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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.
The exhibitions were very fun this time around, and went on for longer than last year's, when several skaters had to run off to some cheeseball pro-am competition. The crowd wasn't much larger than it had been through the week. Detroit definitely had larger turn-out for the final two events (women's long and exhibitions). They did the theatrical lighting this time, which I don't care for.
First up was Dan Hollander, who did his janitor number. Very cute number that got a big reception. Shelby Lyons & Brian Wells skated their pan- pipe music program that they had last year, with all the carry lifts and a throw double axel. They have a ways to go to be a really high ranking team, mostly because Shelby's presentation is so very inconsistent, but they performed this one well.
Yelena Sokolova got to skate an exhihibition as a "rising talent" or some such intro, and re-did her short program to jazz music, including her triple lutz and the double axel with the hand over the head. She has pretty solid basic technique, but does not have the speed over the ice that most of the young Russians are known for. Vyacheslav Zagorodniuk did his new tango short program, which is very Viktor-esque, but the exaggerated movements compliment his stripped-down style well. Instead of being "over the top" like Petrenko, the moves on Zagorodniuk look precise, in sharp definition, and give his skating a character beyond his basic flow, speed, and power (which are of course good qualities to be starting off with).
Elizabeth Punsalan & Jerod Swallow skated their Tom Collins Tour number to "La Vie En Rose," which I had not seen before. It's very enjoyable, thematically similar to their exhibition from the year before. The more that Jerod has a chance to shine, the better. They were introduced as "America's Sweethearts," which I found very amusing in light of their competitive strategies.
This was all well and good and entertaining, and as Aleksei Yagudin was next, I expected him to perhaps re-do his short program as Slava and Yelena had. From behind the boards near the kiss and cry, a tufted head-dress of dry grass swayed slightly and then rose, attached to a head that looked much like Aleksei Yagudin, wearing bright red lipstick, attached to a nude upper body adorned with what looked like black dots and lines of charcoal or the like, attached to a grass skirt, attached to black tights with leg warmers and a stray tuft of grass around one ankle. I don't know quite how to describe what he did for this program. With tribal (not Aboriginal, maybe some type of African?) music playing, Yagudin squirmed, wiggled, lied on the ice for an excruciating amount of time, flung tufts of grass at the audience, gnawed on a dried husk, and did a layback spin. The music ended abruptly, and just as the audience began to clap, another cut of music began, a heavy metal ballad ("Love Hurts"). This might have been when he did the layback. My mind was totally blown at this point and I may have been transported into another realm of Superconsciousness. Aleksei Mishin filmed the whole thing on a little cam-corder. It was one of the funniest, wildest, and most mocking programs I have ever seen.
Sydne Vogel had to follow this incredibly weird performance with her exhibition, which was incredibly NOT weird. She did okay, as the flower girls did a pretty good job of picking up errant corn husks and grass from Aleksei's costume. I didn't recognize the music, but she wore a lovely dark blue costume with a sheer blue-colored back and sleeves (the "Kerrigan-esque" style), which I thought suited her better than the more glittery and traditional-skating-dress costume for her long (or the Pepto-Bismol dress she wore for the short). Sydne did have at least one fall and looked like she might have been tired.
Irina Lobachova was presented to the audience next, scooted along the ice on a folding chair by Ilya Averbukh. They wore their free dance costumes, with the addition of a large green jacket and a fedora on Ilya, and skated a variation on the free dance, with some different sections, some vocal music in the place of instrumentals, and much Ilya hamming. Shameless doesn't even begin to describe the guy. This is one of my favorite couples and I was so glad to see them much improved in smoothness and flow between elements at this competition. They never need to worry about selling a program, in any case.
After a Zamboni break, Aleksei Urmanov came out to skate his Beatles program. This was still very fun to watch, but I remembered a recent discussion on the list about re-doing competitive numbers for the exhibitions, and I thought that in this situation, I would have rather seen him re-do the short program because I wanted the chance to see it again! :-) Big triples, but basic ones, and after catching an edge on a lunge (not falling out of the move, but just scraping loudly), Aleksei was a little tentative.
Stephanie Stiegler & John Zimmerman did their "Dude Looks Like a Lady" number with a nice throw triple sal and a Detroiter with him lifting her straight up in the air before rotating at all. I also noted that she was really in a beautiful position during this move, and in general they were skating very smoothly. This is a cute program, and so on and so forth, but I couldn't help but wonder why this particular song was chosen. He doesn't look like a lady, he didn't try to look like a lady, and if he had wanted to try to look like a lady, Lloyd Eisler would have had a copyright infringement suit on him in seconds.
Sophie Moniotte & Pascal Lavanchy skated a program to the "Schindler's List" soundtrack in simple black costumes. This is exquisite music, but it wasn't brilliantly utilized. The program had a heavy emphasis on lifts which were redundant. Basically, Sophie was upside-down for most of the number. I think maybe the outlandish costumes they like to wear help to distract one from the poor quality of their skating technique. But I have never seen a program of theirs I've liked much.
Tonia Kwiatkowski skated her "Get Ready for This" number, infested with sequins and black mesh, and did a good job of keeping audience interest with a decent straight-line footwork sequence and some triple toes. Oksana Kazakova & Artur Dmitriev skated their "Also Sprach Zarathusra" exhibition in the black and white costumes, attempted a throw triple toe which Oksana landed, although pitched forward on her blade. The final lift is spectacular every time, but I'm still not wild about the "woman as phallus" spreadeagle sequence.
Michelle Kwan skated to a music with a refrain about winter, in a white dress (singer was not Kate Bush, but sounded similar-?). More expressive and elegant than either of her competitive performances, and better spins as well. She actually had facial expressions during this one, and did another gorgeous camel spin. It didn't have the impact or audience connection of some more expressive or powerful skaters, but that might not be a fair comparison to make. (And of course, one person's cup of tea...)
Anzhelika Krylova & Oleg Ovsyannikov re-did their tango original dance, which I was thrilled about. This time, I only watched their feet. The footwork is incredible, their unison is amazing, and they skated this so close together that a fall like the one they had in the competition was obviously a risk at almost any moment. They are almost pressed body-to-body through most of the dance. I cannot rave about this tango enough! (Comments on the expression of the dance will be in my review of the dance competition).
Finally, Todd Eldredge skated "This is the Moment." I have to say, this is a totally wimpy song. Good performance, however, with a clean triple axel. Obviously, Aleksei Urmanov took note of this, because as the competitors came out for their final bows, he tried to do a triple axel, while wearing his Beatles outfit with the big jacket on. Well, he almost landed it, and then again, he almost took out Elizabeth Punsalan, who was blythely looking the other way as a large object with metal blades on it hurled itself at her from three feet+ above the ice. Yagudin came out in his grass headdress and then took it off as he prepared to do a jump. The audience was giggling at him and he waggled a finger in our direction, shaking his head, and then proceeded to pop a giant (triple?) axel jump, which was a suitably amusing finale.