UK skaters - are any of you going to see the Nottingham show?

[BatikatII]

Just wondering how many of the UK skaters here might be going to Nottingham next week to see the 'Iced Energy' show? About 30 of us from our rink are going up (Block 15, row D - all of it - I'll be in the middle!)

And how many of you noticed that when the same show was on in Scotland recently, one of the skaters was an adult who started as an adult and was on the bill following Jennifer Robinson. Just shows that even starting as an adult ,that with a bit of determination - and in her case a good deal of natural talent - you can be very successful in your skating. She won the elementary category for 35-50 age group lin the British Adult Championships last year, where I came third (but she was very much better than me!). It's very exciting to see adult skating represented in this way but not sure if there are any adults on the bill at Nottingham.

May see some of you there.

[Sonic]

I would so have loved to see this...but unfortunately I'm absolutely, totally and utterly skint. Hope you guys enjoy it.

S xxx

[Clare]

I really wanted to go- I would love to see Katia Gordeeva skate- but the trains back to London were refusing to co-operate (last train back is 8.30 pm) and my funds won't stretch to staying over at the moment unfortunately.

Have a great time :)

Clare

[sarahg]

I'm going with a friend from my rink. Not sure of seating position since she has the tickets! I can't wait...

[kateskate]

I really wanted to go- I would love to see Katia Gordeeva skate- but the trains back to London were refusing to co-operate (last train back is 8.30 pm) and my funds won't stretch to staying over at the moment unfortunately.

Have a great time :)

Clare

I had the same problem. Really wanted to go but can't get a train back to London

[Mrs Redboots]

Me too..... hope the trains won't be so bad for the British Championships, as we really don't want to pay either a hotel bill or the awful car-park fees!

I don't think anybody's going from Streatham - haven't heard that they are, anyway.

[sceptique]

Me going.

Re people from London. I can possibly give you a lift to Nuneaton or Coventry train station that have late direct trains to London. Can also pick up people from one of those stations (Nuneaton preferred!!) if you want to make use of a "cheap return ticket" (ca £28). Travel time from London to Nuneaton - about 1:20, and there is about 1 hour drive from Nuneaton to Nottingham centre. The last train from Nuneaton is 22:24, so if we leave shortly after 21:00, we can make it.
I have 4 extra seats in my car at the moment.
If someone wants to make use of this option, drop me a PM and we'll arrange the logistics.

[Clare]

Thanks sceptique for your very generous offer. As much as I would love to go, I've kind of maxed myself out and can't really spare the money for the ticket or the trains!! Ah well, next time :)

Clare

[BatikatII]

Sorry to hear so many of you can't make it. I know I'm lucky in that I can afford it but I reckon I'd be scraping every last penny to get myself to this even if I couldnt. How often do we get to see real Olympic champion skaters in Britain? I think the last time was at the opening ceremony of the Nottingham rink 4 or 5 years ago. I went to that and it was fantastic - that's where I first saw Ilya Kulik who was awesome - the most amazing cantilevered spread eagle and axels with mega hang-time.

We're staying overnight and paying just £55 between two of us for bed and breakfast in a good hotel which seemed a good deal to me. www.laterooms.com often have really good deals if anyone is still toying with the idea of coming and surprisingly 'superbreaks' had some cheap deals on single rooms too.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to it and getting quite excited now!:lol:

[Jaana]

Looking forward to your reviews, please....

[Bunny Hop]

Looking forward to your reviews, please....

Well, I don't need to be asked twice! This is more a series of impressions rather than a proper review, but here goes anyway.

I really enjoyed the show, and was glad I made the decision to go (even though it meant over five hours driving - which I'm not used to!).

Most of the music used wasn't to my taste (too modern) - I'm sure someone else can go into detail about what was used - but the skating was so good it didn't matter. Jeff Buttle didn't skate, due to injury apparently, which was disappointing, as I was curious to see him live.

Brian Boitano: goodness but his edges are deep, and how on earth does he not fall over doing those outside spreadeagles? Considering how long ago he competed he was very impressive.

Sale & Pelletier: didn't recognise her at first as she's had her cut into a bob. They did a really nice routine, fairly typical of their style.

Ekaterina Gordeeva: well, she was the reason I decided to go - no way was I passing up the chance to see her in person. Her movements over the ice are so graceful and fluid and her smile just lights up her face. She two-footed or fell on all her jumps unfortunately, but I thought everything else more than made up for it. Mind you, I probably would have been happy to see her skate around the rink a few times! I think a good portion of the audience felt the same way - though I suspect some of the teenagers wondered why she was getting so much support from the 'older' part of the crowd (particularly the three behind me who didn't shut up for the whole of her first routine).

Ilia Kulik: wasn't particularly impressed by his first routine - he didn't seem quite 'on', if you know what I mean, but the second one, where he was wearing a hat & tie, was excellent.

Yuka Sato & Jason Dungjen: Yuka Sato did a really nice routine on her own and they did one together in the second half. Very pleasant skating.

Steven Cousins: I admit that his skating style has never appealed to me, but he can really project his personality, which is important for a show like this.

Jennifer Robinson: I'd seen her skate once before (in Stars on Ice during a trip to Vancouver). She has a very pleasant style, even though she doesn't do anything special.

Sinead & John Kerr: Wow, are they ever charismatic. If, heaven forbid, they have to give up amateur skating, they will surely be able to make a decent living from professional skating. They really know how to grab the attention of the crowd.

Violetta Afanasieva & Pete Dack (tricks, hula hoops, cubes etc): I saw Champions on Ice in June in Chicago and got rather bored by the hula hoop act then (Irina Grigorian), but this was much better. It seemed that these were a pairs team that do tricks, rather than acrobats who skate, which made for a better performance in skating terms. Can't imagine how she kept those hoops moving while he played quoits with her!

Highlight of the show: the group routine involving four of the guys plus John & Sinead, which involved David Pelletier chasing John Kerr around the ice in an 'amorous manner'. Hilarious. And Sinead must have nerves of steel to let herself be tossed over the heads of the guys to be caught again on the other side!

Whinge: £8 to buy a programme!

I'm sure more people will post reviews over the next couple of days. A lot of people stayed overnight in Nottingham, so wouldn't have got home until later today.

[BatikatII]

Well here are my impressions for what they're worth. I loved the show and it was so great to see a skating show that had such fabulous skaters in it doing what they do best, rather than a 'Disney on Ice' or 'Holiday on Ice' type show, which are enjoyable but not the same thing. This was more like an Olympics gala and all the better for it. We just don't get that very often in the UK

I loved the music as much of it was 'my era' opening with some U2 - who I first saw live at Portsmouth Poly in 1981 or so and tipped for stardom right then and nearly wore out their first album! There was some Ultravox (Vienna - not quite sure what the shirt was about???) some Madness - great! and various others all of which I loved, so that made the show even better for me.

I was disappointed that Jeff Buttle could not skate as I really wanted to see him live and hope to get the chance another time.

I can't remember the order in which they skated or what exactly they skated to but do remember wishing it would go on a lot longer.

It was good to see the 'Tano lutz in person and Brian's spreadeagles are incredible.

I agree that Ilia Kulik did not appear to be on top form and was not as good as when I saw him before (3 or so years ago at the Nottingham Ice Centre Opening gala). I remember being awestruck then at the hangtime in his jumps and his cantilever spread. I'm not sure if it was the reduced rink size (they sold a couple of rows of 'on-ice' seats so the rink was considerably smaller than its actual Olympic size) but he barely got down into his cantilever spread before having to bail out, whereas last time he performed it for the entire diagonal of the full size rink so I was disappointed in that but his footwork - especially in the second number was phenomenol. I could still watch him skate all day and the kids (several families worth from our rink) had their evening made when we found him loading his car up outside the rink afterwards and had several photos with him and autographs - a nice guy!

Sale and Pelletier were beautiful to watch with some breathtaking lifts and gorgeous choreography. I didn't really know the other pair Yuko Sato (daughter got her autograph too!) and Dungjen but I enjoyed watching them.

The acrobatic pair, Violetta Afanasieva & Pete Dack were spectacular -some of the moves did not seem humanly possible and they were lovely skaters even before you added in the spinning mega cube and the glow in the dark hoops

like Bunny Hop I'd have been happy just to watch Ekaterina skate around and leave out the jumps altogether as she just has such a beautiful fluid way of moving on the ice and stunning costumes. It was a shame to spoil that with the poor jumps. She's another one that I wish I had seen when she was skating competitively.

I'm afraid Jennifer Robinson doesn't thrill me as a skater as she is not a particularly fast or exciting skater but it was nice enough and she looks very pretty and did land a few jumps really close by which was good.

I enjoyed Steven Cousins routines and he does project well. Hmm I think I am more or less saying exactly what Bunny Hop said, she summed it up very well really so I can't add much.

John and Sinead Kerr were definitely a highlight - I saw them perform their 'Matrix' programme live at Worlds in Germany and a palpable buzz went round the audience then when they came on and they had much the same effect here. They have so much energy and so much personality to project. Sinead lifting John seemingly effortlessly was amazing and it's great to see a British Couple really making an impact on the world scene and living up to it in a show like this. Their routine was great and the group comedy routine was just brilliant with John and Sinead coming on as a loving couple (to Madness's 'It must be love') to be pursued by four of the other guys (who had just been doing a fun routine to 'Baggy Trousers' by Madness). The twist being that while 3 of the guys were after Sinead, David Pelletier only had eyes for John - great choreography and great acting skills, especially by David Pelletier (which I must admit surprised me) and John, really made this a special routine.

I share Bunny Hops winge over the programme price especially since it contained only brief bios with pics of the skaters and not even a running order of the evening to remember what we'd seen. As a one-off show I guess it would not have been possible to include relevant pics from the show itself but it was an awful lot to pay for not much.

One of the things that struck me overall is how the really good skaters like these are just such a joy to watch that they dont' actually have to do very much in the way of jumps or spin elements to be totally mesmerising to watch. They all have that ability to project their personalities and interpret the music so well that they barely have to move to keep your attention and
that seeing some of the simple things just done so extremely well was a revelation.

As a venue I think Nottingham arena is great (aside from the total lack of parking!) but I wish they had kept the full size arena and not tried to make extra money by charging an inflated price for 'on-ice' seats which reduced the size of the ice surface. For their extra money those in the on ice seats did get to shake hands with some of the skaters after the finale but I think the view was probably better from where we were, a few rows up with a bit of height.

Now if we could only have shows like this in Britain more often than once every 3 or 4 years I'd be very happy.

[sceptique]

Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=252ijnf9.3x0sl2vp&x=0&y=gxbauj

Feel free to leave your comment at the bottom of the slideshow page!



PS: If printing or downloading, could you please do this for your personal use only? The pictures are not watermarked with a copyright, as I think it spoils the impression, and it would be a shame to see them commercially used without me knowing.

[NickiT]

Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=252ijnf9.3x0sl2vp&x=0&y=gxbauj

Feel free to leave your comment at the bottom of the slideshow page!



PS: If printing or downloading, could you please do this for your personal use only? The pictures are not watermarked with a copyright, as I think it spoils the impression, and it would be a shame to see them commercially used without me knowing.

Those are excellent photos Olga! Very professional looking indeed! Well done on capturing the skaters at their very best!

Nicki

[samba]

Wow!!! these photos are fantastic, you are a very very talented lady.

Samba

[sceptique]

Wow!!! these photos are fantastic, you are a very very talented lady.

Samba


Thanks a lot!

Can't wait till my new f/2.8 lens arrives - should be there in time for the British Adult.
If at the end I don't make a decent skater I might still become a decent skating photografer! :lol:

[samba]

Thanks a lot!

Can't wait till my new f/2.8 lens arrives - should be there in time for the British Adult.
If at the end I don't make a decent skater I might still become a decent skating photografer! :lol:

Your'e already there, I have tried to take action shots in the past and it is so hard, I usually end up taking a picture of the barrier, because by the time I have my act together the skater has moved on.

[Mrs Redboots]

If at the end I don't make a decent skater I might still become a decent skating photografer! :lol:You are already that! Those are superlative - so much better than most photographers who always manage to get the skaters at just the wrong moment, instead of just the right one!

[sceptique]

You are already that! Those are superlative - so much better than most photographers who always manage to get the skaters at just the wrong moment, instead of just the right one!


I must say, being a video cutting/replay person on NJS results team helps a lot (I did juniors/seniors at NJS Sheffield). Hope I can make it to NJS Dumfries as well (work commitments permitting). You are right, if you press the shutter release when you see the element, you are waaay too late! You need to be "skating" with the skaters and press the button when your own muscles tense up as if pushing off for a jump.

My right shoulder was aching at the end of the show - who could think that taking pictures is such a hard work!

[Jaana]

Thanks so much for your great reviews with lots of details!!! I really appreciated...