October 4, 2003
VIKTORY FOR KIDS
by Susan B.
Hi All,
Just got home from the show and am dead on my feet, but it was terrific. I'll try to write more tomorrow, but for now, here are a couple of highlights:
It was a large cast, and pretty much an all-star cast too (I'll type up the list of skaters tomorrow) so each skater or team skated just one program, with the exception of Viktor Petrenko, who did two.
Katia's program was a new one, and I didn't recognize the music. It starts out with drums, and after a while there's a female voice singing what sounded like "stonewall" over and over again. Does that ring a bell with anyone?
This is a "serious" program, and Katia uses a square of red cloth as a prop in it. The square was probably about 24 inches by 24 inches, so it was pretty big. She does various things with it, floats it behind her, holds it in two hands over head when she does an Ina Bauer, ties it around her waist, floats it over her leg when she's doing a spiral, etc. The program is very intense and powerful, and I loved it. She did one double jump (don't know if it will eventually be a triple) and singled a planned double axel, and of course there were lots of step sequences, spins, spirals, and some "Ilia" moves at the beginning where she gets up from a backbend on the ice!
The costume is a black long-sleeved unitard with a cut-out in the back that's filled with illusion fabric and trimmed with silver. The front has silver detail, too, in the shape of vertical flames running down the front, and more silver on the legs. It looks terrific, and Katia is in great shape!
The surprise of the day was that Daria opened the second act! She skated in a beautiful pale yellow dress to a song with the lyrics "Everybody's looking for that something" (I don't know the real title). She did two double jumps, one perfect and the other with a little problem on the landing (she did a turn or two after she landed) and a single axel. She has a nice sit spin, and a lot of power and speed, a still back just like her mama's, nice posture and line, and no flailing around, again just like her mama. This was just terrific to see!
After Daria skated, Artur Dmitriev Jr. skated too. He was trying combination jumps and had a rough night, but had a lot more fun in the finale.
Daria, Artur Jr., Thomas Jones (a local youngster who's quite impressive) and Tiffany St. Bernard opened the finale with some rockin'-out moves that were loads of fun. Daria is a heck of a dancer!
Ilia did his Pick Up the Pieces number, which, as always, was a lot of fun, too.
The rink in Danbury is small, with seating on only one side, though they did have one row of folding chairs set up on-ice all the way around. The intimate setting makes it seem almost like a family affair, and this was a lovely family affair, with Katia, Ilia and Daria all skating and all looking great out there.
Just terrific!
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