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STANDARD DISCLAIMER
These are my own opinions and observations. I may not always be
100% accurate and my ideas are certainly open to debate and criticism.
I prefer the Russian style of skating and may not be as enchanted with
the "popular favorites" in North America. I hope that these reports are
enjoyable to most readers, but I do not apologise for stating my own
feelings.
Note: The following notes were written for a former-Soviet skating
fans mailing list, and so I have almost nothing written up on the other skaters.
I have also included some comments I made to the general "skatefans" list at
the end.
Tamara Moskvina, who I had the chance to meet thanks to a friend, was there with her two pairs teams, Oksana Kazakova & Artur Dmitriev representing Russia and Yelena Berezhnaya & Oleg Shliakhov representing Latvia. Kazakova & Dmitriev got to inaugurate the pairs event, skating first in the short program. Their program was to Spanish guitar music and they wore peach costumes very remniscent of M&D's worn for the Sinatra program. Although they did use several of M&D's moves (lift and final spin), there were also some new moves in spins and spiral sequences. Their side by side jump was the double axel, which Artur had a two-foot landing on. In the long, they skated to music from "La Traviata" and had several problems with falls. Costumes were predominantly purple velour, with Artur in vest and trousers rather than tights. All in all, they had a rough time with their debut performance but had some nice elements and of course, an incredible style and poise. Artur said that he was so happy to be back competing again and Oksana said that she didn't feel intimidated or pressured to take Natalya's place. I look forward to seeing them in the future!
Yelena Berezhnaya & Oleg Shliakhov are certainly the up and coming pairs team to watch. They skate with the speed of top singles skaters and their pairs elements (throws, lifts, spins) are coming along nicely. They still need a little work in this regard and can get a little ragged, but their split double twist is thrilling and overall, they were easily the most exciting team to watch. Their short was to "The Orange Blossom Special," sort of bluegrass music, with costumes that look like cowboy-fied reworkings of last year's Michael Jackson costumes. Although perfect in practice, during the competition Yelena stepped out of the throw triple salchow (the distance and height are just unbelievable!) and then fell on the throw triple loop. For the exhibition, they skated to some ballad wearing the long program costumes.
Marina Yeltsova & Andrei Bushkov of St. Petersburg had a very good competition with two brand-new programs. I didn't get the music for either, unfortunately, but both were classical. Costumes for the short were a yellow dress with green flowers around the neckline for Marina and a green costume for Andrei. Although not as breathtaking as Yelena & Oleg, their short was clean and their pairs elements, as usual, were perfection. They had a well-integrated spiral sequence and a nice new pairs spin. For the long, they wore peach and had an interesting program that I will need to see a few more times to appreciate, since the music was very bland. Their throw triple twist was excellent, as were the throw jumps, with only one mistake, a singled double axel (by Marina) at the beginning. For the exhibition, they skated to some gooey ballad as usual.
The young Ukrainian team, Yelena Beloussovskaya & Sergei Potalov, had some problems in the short. They skated to an electronic version of "Sabre Dance," which is very fast music and made them appear even slower. Costumes were yellow and I believe the same as last year. For the long, they wore all black and skated to a classical piece. Although they had somewhat immature choreography and a fall on the throw triple salchow, their unison on the side by side triple toes was gorgeous and they had some difficult technical elements. Closing jump combination, side by side, was double axel - loop - half loop - double flip. Not bad!
With Moniotte & Lavanchy having to withdraw with Sophie apparently having broken her ankle, there was not much competition for Oksana Grishchuk & Yevgeni Platov. I missed the compulsory, which was the Silver Samba, but of course they led following. The original dance was the Paso Doble, and G&P's was clearly the most difficult and had superior ice coverage and transitions of holds and positions. For the free, Oksana and Yevgeni skated to Caribbean types of music, and perhaps a mambo? The fast part at the beginning was quite well done, utilizing different levels of choreography and their trademark fast footwork. A slow part in the middle of the program needed work as far as I was concerned, as there was not much content there to hold one's attention. The last part of the program will be the best (another fast section), as it has the most variety, once it is better rehearsed; it was a bit sloppy. They also repeated this free dance for the exhibition. Costume for Yevgeni was a fabric-dyed top blending from ice blue to green over green pants and a great "Mermaid" costume for Oksana with a pale green sequined bra-top over a bare midriff, with a sheath of the same green sequined fabric for a thigh-exposing skirt.
Anzhelika Krylova & Oleg Ovsyannikov of Russia also skated two brilliant programs. Their original dance was very flamboyant and used a lot of lunges and arm pulls. Although their ice coverage was second only to Grishchuk & Platov's, their hallmark may be their speed. They were actually faster than G&P, although their original dance was not as difficult. For the long, they skated a great comic type number with red and white costumes on. They had wonderful unison and creativity throughout the program. For the exhibition, they skated their "E Lucevan Le Stelle" program, but with Anzhelika wearing a simpler black "skating dress," instead of the beautiful lace rosette dress she wore at Worlds. Perhaps someone told her that she was showing rather a lot of herself in that one! :-)
My favorite dance team of the event was certainly Yelizaveta Stekolnikova & Dmitri Kazarlyga of Kazakhstan. Coached by Natalya Dubova, Natalya's long-time favorite Maya Usova was also there assistant coaching them. Their Paso Doble was easily the most interesting and original of the lot, with wonderful changes of position and elaborate holds that I had not seen before. It was skated rather too slowly and they could not move up from fourth to overtake Roca & Sur. For the long, they skated a cabaret/Charleston number with Yelizaveta wearing my favorite costume of the event - a teal straight-line dress with a checkerboard design on the bottom part of alternating teal fabric and illusion fabric. It also had black fringe on the bottom and she wore a big faux pearl necklace. Dmitri wore a purple vest and white top over black pants. Again, their program was clever and totally original. They had nice unison and I really hope they go places. For the exhibition, they repeated last year's Saint Saens program and it was for me one of the highlights of the entire event. It was unbelievably intricate and flowed throughout from one hold to a lift to another.
Lastly, the number two ranked Ukrainian team of Yelena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov had nice basic skating and a good original dance, but I'm not convinced it was a Paso or had anything to do with the music. A lot of waltz holds for a Spanish dance, if you ask me. For the long, again, their speed and ice coverage was wonderful in a traditional ballroom type program with some jazz/swing type music. Footwork was not complex and there was a trip at the beginning.
Yelena Liashenko of Kiev, Ukraine skated fairly well in both the short and long with a couple of problems in both. In the short, which was to some kind of show music and for which she wore a forest green and purple dress with bright day-glo green "leaves" on her shoulders, she stepped out of her triple lutz, but pulled off the combination. I was happy because she had been falling on the lutz all day in practice. She did a nice job and got high presentation marks. Her long was the same as last year's, "Le Cid" in the black dress with the sheer black decolletage. Again, she stepped out of the lutz, but didn't fall. She popped and two-footed a triple salchow badly, but then had a nice double axel-double toe and a great second try at the salchow. She apparently still does not do triple loop, as I didn't see one from her in competition or in practice.
Speaking of loops, Irina Slutskaya has a gorgeous one, and in practice did triple loop-triple loop as well as a triple sal-triple loop. I love edge jumps, so I may have to become a huge fan of hers. :-) During the practice for the women's short, I kept wondering why she was working on her loop since she was also apparently doing the lutz for the combination jump. I thought maybe she wanted to perfect a combination for the long. But no - she was the only woman of nine to use a triple loop for the solo jump instead of a triple toe. Wow! Irina's short program, which was skated flawlessly, was to some kind of Latin music for which she wore a pink bra top with detached sleeves. Although technically more difficult than Chen Lu's, Lu still got the overall ordinals on the artistic side and so Irina was second after the short. I gave her a standing ovation, as did a lot of other people. In the long, she also skated very well, to music from "A Chorus Line." Her costume was great - a pale teal dress with detached sleeves and tons of white marabou feathers around her shoulders. She put her hand down on the triple lutz, but pulled off the triple sal-double loop, a great triple flip, much improved spirals, and some great combination spins with an unbelievable number of rotations and good speed throughout. To win her bronze, Irina beat out the number 2 and 3 skaters in the world last year, Bonaly and Bobek. For her exhibition, she skated to another vaudeville/Broadway kind of song, a female vocal with the chorus "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" in a black dress.
Ilya Kulik was supposed to be the former Soviet challenging for a medal, and unfortunately he made the same mistake in the short that he did in Birmingham: his huge triple axel just didn't happen. In practice, and even in warm-up, it was amazing, but nerves just did it to him again. His costume was fabulous - a triangular cut top with ice blue and hot pink chiffon drapey sleeves over purple velour pants. The program started out with "The Addams Family" and then segued into more classical- esque sounding music. It was very entertaining and I would love to get another look at it. Unfortunately, few of the ex-Soviets skated their programs through in practice and so I was not as familiar with the choreography as I hoped I would get to be. For the long, Ilya skated to music from "Aladdin" wearing a green pajama-type outfit with gold trim and gathers to make balloony sleeves and pants. This time, he had a nice triple axel-double toe and also had a nice spiral and Ina Bauer section. He fell apart at the end of the program, after doubling his second triple axel. Too bad!
Ukrainian Vyacheslav Zagorodniuk also had two new programs. The short is to some kind of traditional Russian sounding music and he wears a blue and white horizontal striped sailor shirt over black trousers. He put his hand down on the triple lutz after completing a great combination. For the long, Slava had a new program to ballet music and wore a cavalier-type outfit, mostly white with burgundy on the back and shoulders. I thought perhaps the music was from "The Nutcracker," and someone else thought the end was from "Eugene Onegin." Well, at least some of last year's strange "troll" number survived in one or two incongruous sections of the program where he switched suddenly from flowing balletic edges to little hops and toe pick runs. My friend and I decided to call the program "Troll Goes to the Ballet." :-) Luckily, I will get to see it again at Skate Canada so perhaps I will get a better idea of what he is doing. Unfortunately, he doubled three jumps by the end of his program, similarly to Kulik just seeming to run out of steam. For the exhibition, Slava repeated his short program with a triple axel-TRIPLE toe (although he stumbled out of the landing, I was impressed that he went for it).
The skater I was most looking forward to seeing and getting "re-acquainted with" was Muscovite Aleksandr Abt, who not only lived up to my expectations, but also skated brilliantly in both the short and long, medalled completely unexpectedly, and surpassed my hopes in terms of choreography and style. For the short, he wore a black sequined vest over a black top and trousers with a bright yellow tie and skated to electronic tango-like music. He hit a huge triple axel-double toe combination and had a great triple flip, and also had a gorgeous change camel spin with superior extension. But the highlight was surely his footwork and his very Dmitri Dmitrienko-like style. His long program was not quite as cleanly skated, but the concept suited him very well - it was to Borodin's "Polovetsian Dances" (the '88 Bestemianova & Bukhin music), very fitting to his showy style. The costume was my overall favorite of the competition and I am pretty sure that ABC will show him since he medalled. It was a harem style outfit with black blousy pants, a pink and black top open in front and cropped to above the stomach with illusion fabric over his midriff and chest, an ornate "chest plate" design on the illusion fabric under the cropped top, and a band of sequined floral design on his waistband. It was fabulous! Skating was too - only minor mistakes, two-footing an underrotated second triple axel and doubling his loop jump. But his combination was, again, wonderful, and he had the most incredible back split jump, perfectly timed to the music. For the exhibition, Aleksandr skated to a ballad by Boyz II Men ("End of the Road" - it's not often that I recognize the ballads people use for skating music) wearing ripped blue jeans and a blue denim shirt. This program was interesting because of an incredible straight line footwork sequence all the way down the length of the ice, all on one foot, including an inside axel and ending in a figures loop. Wow!!!
October 30, 1995
A few comments, and then I really have to go to bed. Sitting in a rink all day and then
sitting on the plane really makes you pooped. ;-)
Brief notes on the injury pile-ups: Candeloro - either broken ankle or torn ligament (never heard which), Hubert - knee injury, Moniotte - broken ankle, Abitbol - ???, Suzuki - foot (?) injury. According to Bobek's mother, she has a torn ligament in her (right?) knee as well. An announcement was made during the gala that Zuzanna Szwed was declared ineligible and that was why she withdrew.
(Aren Nielsen) We were all pleased that he landed the triple axel that none of us had seen him land in practice, but then a concentration lapse on the double axel really cost him.
(Oksana Grishchuk) Somebody has to describe her practice dress and the built-in rink thermometer, evident from many rows back. :-)
(Aleksandr Abt) We could see the men jumping around and warming up before the second group took the ice for warm-up and jaws dropped as we saw Abt doing a triple axel, OFF ICE, in sneakers. One foot take-off and landing. Unbelievable.
October 31, 1995
(Michael Weiss) Judging by his costume for the long and the exhibition, I think perhaps he
should seek sponsorship from "Ben & Jerry's."
November 19, 1995 (after TV broadcast)
(Todd Eldredge) I really like what Todd is doing in both his short and the long. I worry that
the music for the long is too flat in some parts - he really has to be able to carry it off with some
emotion so people don't find it boring. I thought the subtlety of the music was a good match for his
style.