March 30, 2004
STARS ON ICE (Fort Wayne, IN)
by JulesG
Wow, what a great show! This is the best SOI I've seen in a number of
years. The opening is the best in probably four years, IMO!
First, and of course, most important - Katia looked gorgeous, as always.
She had a freak occurance in her first number - Stella Errans - in the
beginning when she skates backwards after the back sommersault move, she
tripped or caught an edge or something and just fell over backwards out
of the blue. She got right up and skated the rest of the program quite
well - I think she even landed all her jumps, but it seemed to have
shaken her up - it didn't have the passion it did when I saw it earlier
in the season. Still great, but not quite what it can be. Sunday Kind of
Love was beautiful. She two footed the landing on one of her jumps, but
no one goes to see her jump! She got very loud applause when they
announced her name - I think a lot of people were happy to see her. Then
again, someone thought she was Katarina Witt! LOL!
Okay, I don't remember every detail right now, so I might have to ammend
this - this is just general impressions.
The opening was beautiful - I absolutely loved it. All the synchronized
pairs moves were breathtaking!
Paul skated first - I didn't like his first number so much - it was
funky and upbeat ... and nothing like what you would expect Paul to
skate to! LOL! It was great to see him and he skated very well, I just
didn't think the number suited him all that well. He also skated to Hero
which was teriffic - and I am SO over that song, so that's saying a lot
coming from me.
Todd - Flamenco was great - but seemed a little disjointed. His second
number, though, brought the house down - he got a standing ovation for
it. I never thought I would see the day Todd would skate to country
music, but he did and it completely worked - it was amazing!
S&P - I love both their numbers, and they skated them beautifully.
Ballroom cracked me up! LOL!
B&S - were wonderful, as always. I really like Let Me Fall, and the
Traditional Russian number was wonderful, too.
Ina & Zimmerman - Look at Little Sister - absolutely fabulous and they
skated it beautifully.
Meno & Sand - I had never seen the intro to Shall We Dance - it was so
sweet! They are such a lovely couple. The number was beautiful, too, and
beautifully skated.
Alexsei - didn't seem to be his usual self tonight - he just didnt' seem
"on". He skated fine, but he was kind of phoning it in, I think. Less so
on his first number than his second.
Yuka - she's always beautiful. I could watch her skate all day.
The group numbers were FABULOUS! They really made much better use of
their cast this year. I love the way they mixed up the pairs and split
them up and used them as singles skaters. There wasn't a group number I
didn't love this year. The interludes were also really fun --- a couple
I still didn't "get", but that's okay, I'm sure someone else did.
Another really great thing is the "spoof" announcements they do before
each show - they were very funny, I thought.
I also like the way they introduced the skaters both in the opening and
as they took their final bows.
Awesome show. Now, if they bring back Steven, I'll be completely happy.
Ilia too!
I took lots of pictures, but it's a crap shoot of whether my pictures
turn out sometimes, so I'll post what I get when I get them developed
and scanned in.
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