September 9, 2006
Iced Energy (Nottingham, UK)
by Rita
Hi there. The Nottingham show was great fun. It was nice meeting up with Su-Jan (and BF) and Nadine. There were some really nice performances and good programs.
I know it's already been reported that Katia skated to Sting's Fragile but it was a different version than I've ever seen before. I've not memorized the original or anything but this performance was a hybrid of Cincetta and Fragile. The opening was pure Cinecitta. Katia was wearing the Cinecetta costume (beautiful!) so that's the program I was expecting and Sting's song starts with the same acoustical guitar so I was really confused when the Fragile chorus started.
The ending was also Cinecitta, and it had that wonderful knee to hip slide that both she and Ilia both did last season (his was in Lady).
Well, anyway, it was confusing to me. Actually, there could have been more Cinecitta than actual Fragile moves in the piece.
Luckily, I think Su-Jan got it on tape so she'll be able to pin down what the changes were.
The second program was the same -- there were parts I didn't recognize but I don't know the program that well. Didn't recognize the music at all, LOL. Just know I love it when she spins with the red fringe flying. She wore her hair mostly down for that program and it looked good.
I had an on-ice seat and noticed Katia had several smiles while skating. She looked really happy out there although she was pretty winded at the end of Heartburn.
My favorite Katia moment was just a group inbetween, some transitional skating to Smooth Operator which introduced Yuka and Jason. Katia came out solo in a beautiful black costume with some gold sequins and her moves were just very elegant and her layback amazingly beautiful. Nice Ina Bauer, too. Other skaters were slowly added in and they did just basic stuff. She did a nice combo spin with Steven that had beautiful lines and she flashed everyone a big smile.
In the finale they did that SOI move where the women all form an inner circle and get lifted by the skates by the guys (hard to explain but you've seen it before). They were all bumping into each other trying to get the lift off, it was kinda funny but it all ended nicely. Katia ended up for her bows right in front of us and was beaming. Unfortunately for me, she started shaking hands two people down from me and went the other way, LOL.
The ice arena has a lovely picture of Katia and Sergei as part of a montage of skaters in the lobby.
So, there's my Katia ramblings from the English midlands.
Rita
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