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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.
These are not in the correct order, please forgive. I wrote up these notes on the plane.
Vyacheslav Zagorodniuk of Ukraine skated a great program to some kind of hip-hop dance music. He wore a red vinyl vest over black top and pants. Very well-done and entertaining, a bit sloppy. This included pelvic thrusts, writhing on the ice, and "BUSTING A MOVE." Yeahh boooyyyyy...
Shelby Lyons & Brian Wells did some cutesy number involving a headbanger, which I found a little scary given his height. I'm sure they have no problem doing this move, but I just personally found it scary. Anna Semyonovich & Vladimir Fyodorov of Russia did their "Malaguena" free dance, again much appreciated by audience. Afterwards Anna sat behind me munching on cotton candy. Michelle Menzies & Jean-Michel Bombardier did their "Borderline" program they had on the Skate the Nation tour.
Katerina Mrazova & Martin Simecek did part of their Bach free dance. He caught a toe pick and fell. These guys had just an awful week at this competition! I hope they had a strong drink or two on the plane. Tara Lipinski did a heinous vocal version of her "Anastasia" short program. I wrote in my notes "didn't watch." I don't remember what I was watching instead, but I could take a guess. Yelena Sokolova did a perfect run-through of her "Russian Fair" short program. In practice, she had also done an upbeat Latin number and was working on triple lutz-triple toe with a good amount of success.
Barbara Fusar-Poli & Maurizio Margaglio of Italy did their "Unforgettable" program which I had seen at the exhibition in Marlboro, Mass. This program begins with a little table set up on the ice with a bottle of wine and an obsequious waiter. For this performance, Jerod Swallow took the role of the waiter, which was very amusing. He was standing in front of where I was sitting with a towel and began industriously polishing up the boards.
Yevgenia Shishkova & Vadim Naumov of Russia skated a stunning exhibition version of their old "Ave Maria" short program in the original costumes, with nice carry lifts and a nice throw triple toe loop. Next was Aleksandr Abt of Russia who skated to a techno version of the opening theme from "Pulp Fiction" in a black top, black jeans, headband, and one black leather glove. He also had silver things stuck on his skates to give a "Western" look to them, like cowboy boots. Well, I don't know how those worked mechanically. Did a sort of multiple-Arabian move into a death drop which was very cool, and lots of dancing that sent the audience into loud hooting and cheering. Sasha was the only skater to do an encore; since the audience was screaming so loud after he finished he went back out and did his flying spin move again. The woman behind me sighed audibly and said, "we have a winner." :-)
Michelle Kwan did her Les Miz number from the Collins tour with triple lutz, etc. Snore. No encore requested from audience for the former US and World champion. (You have to admit that this is amusing). Angela Nikodinov did some heinous ballad. Liz Punsalan & Jerod Swallow of the US did their "I Put a Spell on You" number from the Collins tour, very entertaining. The more the focus is on Jerod, the better. Scott Davis did "Still Got the Blues," another good program for him. My friend commented that his programs this year are doing a good job of integrating the "old Scott with the new Scott."
Yevgeni Plyushchenko of Russia skated his long program for the exhibition (waah, I wanted to see his actual exhibition number!) and did a few bits here and there of the choreography, but basically skated around in circles trying quads and triple axels. He fell on all three quad toes. He landed all three triple axels, one with a triple toe on the end. This was the first instance of "brattiness" I had witnessed from the generally collected and "matoor" Plyushchenko, and the look that Mishin had on his face when Yevgeni got off the ice was ominous, to say the least. He is a young teenager after all!
Marina Yeltsova & Andrei Bushkov skated part of their long program with split triple twist included. The crippled (Todd Eldredge and Jason Dungjen, accompanied by Kyoko) took bows at the intermission. Skate order was such that Abt was the last guy to skate, obviously a good guess at the impending audience reaction. Overall, the event was not run very well, they didn't let us into the practices on Wednesday, which truly sucked because they didn't let us *know* that this would be the case until only a few weeks before the event. Hello? Some of us have plane reservations that are expensive to change? I heard that the skaters were complaining about the event as well as the media, so I guess the USFSA and the local organizing committee didn't manage to please anybody. Attendance was miserable, but slightly better than last year's event in Springfield. I guess announcing where the event is going to be held more than a month or two prior to the event helps slightly. I don't care, it's a bit over-priced for the all-event tickets, but it is such a great event to go to to see the programs at the beginning of the season. Unlike Skate Canada, where there are fans, at Skate America the skaters can go and sit in the stands basically undisturbed, and maybe in some ways that takes some of the pressure and intensity off. Ah well, I'll keep giving the USFSA my money, I have no pride. See you next year... god knows where?!?
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