maya_alex

Face the music and smile
"We've been told we're the first team to medal in both Grand Prixes their first year senior," Alex told us.

"We're excited to be the first alternates for the Final," added Maia. "It was a cool experience to skate in two Grand Prix events. We were honored to have the opportunity and we really enjoyed skating with Meryl [Davis] and Charlie [White]."

"Traveling with Meryl and Charlie added some familiarity to an unfamiliar situation," Alex went on. "Everyone took things more seriously [than on the Junior Grand Prix], but we had fun. We were so well received the last time we went to Japan, and obviously Skate America is just like nationals, so we knew we would be getting lots of support. We feel really blessed and happy that we medaled at our first two Grand Prixes."

Maia and Alex told us that they didn't have time to do any sightseeing in Japan this time.

"I saw the back of some very interesting bus seats," Alex laughed. "On the last night we went out with some pair skaters and sang some karaoke. Ross [Miner] and John Coughlin definitely got into it!"

Maia shed some light on why she may have had singing on the brain. "I roomed with Ashley Wagner," she said, "And we watched all of Season 1 of Glee. We did belt out some Journey."

We brought up the unfortunate moment when Alex's blade got caught in the hem of Maia's skirt, during the short dance at NHK. What did he think as he fell?

"An expletive," joked Alex. "When your face is two inches from the ice one second after you were upright, it's pretty shocking. Luckily we were able to recover fast enough to get back on our music."

"It was like, 'Oh no!'" said Maia. "We've trained in that skirt multiple times, it was just kind of like, 'Oh man.' We're lucky that the skirt piece didn't fall off!"

We told the siblings how much we love their free dance this season. Will they be making any adjustments to either program for U.S. championships?

"We're so happy with the success we've had so far, and it surpasses anything we could have planned, but we're going to make small adjustments to both programs to add some speed and power," said Alex. "In the short dance, we'll be taking a look at the Golden Waltz section to try and make some improvements there. Other than that, just some good old-fashioned Marina Zoueva-style training!"

"Marina [Zoueva] did such a great job with our free dance and we're so grateful," said Maia. "We picked the music, and we really connected with it this year. We never get sick of it -- we can train it at 6 a.m. and still be happy! I guess it's kind of corny, but we've been telling ourselves all season to smile and face the music and dance."

Кратенько. Майя и Алекс первая пара, которая смогла стать призерами на каждом эиапе Гран-при во взрослом сезоне. Они остались очень довольны стартами, став первой парой на замену на финила ГП.В Японии было мало свободного времени. Алекс ходил петь в караоке-бар, а Маяй смотрела сериал "Глее". Конечно их очень расстроила история с юбкой. На треировках такого не происходило и они были уверены в том, что длина нормальная. Любят свои программы,  не устают катать их. Первая тренировка у них в 6.00. Вот так. ))