SPOILERS: Skate America exhibition, etc
loosemor...@bulldog.cs.yale.edu
OK, last report from Skate America....
Contrary to what some people were thinking, there was no problem
getting in and out of town for the show. Bill Clinton isn't even
scheduled to be there until after 9pm, hardly a conflict with an early
afternoon show. They did have the street in front of the arena
blocked off but the parking garage was open and accessible from
the entrance on the other side.
And this exhibition was very, very short -- the show started at 1:30
and ended a few minutes after 3pm, and that included a 20 minute break
to make ice! Moreover, several of the skaters trotted out their short
programs instead of doing a genuine exhibition program. If I'd paid
$40 for a single-event ticket to this, I would've been pretty ticked
off. As it was I hardly felt it was worth the trouble of driving up
to Springfield and back.
Dan Hollander opened the show doing his janitor program. He was still
struggling with his jumps, but as usual the crowd loved it.
Jelena Sokolova was one of the skaters who did her short program,
complete with the triple lutz and an amazingly elaborate double axel
entered from a spiral and counter and executed with her arm over her
head. She seemed to be able to put more feeling into this program
than her long, I must say.
Lyons & Wells did something that was either the same "purple program"
they were doing last spring or something very much like it, but in
slightly different purple costumes this time. This is the one with
all of the adagio lifts. It was quite effective.
Punsalan & Swallow were introduced as "America's Skating Sweethearts".
I thought that was Meno & Sand? :-P The skated their French program
that they did on the TOC, and I thought it looked even better than
when I saw it last spring. They've obviously had a chance to fine-tune
it from touring with it all spring and summer.
Zaggy did his tango short program, hitting the triple axel but still
struggling with the lutz. I really like this program, though. It's
everything that Scott Davis's tango program from last year was trying
to be but wasn't.
Moniotte & Lavanchy came out dressed, for once, in simple, tasteful
costumes in plain black, and skated a program to "Schindler's List".
Their big trick in this was an adagio lift where Sophie is upside-down.
It was quite effective, as was the program as a whole.
Alexei Yagudin's exhibition program is the one that made the show
worthwhile for me, because you had to be there -- I don't think words
are adequate to describe it. He was wearing black leggings, a grass
skirt and tiara, and had "war paint" on his face and bare chest. He
was also carrying some ears of dried corn that he tossed into the
stands at the beginning of his program. No, I am NOT making this up!
The skating was pretty lightweight; lots of wiggling his tush to funky
music, made all the more emphatic by the grass skirt, of course. And
all the time, he was dripping pieces of his skirt and husks from the
corn all over the ice. They sent some of the flower girls around after
he was done to pick up after him, but I wouldn't have been surprised
if they'd missed some pieces.
"The very lovely Sydne Vogel" (as opposed to "the very athletic Sydne
Vogel" or "Sydne the damn good skater", grumble) skated next, to "Send
in the Clowns". Not a good program, jump-wise, as she overrotated the
triple toe and fell on the double axel. I wondered if Alexei's
costume leftovers may have caused the problem on the axel, in
particular. Besides the lovely layback, she also has a very good
layover camel spin that she included in this program.
Lobatcheva & Averbukh closed out the first half of the show with an
exhibition program to "This Business of Love" (complete with Ilia in
a hat and a jacket in a bright shade of green, an obvious parody of
Viktor Petrenko's use of this same music), and modified version of
the last section of their free dance. One thing I noticed was that
when they did their free dance (in fact, when *all* of the couples did
their dances) they aimed everything right at the judges and those of
us sitting on the opposite side of the rink mostly just got to see their
backs, but part of their modifications for doing it as a show piece
included repositioning themselves during some of the elements to face
in different directions so everyone could see them better. Smart move.
After the intermission, Alexei Urmanov skated his Beatles program from
the TOC. I thought he kind of got screwed by being assigned to skate
right after the break because many people were still out their seats
and they didn't make any kind of preliminary announcement to warn
people that the intermission was over and they were about to start.
Anyway, Alexei did a good job, landing a triple salchow, flip, and toe
loop.
Stiegler & Zimmerman skated to some hard rock music, dressed in white
T-shirts and black pants (tight black shorts for her). Technically,
the highlight was a huge throw which Stephanie had to two-foot a little
in order to hang on to. There was a lot of jiggling and wiggling in
this number.
Tonia Kwiatkowski came out in a 2-piece black costume with a halter top
and fringy skirt, and skated another program to rock music with lots
of jiggling and wiggling.
Kazakova & Dmitriev skated their "Zarathustra" program that we'd seen
at last year's Europeans gala. They certainly seemed much more
comfortable with this program than with either of their competition
programs, and that adagio lift at the end was really effective.
Michelle Kwan skated the "Winter" program that she had been doing on
tour in Canada earlier this fall. A typical clean program from her,
including a triple lutz.
Krylova & Ovsiannikov skated their tango again for their exhibition.
This time she did not fall.
Finally, Todd Eldredge came out and did "This is the Moment" again.
It was a powerful performance, including a triple axel! He got a
well-deserved standing ovation. As I said, I really think that Todd
is finally starting to get a handle on the artistic side of his
skating.
And that was the show. There was basically no closing number, the
skaters just came out one by one and were re-introduced as they did a
trick, and it was all over. As I said, it was very short. I thought
they might at least have gotten the Haydenettes back to give an
exhibition or something like that to fill it out. I also thought they
could've asked a few more non-medalists, notably Eric Millot and
Takeshi Honda, to participate.
I also have a couple of notes I forgot to include in the report on
Saturday's doings that I posted this morning.
First of all, about Michelle Kwan. It's clear to me that Frank
Carroll & co have taken the approach that you don't mess with success.
Both her short and long programs are obviously derivative of last
year's versions, in terms of both structure and theme. The main
difference I see is that last year's programs seemed to me to be
play-acting grown-up, while this year Michelle seems to be bringing a
genuine maturity and depth to her skating that I did not see a year
ago. This is good, but looking ahead to next year I think she's going
to have to take a bigger risk and do something a little different if
she wants to keep things fresh.
My second note is a more frivolous one. I've added Jeffrey Langdon to
my list of Rotationally Challenged Boys With Nice Camel Spins. :-)
-Sandra
Louis Epstein
loosemor...@bulldog.cs.yale.edu wrote:
:
: Alexei Yagudin's exhibition program is the one that made the show
: worthwhile for me, because you had to be there -- I don't think words
: are adequate to describe it. He was wearing black leggings, a grass
: skirt and tiara, and had "war paint" on his face and bare chest. He
: was also carrying some ears of dried corn that he tossed into the
: stands at the beginning of his program. No, I am NOT making this up!
: The skating was pretty lightweight; lots of wiggling his tush to funky
: music, made all the more emphatic by the grass skirt, of course. And
: all the time, he was dripping pieces of his skirt and husks from the
: corn all over the ice.
So early in his career to be doing something so weird?
I'm disappointed.
Nijinska
In article <199611032047...@babyblue.cs.yale.edu>,
loosemor...@bulldog.cs.yale.edu writes:
>Alexei Yagudin's exhibition program is the one that made the show
>worthwhile for me, because you had to be there -- I don't think words
>are adequate to describe it. He was wearing black leggings, a grass
>skirt and tiara, and had "war paint" on his face and bare chest. He
>was also carrying some ears of dried corn that he tossed into the
>stands at the beginning of his program. No, I am NOT making this up!
>The skating was pretty lightweight; lots of wiggling his tush to funky
>music, made all the more emphatic by the grass skirt, of course. And
>all the time, he was dripping pieces of his skirt and husks from the
>corn all over the ice. They sent some of the flower girls around after
>he was done to pick up after him, but I wouldn't have been surprised
>if they'd missed some pieces.
This had better make the broadcast! Mishin's skaters sure do have a
penchant for the bizarre...is he rehearsing to someday replace Urmanov as
the king of weirdness? Or just trying to horrify Louis Epstein? ; )
--Marie Madelaine
Niji...@aol.com
cyc...@aol.com
>Alexei Yagudin's exhibition program is the one that made the show
>worthwhile for me, because you had to be there -- I don't think words
>are adequate to describe it. He was wearing black leggings, a grass
>skirt and tiara, and had "war paint" on his face and bare chest. He
>was also carrying some ears of dried corn that he tossed into the
>stands at the beginning of his program. No, I am NOT making this up!
>The skating was pretty lightweight; lots of wiggling his tush to funky
>music, made all the more emphatic by the grass skirt, of course. And
>all the time, he was dripping pieces of his skirt and husks from the
>corn all over the ice. They sent some of the flower girls around after
>he was done to pick up after him, but I wouldn't have been surprised
>if they'd missed some pieces.
>
>
They better televise that!
Jam