Q&A: Sonja Hilmer
The do-it-all U.S. figure skater got off to a strong start to her season at the Cranberry Cup and teased more to come next season.
If there’s anyone in figure skating — possibly any sport — doing as much of her own work as Sonja Hilmer, I’ve yet to find them. Hilmer skates competitively, and does so very well, finishing in the top 10 at nationals last season. She choreographs her own programs. She designs and crafts her own costume dresses. She even cuts the music she skates to, and this year she went above and beyond by doing some recording for her short program (we’ll get to that).
With as busy as she is, she managed to find some time on Sunday after competing to talk with me about her performance in Boston, her goals for the rest of the season, and her artwork.
Q: Let's just start with Sunday’s skate. How do you feel it went with the free skate?
A: I feel really good about it. There's obviously some things that I want to work on, but it's really early in the season, and my first thing about the first skate is feeling like it felt good on the ice. If it felt awkward, then I get concerned. But it did not feel awkward at all.
Q: And the dress today, I wanted to talk about that. Take me through the design process of it.
A: YEAH, so it is based off a specific frame from “Arcane” when the anomaly explodes and it creates the shape of a butterfly, which is very, very poetic, symbolically, as far as transformation goes, and there's a lot of that in the show. So I really wanted it to be repainted to look like it was part of me and not just a dress that I was wearing.
So it's that specific frame that I not necessarily copied, but used to outline the colors.
Q: And how did that play into the choreography for the program?
A: OOH, that's a great question.
This program, for me is about telling my young self that my sacrifice was worth it. And embracing a metaphorical death and rebirth, much like a butterfly has in its lifetime. So that storyline very much resembles that design. Also it's a lot of different possibilities and timelines that they explore in the show, so for me, all the different colors showcase all of the possibilities of the world.
Q: Now, going back to Saturday, I wanted to ask specifically about the step sequence in your short program. That's what everyone was buzzing about. Where did you get the inspiration to come up with that and add the sounds of skates to the audio?
A: SO it started from a wonderful show performance by Kurt Browning, Paul Wylie and Scott Hamilton from back in the day, where they put microphones on their skates. I've used it as inspiration a couple times for American Ice Theater, but I really wanted to bring it to the competition setting. I played with a couple different varieties of how to do it and ultimately came up with [the idea to] record what I was doing and overlay it in the track, that was quiet behind me.
Q: And the dress yesterday, where did you come up with that that retro design?
A: IT’S very ‘50s inspired. The whole program is very ‘50s soundtrack. I wanted something that was a little bit cute, but also classy. I often feel that I incorporate different eras of skating into my style, so doing a little throwback was very meaningful.
Q: Now, overall, fourth place this weekend, how do you feel about the start of the season?
A: I feel great about it. I think this is one of my best international showings. And it's just the beginning. So I'm excited to see where it goes.
Q: First competition in the books, what are the goals for the rest of the season?
A: I think consistency is a really big goal. I want to feel methodical in my choreography. I do a lot of stuff in my programs and sometimes it gets to be a lot to manage, so I want, I want good pacing. And I have some new elements and some new jumps that I am working on technically that I haven't performed as much as others in competition. So that's my main growth area.
Q: In season, if there is such a thing, what is a typical day look like for you?
A: A typical day? Well, I coach as well. So I'll coach earlier in the morning and then have a couple hours to get over across town to Broadmoor, warmup, and then I have two or three sessions on ice, depending on the day, with an off-ice session of either weight training, plyometrics, or balance type stuff. Then recovery after.
Some days I go back to coaching for another couple hours and then I usually try to squeeze something, not skating related in, like a craft.
Q: Speaking of which, you design and craft your own dresses. You do your own choreography, and then obviously you go out on skate. Is there a part of the process that is most fun to you or is it all, all that equal?
A: I think probably new programs and choreographing that and coming up with the ideas. And sometimes even cutting the music is very satisfying when you can just hear that the vision you have is going to come together with the soundtrack that you just worked on. So, yeah, I would say that probably.
Q: On the ISU website, they've got hobbies listed for every skater. One of yours is listed as ‘multimedia artist,’ which I feel undersells you as an artist.
A: IT’S the easiest way to say it.
Q: True, but I wanted to ask specifically, I think you'll understand why, about one specific piece, the Legacy on Ice poster. What did it mean to you to create that?
[Full disclosure: I have Sonja’s original artwork for that piece hanging up in my house.]
A: IT meant everything. It meant everything, because I wasn't able to go to the show, especially. A lot of thought went behind that one, and I actually just worked on another piece for USFS. I don't know what they're doing with it yet, so I'm not gonna say anything on it. And being able to work directly with our organization on something like this was amazing, and the feedback I got from it and being able to create something to stick with people. It just it really meant a lot.
Q: How would you describe the feeling when you're creating a piece of physical art versus when you're creating art on the ice?
A: HMM. It's not too different. A lot of it's just, like, very spiritually driven, and, it's not very technical, I guess. There would be some times if I'm doing an artwork piece that ‘I have no idea how I'm going to do this.’ And then I just start and let it go and it always works out. And I try to have the same mentality in skating too, just trust, because I have the tools. So it'll happen.
Q: And if you're up for, want to do a little lightning round. Favorite move to perform on the ice.
A: That's not a lightning round question! Right now, I'm actually going to say the sit spin with the blade feature, because that's pretty new. And not too many people are doing it with the sit right now.
Q: Favorite dress you’ve worn in competition.
A: Might be my new long dress. But I also really like my Avatar dress.
Q: Favorite song you've skated to?
A: Okay, so my new short is probably becoming my favorite short, but it's so new. One of my favorites ever was, I was in juniorS, and this is one of the last programs I had choreographed for me by Rohene [Ward]. I skated to “The Rose” for my free program and that was like such a good program.
Q: Song you haven't skated to yet, but you love to someday.
A: Okay, well, because I already have ideas for next season. I won't give too much away. I have a soundtrack that I have skated to a long time ago that I think I want to bring back. And then I think that, like an AC/DC short program would be really fun.
Q: Favorite figure skating movie.
A: Movies? Oh, I was gonna say “Blades of Glory,” but I think “I, Tonya” was really well done.
Q: There are six types of jumps in figure skating: loop, toe loop, flip, lutz, salchow and axel. Which one is your most hated?
A: Toe loop. Which is becoming, like, less so, but I've just never liked toe loop.
Q: And last but not least, one piece of advice you would give to anyone starting out in skating.
A: Starting out? Remember to breathe? I think, starting out, there's so many different ways you can start out in skating I mean. I've got little ones in aspire and you have adults and everyone progresses at a different rate, but I think if you breathe and take time to be grateful for what you've got going on right now, you always have something to look forward to.
Hilmer’s 2025-26 Challenger Series season will continue next month at the Kinoshita Group Cup in Osaka, Japan. You can keep up with her skating on Instagram and support her on ko-fi.
Wow that Legacy on Ice poster is beautiful. Thanks for the interview