November 20, 2004
STARS ON ICE BELGIUM
by Su-jan
First up - I had such a great time in Belgium! It was so nice to meet other G&G corner members. I met (using their screen names for better recognition) Mary, zhenya271 and LaurafsFan (hello! I hope you all had a safe trip home). Everyone was so nice! It was so cool to talk about Ekaterina and so on - it was so easy to connect!
Anyhow, here's a review of the show (Ekaterina and Ilia focused). First of all, unfortunately, Katharina Witt didn't skate due to an injury. This meant that her spot in the ensembles (opening, closing number of the 1st act and finale) was open - and Ekaterina filled in. Yep, somehow it looked liked that Ekaterina and Ilia were somewhat "headlining" the show because they were kinda the center of attention during these group numbers. That was really nice to see!
In the opening number Ilia and Ekaterina were sort of doing side-by-side jumps. So exciting!
For the individual numbers each skater was introduced in French and Flemish - however both texts didn't seem to match! When Ekaterina came out for her first number the guy introducing her in Flemish mentioned Sergei, but I didn't hear his name in the French intro. Strange!
Ekaterina skated to "Caruso" (performed by Andrea Bocelli) in her 1st number. I really liked that one a lot. Great music and beautiful skating. She had a perfect skate! She was wearing that black costume which we have already seen in her other performances this year.
Ilia skated to "All I know" (Art Garfunkel). I think he popped one of his jumps but otherwise he was so impressive! Such huge jumps. Wonderful skater. Apparently, Ekaterina came out to watch him skate. I didn't see that because my boyfriend Stephan (thank you so much for filming in that really cold hall - we were freezing!) and I were sitting in the Lutz corner (3rd row, pretty good view), but others from the G&G corner saw her watching him. That's cute!
The cast closed the 1st act with a group number to James Bond music. Basically, each skater was skating to one of the movie songs. Ilia skated to "From Russia with Love" wearing a white tux. And Ekaterina was the femma fatale - coming out lifted by Povilas Vanagas and Maurizio Margaglio, and skating to Madonna's "Die another day". Ilia was also part of the number and he lifted her as well. The music would then changed to "Live and let die". I really loved watching Ekaterina interacting with the others. That was fun! By the way, it really strucked me again how graceful she is. I thought she was just wonderful in Antwerp! She looked so beautiful!
Anyway, in the 2nd act Ekaterina and Ilia were the closing acts (the last skaters before the finale). For her second number Ekaterina skated to Alicia Keys' "Heartburn" wearing that hot pink "ChaCha" costume. Very pretty dress. I don't really like the music, but it's always great to see Ekaterina skating to something different. Ekaterina had some really nice elements in it. When she was doing spins (lots of rotations - gaining her applause from the audience) her dress would kinda "fly along" with the rotations and that gave a very nice effect. She had a small bobble with one of the landing, but she didn't fall and it didn't interruped the flow of the programme.
When Ekaterina left the ice Ilia was in the entrance and they grabbed each other hands when passing by. I admit it - I really love those little gestures! Sigh...
Ilia was then skating to "Picking up the Pieces". Another great skate! After him the cast came out skating to "Earth, Wind and Fire" songs. Again, Ekaterina was somewhat "headlining" because she was the one who invited the others to join her into a circle. The audience really appreciated the skaters and gave them lots of applause and even standing ovations!
When Mary, zhenya271, Stephan and I returned to the hotel we quickly freshened up because we didn't want to miss the skaters. Yep, they were in the same hotel again. In the lobby I met Laney (who took those great off-ice pics of Ekaterina and Ilia last year). She introduced us to other Kulik's Krew members and we joined them at their table. Lots of nice people! A couple of minutes later Mary and zhenya271 joined Stephan and me again. We excitedly talked about Ekaterina, Ilia, the show - super nice conversations! Very nice gathering. During that I passed around the Christmas card (G&G corner member have already signed it) and all in all there were like 11 short messages and signatures on the card. It really looked packed!
After some time, someone from the Kulik's Krew (Reeta2u??) told us that the bus with the skaters had arrived. Well, we G&G girls were getting all nervous and excited - whereas Stephan was the fastest because he hurried to the entrance and politely asked Ekaterina if she would pose for pictures (we didn't see Ilia). I think, we (the girls) were much to shy to ask. But once he asked and she agreed with her beautiful smile, I just went to her told her how much I liked the show and handed her the Christmas card. She really seemed to like it because she smiled even more! She also said that it was a long day - she must have been really tired! Anyhow, she was really, really nice and she posed for the fans (Mary also had her picture taken with her). I was so happy because I gave her the card and she was so nice. It was really great for me and I hope the others had a great evening as well!
Bye.
Su-jan.
the G&G corner - Copyright © Su-jan Yip, September 1996 - 2007