EVA PAWLIK UND RUDI SEELIGER
EVA PAWLIK AND RUDI SEELIGER

Though they did not have the opportunity to be internationally successful in the amateur rinks (due to WW II) as pairs skaters, the Olympic runner-up Eva Pawlik and the Austrian pairs Champion Rudi Seeliger went on to start an outstanding career as professional pairs skaters in the Vienna Ice Revue and in the Scala Ice Revue. Olympic Champion Ernst Baier even considered them the best couple in the entire ice show business in the 1950s. 

On the one hand their strength lay in the elegant and synchronal Viennese Waltz, on the other hand they thrilled audiences all over Europe including Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the USSR, Italy and also North Africa (Algier and Oran) with lots of acrobatics.

As Susan D. Russell (International Figure Skating Magazine, 2009) took it, Eva Pawlik´s and Rudi Seeliger´s triumphs over adversity made them true champions. In Kelli Lawrence´s opinion ("Skating On Air", 2011) we shall never know what would have happened if Eva Pawlik had accepted Gene Kelly´s offer to work on an MGM film with him. "But by staying in Europe and bringing her skill, artistry and heart to audiences for over a decade, she found her partner (both in skating and for life) in Seeliger, and together they did something arguably just as important."

"Im weiteren Verlauf des Programms bezaubert Eva Pawlik immer wieder, allein und mit ihrem Partner Rudi Seeliger, dessen reifes Können sich mit dem ihren harmonisch paart. Die schönste Nummer des Programms Der große Walzer von Johann Strauß und die Fantasie Nymphe und Faun zeigen, dass beide sowohl den klassischen Stil als auch den modernen Eiskunsttanz beherrschen." (Göttinger Tageblatt, 16. August 1956)
"During the program Eva Pawlik enchanted the audience again and again, as a single skater and with her partner Rudi Seeliger, whose profound skills go well together with Eva´s abilities. The most beautiful vaudeville number The Great Waltz by Johann Strauß and the fantasy Faun and Nymph demonstrate that the couple is well versed both in the classic style and in modern figure skating." (Göttinger Tageblatt, August 16th, 1956)


Poster announcing the Scala Eisrevue in 1956

"Unzweifelhafter Höhepunkt des Programms war der Faun und Nymphe-Tanz Eva Pawliks und Rudi Seeligers. Akrobatischer Tanz auf dem Eis kann wohl kaum spielerischer, eleganter und ästhetischer dargeboten werden." (Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, 27. Dezember 1956)
"Undoubtedly the program´s culmination was Eva Pawlik´s and Rudi Seeliger´s dance Faun and Nymph. An acrobatic dance can hardly be presented in a more effortless, elegant and esthetic way." (Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, December 27th, 1956)

"Dr. Eva Pawlik und Rudi Seeliger, die Stars der Scala-Eisrevue verabschieden sich am Sonntag in Hannover von deutschen Publikum, um in den USA in einer Fernsehproduktion aufzutreten. Im März werden sich die Eisstars den Berlinern präsentieren." (Norddeutsche Zeitung, 28. Dezember 1956)
 "Dr. Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger, the stars of the Scala Ice Revue, are saying good-bye to the German audience in Hannover on Sunday in order to perform in a television production in the United States. In March, the figure skating stars will present themselves to the audience in Berlin." (Norddeutsche Zeitung, December 28th, 1956)


Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger practicing in Arosa (1956/57)


"Pawlik/Seeliger nicht zu schlagen: Star der Scala-Eisrevue, und nicht nur auf dem Papier, war die beifallumrauschte junge Doktorin Eva Pawlik, die Olympiazweite. Was sie allein oder mit Partner Rudi Seeliger bot, war ganz erstklassig. Beispielsweise im Kaiserwalzer oder, als Höhepunkt, in der romantischen Fantasie. Das charmante Paar heimste den weitaus größten Beifall durchaus verdient ein." (Westfälische Rundschau, 4. November 1957)
"Pawlik/Seeliger cannot be beaten. The revue´s star (not only on paper) was the acclaimed young lady doctor Eva Pawlik, the Olympic runner-up. What she offered to the audience, alone or together with her partner Rudi Seeliger, was a number one hit. In the Emperor´s Waltz or in the program´s culmination, the romantic fantasy Faun and Nymph. The charming couple got by far the greatest applause - and they were deserving it." (Westfälische Rundschau, November 4th, 1957)

 

"Bei der Wiener Eisrevue hatte es das Paar (Pawlik/Seeliger) geschafft, zu einem der weltbesten Profipaare der 1950er Jahre zu werden und sich als Paarläufer jenen internationalen Namen zu machen, der ihnen als Amateuren durch die widrigen Umstände des Krieges verwehrt geblieben war." (Isabella Lechner, Die Wiener Eisrevue, Diplomarbeit an der Universität Wien, Seite 60. Wien 2008).
 "In the Vienna Ice Revue the couple (Pawlik/Seeliger) became one of the world´s best professional couples on the ice in the 1950s. According to the circumstances of World War II they had not had the opportunity to be internationally successful as amateurs in pair skating. However, they made an international name for themselves as professional pairs skaters ." (Isabella Lechner, Die Wiener Eisrevue/The Vienna Ice Revue, Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, page 60, Vienna 2008).


Olympic pair skating Champion Ernst Baier about Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger:
Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger are currently the best couple in the entire ice show business.
They don´t pretend anything. They are just able to do it.
(Source: Lübecker Nachrichten/Germany, July 20th, 1956)

Eva Pawlik/Rudi Seeliger: The Pair of Champions

 



Eva Pawlik und Rudi Seeliger mit der jungen Marika Kilius
Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger with young Marika Kilius
 
 
 
 
To learn more about Eva Pawlik´s and Rudi Seeliger´s professional career, please click here: Profikarriere - professional career or read an artricle about them from the International Figure Skating Magazine (issue Jan/Feb 2009): International Figure Skating Magazine about Pawlik and Seeliger (4 pages) 
 

Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger starring in the Vienna Ice Revue
 
 

Eva Pawlik, composer Robert Stolz, Rudi Seeliger
 
 
 
 

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