’s work, but we know how we can manage everything.

Q:  How did it work logistically? Do you have apartments in both places?

Lopareva:  I used to have an apartment in Lyons. But now, since we overall spend more time in Montreal, I have an apartment there. And I’m just booking some AirBnBs [when in France]. It depends on when, and for how long, we come.

Q:  Geoffrey, do you also have an apartment in Montreal?

Brissaud:  I like to loan [borrow] some apartment in Montreal, when I’m here. In France, I have some family and friends to stay with, so it’s easier for me.

Q:  What was your goal when you first came to I.AM?

Lopareva:  Well, of course, we wanted to be better. I.AM is a pretty big school; there’s a lot of champions that came from there. We wanted to try it out. When we started to work with them, it was the season that Guillaume [Cizeron] choreographed our free dance for the first time [2022-23]. In the beginning, it was short stages, to go and work with him on the choreography. Eventually, we decided to stay for longer than a few months, because we liked how it was there.

Relationship with Cizeron

Q:  Cizeron has choreographed quite a few programs for you. How did that relationship develop, and how did you like working with him?

Lopareva:  It worked well. We liked our free dances. And this season, it worked really well. This idea [modern electronica]–everybody liked it. So, nothing much to say. It was a good collaboration. But now, as you know, he’s coming back as an athlete. So of course, we’ll look for someone else to build a free dance. Because he’s going to be focused on himself, and we’re going to be focused on ourselves. We have our careers. 

Q:  Did you know he was coming back? Was it a surprise when you heard that? 

Lopareva:  Well, we did see them practice. So we were thinking it might come to that. It wasn’t a big surprise, really. We were seeing the process of everything coming to this point.

Q:  Would you say you are friends with him, as well as colleagues?

Lopareva:  Yes, well, colleagues.

Brissaud:  Colleagues. 

Q:  What does his comeback mean for you? You’ve been the #1 French team since he and Gabriella stepped away. 

Lopareva:  We’re going to see how it turns out. We know our work. His comeback doesn’t change anything about what we need to work on, and what we’re going to work on. It doesn’t change our goals. We’re going to keep going where we want to go.

Q:  The French federation definitely welcomed Cizeron’s comeback with open arms and a glowing press release. What was your reaction to this? Do you still feel supported by the French federation? 

Brissaud:  Of course, the federation supports us. We continue our career, and we achieve a good resume. So they are not like, ‘Okay, we’re cutting you off.’ I think it’s normal; it’s the Olympic champion coming back. So for sure, the whole federation can just be happy about this. We’re like–it’s fine, it’s okay. No big deal. We know what we need to do.

Q:  This past season, you had so much success–making the Grand Prix Final and winning the silver at Europeans. And your programs were very well received. Maybe the result at Worlds wasn’t quite as high as you might have hoped. Looking at the season overall, are you happy with it?

Lopareva:  It was a great season. We did a lot of important steps in our career, I believe, in this season. Yes, as you say, maybe we did some mistakes at Worlds. But I don’t think it’s a critical mistake for us. Yes, it wasn’t as clean, but things happen. That’s all right. I think it was an important experience for us to learn how to manage our stress.

Brissaud:  People say they are not even stressed when they look at us, because we are a stable team. They’re like, ‘Okay, they’ll do it.’ But sometimes we need to learn how mistakes happen, and how we come back. For example, yesterday, after the short [rhythm dance], we were stressed. We didn’t know how to react and go into the free [dance] well and push ourselves. We fought through this, and yesterday, we had a super-good free dance. We needed to learn how we will be, when we are not in a good position. It’s a good experience. Better here than at the Olympics, or when we’re trying to get a medal. We need to learn. We are a young team.

Their favorite programs

Q:  You’ve done a lot of interesting programs in your career. How do you see your character, as a team, on the ice? What’s your style? 

Lopareva:  It’s hard to choose one particular style for us. I think we keep exploring. Pretty much every season, we’re trying to find something that really suits us. Each time, it’s an exploration. We never know. We wouldn’t have expected to skate techno this season, [based on] the season before. 

Brissaud:  Like artists and actors, I think we need to do everything that we can, try everything, and see what works. Maybe tomorrow, we will skate a tango. Next day, we skate techno. 

Q:  What are some things that you want to work on or improve for the upcoming season?

Lopareva:  Everything. There’s always room to improve, emotionally and technically. For example, our rhythm dance [this season] wasn’t [scored] well technically, in general. The free dance was [scored] technically well, but the second mark [PCS] wasn’t really high. 

Brissaud:  Maybe we need to find the balance–between too-good technique, but maybe the skating is less good. Like in the rhythm dance [this season], we had some technique issues. I missed the lift in the short [rhythm dance] here at Worlds. We got some Level 2 step [technical calls], and we couldn’t get Level 3. We want to get Level 3, and we’ve had it in the past. Maybe just in this competition, we were not focusing enough on technical. We were more focused on the free [dance], less focused on the short. It’s a balance. You have to be adaptive, you need to focus on both technique and skating.

Q:  Is there a favorite program of yours that you’ve done?

Lopareva:  My favorite was the Edith Piaf free dance [2022-23]. I really liked it, and I really wanted this program. I was so glad we did it, and I still love it with all my heart.

Q:  What did you like about it?

Lopareva:  I think it’s just Piaf. She was such a bright personality, such a strong woman. I watched the movie [La Vie en Rose] I don’t know how many times, when we were skating the program. I read her book; it was so interesting for me. And the music is so beautiful and powerful.

Q:  And you, Geoffrey?

Brissaud:  I really liked our 80s rhythm dance to Mylene Farmer [2023-24]. In the beginning, when the music was proposed, I said, ‘No, it does not work for me. I don’t really like this song.’ When we start to build the story, I’m like, ‘It’s cool now, it’s working.’ And by the end of the season, I really liked this program. I would say it is one of my favorites, for sure.

Q:  Evgenia, you mentioned Piaf’s big personality. Is it appealing to you to present a strong female character on the ice?

Lopareva:  Not especially. I like this program, but it’s not the only thing I enjoy doing. I think we’re a many-sided couple, as you can see throughout the seasons. We did Piaf, we did classical [Rachmaninov], this season we did techno. I enjoy all of it, because it’s a great creative process. It’s exploration. It’s very interesting. This season, it’s techno, and I love it. It’s very fun to skate, and [draws] such support from the public, because they right away got involved into the program. When they are clapping really hard, this is super-fun. 

Q:  Evgenia, will you go visit family in Russia during the off-season? How often do you get back to Russia at this point?

Lopareva:  This season, it’s going to be just one time, in May. Sometimes if I have a chance, I go for the New Year’s celebrations. This season, I didn’t have this opportunity, but my mom came to France. So that was nice.

Q:  Any difficulties traveling to and from Russia, with the war? 

Lopareva:  It’s expensive. And there’s no direct flights any more, apparently. So it’s a very long trip. But that’s okay. It’s possible, nothing is too complicated.

Q:  Is there anything else you’d like fans to know about you?

Brissaud:  We really feel their support this season. Our fan base rose super-fast this year, and it’s cool. We are so happy about this. It really gives us power.