World champion Jeffrey Buttle will not be at the Canadian figure skating championships next month in Saskatoon. He'll be in Japan, skating on a Stars on Ice tour.
But he will be in Saskatoon is spirit, through Fedor Andreev, who will try to win one of the spots open for men to get to the world championships in Los Angeles in March. And that's because Andreev will skate two programs choreographed by Buttle, who retired from competitive skating in September.
Last Sunday, Andreev won the senior men's qualifying event for the Canadian championships, skating with Buttle programs.
Could this be the start of a new career for Buttle?
Buttle, who watched his programs for the first time on Sunday at the qualifying event, said although he's done "pretty programs for pretty girls" in the past, he's never done any for a senior skater like Andreev.
"It was a great opportunity for me to work with somebody who is really strong and masculine," he said.
The Russian-born Andreev, whose mother is famous choreographer Marina Zoueva, was a Canadian junior champion in 1999, then won a bronze medal at the senior level in 2003 in Saskatoon. He quit skating with back problems after the 2005 season, but returned last season to win the qualifying event. He was eighth at the national championships last year, which meant he had to qualify again for them this year.
Last year, he returned for the love of skating. This year, Andreev says he's more competition-minded. He wants to win something this time. And this time, he turned to Buttle because "I just felt I could use Jeff's talent and creativity.'' He's now also working with Brian Orser as a coach at times, and said his skating has improved tremendously. He says he feels more solid on the ice.
Buttle picked out the music for Andreev's short program, while Andreev's mother helped him pick the first violin concerto from Tchaikovsky for his long program. A little known fact about Andreev: he played the violin for 10 years and used to be part of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra.
The short program is to Jimi Hendrix music.
"Fedor is a real good looking guy and I wanted to give him something sexy, even a bit subtle," Buttle said. "He doesn't really need to do much to be sexy on the ice [he's a former Calvin Klein model] It's just something I know he's never done before and something I think he could have a lot of fun with.''
Of the long program, Buttle said it's a tough test for Andreev, because the 26-year-old skater doesn't get a break for the first three minutes.
"It's hard to stay focused that long," Buttle said. "But it makes that middle section, the spiral section, so effective and I'm really happy about it. I can definitely see the potential there.''
Andreev says he doesn't know which program he likes best.
"It's just so much fun working with Fedor," Buttle said. "He listens whole-heartedly and is so diligent. He's a perfectionist like me. I can relate to him when I want him to do something and he wants to get it right away. I think it's a new process for him to learn that it's not going to come right away.''
Buttle said he had to design the programs in haste at the end of October, because Andreev realized he had to qualify at a sectional competition the following week in order to get to last weekend's final qualifying event in Mississsauga.
"In a couple of days, I cranked out both programs as soon as we could, because he needed them ASAP," Buttle said. "He had sectionals in about a week. I don't know how he did it. I could never have done that. Considering how long he's had them, they look great.''
Buttle says he's also done choreography for a couple of senior women, and also worked on Kim Yu-Na's short program several years ago when she was still a junior skater. Now she's a world bronze medallist and a medal favourite for the Vancouver Olympics.
"Yu-Na could go out there and make up a program on the spot and it would look beautiful because she's such a great skater," Buttle said.
Buttle retired without unleashing his new competitive routines, which may be the best of his career, but there will be plenty of chances to see them on the Stars on Ice tour. He said he performed his long program under low-light conditions at the opening Stars on Ice show at Lake Placid, N.Y. recently. And they'll be on the program in Japan, as well as the Stars on Ice Tour across the United States and Canada next year.
He says he's been busy in recent months, but is on a break until January when the Stars on Ice tour starts up in earnest.