danibellerika
04-10-2004, 01:03 AM
Well, its been a good year since I got to witness live skating, since I went to worlds and all. The sound system for this thing was no joke. Superior quality if you ask me. The MCI had this HUGE Michelle thingie on their wall. They have these huge pics of people performing in there like basketball stars and singers and stuff. I guess they put that in there from Worlds. People were standing by it taking pics and whatnot. Anyways, onto the show. I kinda did the first act by memory but then did the second act moreso play by play.
Opening act.
From what I remember. Irina landed a really nice 2axle. Timmy came out and did his thing, then Sasha came out. They did this little flirty thing and then it was all Sasha. She did her 3toe and a stag split. Evgeny fell on a jump. Fumie skated to Toxic(I wanted someone to do a program to it, but oh well). I didn't really like the opening costumes, but oh well. Then we moved onto the solos.
Jenny Kirk - I like the SP version better. She fell on flutz. I could see her turn over to the IE from the opposite end of the rink.
Johnny Weir - He's nice, but he has 0 emotion in his programs. Had nice spins though and crowd noted that they liked it.
Surya Bonaly - Had a fall and a problem on another jump. She skated Sasha's ex. last year to "One Day I'll Fly Away" She had a nice backflip.
Elena Sokalova - skated her LP. She had a different dress that I thought was actually PRETTY!!! That's a change from her usual dresses. I believe she landed everything
Dan Hollander - OMG it was funny, but wrong on so many levels. He did Sister Act in a nun costume and then swtiched over to Devil in a blue dress in well, a blue dress.
Fumie - nice light program. Didn't seem as fast as she was at worlds last year. She had these fans and gave them to the crowd.
Phillipe Candelero - was expecting him to do Kung Fu fighting or something, but he didn't. Interesting program I thought. The music is engaging. He did have some comic relief though playing to the crowd flirting with this woman that was swooning over him.
Tanith and Ben - really fun number. Ben is just a ball of energy. That made him seem kinda hott to me .
Rudy Galindo - skated to beyonce's "Star Spangled Banner". Had some ppl on their feet afterwards. It was a sort of emotionally charged program. But going patriotic usually makes it easier for that to come along.
Irina - nice 2axle. Doubled a jump. All else was nice. Spins are getting back on track. She really is more graceful in person than on tv I think.
Shen and Zhao - they are amazing. Immediate practically full standing O. Crowd gasped at their throws(even did in the opening). I swear I almost cried(I know I'm a sap ) Their emotion is just really moving to me. I'm lucky to have seen them live finally. I'm happy to see the magic that filled that arena one year ago which led them to their second world title was still there. Must have been a wonderful memory to have. This was absolutely my favorite performance of the night. They made me SO glad I bought tics the last minute.
Act II
Nicole Bobek - Pretty dress. Pretty spiral(about as good as Michelle's, but not as good as Sasha's). Wasn't so into the program. Music was pretty nevertheless.
Kimmie Meisner - "Here comes the sun?" Singled lutz, but had a true one. Had a nice combo spin. Fell on sal. Did split jumps(weren't too great). Fell out of deathdrop spin thing. hit 2axle which the crowd cheered nicely. Need polish, but she's a junior so it'll come in time.
Irina Gregorian - My roomie was all like "this is supposed to be family right?" She said that b/c Irina was dancing on this metal cube like a poll dancer or something. Lotta flesh fabric and risque costume. Did a toe with the hoola hoop. Then a hoola hoop spiral. Her music was club type music. Very loud applause at the end. She was second to S&Z.
Timmy - skated to Rocket Man. He spun out of loop. Had a nice long sit spin. Did a 2axle. Also did a nice hydroblade.
Kazakova & Dimitriev - don't remember much. Skating to man of la mancha or something. She did a long forward Sasha skid spiral type thing. I wasn't really into the program. FOr some reason S&Z kept popping into my mind. At the end, they did this stop where I thought he was going to cause her to slip, but he didn't.
Viktor Petrenko - pranced around in the center for a while and gyrated. Then later one hit a 3 toe, then anothe toe I think, then a 2 axle. Did a crowd tease with his shirt.
Oleksiy and Polishuk? - Oleksiy is very graceful he was a dancer and the other guy was this hockey player. These guys were a real crowd pleaser. Oleksiy is a pretty decent break dancer!! He was doing some nifty moves spinning around on the ice with his back. Several people gave standing ovation.
Elvis - skated to "harder to breath" His version had that profanity at the beginning edited out LOL. Very high energy and a loud ovation.
Totmianina and Marinin - he doubled SBS jump. They actually have a nice line in their skating and good basics. They are no S&Z by a long shot, but I do commend them for trying to express a little more.
Sasha - Costume and whole getup was actually kinda cool! Was announced as the current World Silver Medallist(sounded pretty good in my book). She landed everything! 3Toe, 2axle and a 3flutz at the other end of the rink. Landed them all beautifully. I KNOW it was a flutz, but I was paying close attention and didn't see the edge flip over like I did with Jenny's, so maybe Sasha's working on it and it's not so severe as some were claiming. She did her spread eagle at teh beginning and it was really really nice. She held it a while. She also did her stag split. Did her OE spiral that lasted for a while. She did a pretty Ina Bauer. She only did a camel spin and a final combo spin to my recollection. No forward scratch blurr. She did that in the opening. She had a really big ovation at the beginning and a nice one at the end where some people standing for her. I think it's really nice to see Sasha skate for the first time and not fall(like she did last year at worlds). I really enjoyed it. She was really happy and that rubbed off on me. The program could use more choreo, but she did say it wasn't finished and she and robin would be tweaking it as the tour went on. Also, her basics really HAVE improved. Nicer overall edge quality there.
Evgeny - either a 3/2 or a 4/2. Fell on 3 axle. Did an OE beagle. It was high energy. Had impressive footwork with a lot of it being on one foot. Nice fast more centered spins. I think the song was called "I want a lover like you" or something. I wasn't all THAT impressed with the program, but I love him anyway.
Michelle - loudest greeting but well, duh! Had a teeny problem with the flutz, but landed it. I noticed her blade turn over to the IE too for it. Her hair gets in the way. Nice full COE spiral. Last year at worlds she kinda half-assed it just doing a really deep IE and practically no OE at all. Her IE wasn't as deep as last year but I guess that she didn't wanna have to fight so much for the edge to change this time. Had a nice hydroblade. For one of the "emotional" michelle performances, FOG was the better of the two. It's early on in the tour though. Not too much choreo. Got an almost full standing O(about like how much S&Z did) but it wasn't immediate like theirs. More people started standing as she was bowing.
Finale -
They paired up skaters. I remember victor and elvis doing deathdrops. Viktors is better :P Irina and Elena S were paired up. They did laybacks and spirals. Sasha came out in a really pretty dress. She did the Sasha curl into her charlotte which got applause, then she did her layback in center of the ice, then she did this ending glide thingie. S&Z kinda fell out of their throw jump but that's ok, I love them anyway. Evgeny singled a lutz. Michelle did her gorgeous split leaf. The skaters had such pretty costumes on in the ending.
Overall I had fun. Didn't get any autographs, but maybe next year. I was a little concerned about how the turnout would be becasue me and my roomie bought 3rd row tickets on thursday. But when I got there, by the time the show started, we were almost a sell out. Only a few seats up the rafters were available. I thought it was kinda a shame how they didn't have the big jumbo tron up becasue the skaters probably looked like peas to them in the top. Oh well. Hope next years is fun too!
Also, I'm not really obsessed with flutzing. I just read reports from people all the time about it from comps and I wanted to see for myself if I could detect the switch live, not on tv or in slo mo ;)
Opening act.
From what I remember. Irina landed a really nice 2axle. Timmy came out and did his thing, then Sasha came out. They did this little flirty thing and then it was all Sasha. She did her 3toe and a stag split. Evgeny fell on a jump. Fumie skated to Toxic(I wanted someone to do a program to it, but oh well). I didn't really like the opening costumes, but oh well. Then we moved onto the solos.
Jenny Kirk - I like the SP version better. She fell on flutz. I could see her turn over to the IE from the opposite end of the rink.
Johnny Weir - He's nice, but he has 0 emotion in his programs. Had nice spins though and crowd noted that they liked it.
Surya Bonaly - Had a fall and a problem on another jump. She skated Sasha's ex. last year to "One Day I'll Fly Away" She had a nice backflip.
Elena Sokalova - skated her LP. She had a different dress that I thought was actually PRETTY!!! That's a change from her usual dresses. I believe she landed everything
Dan Hollander - OMG it was funny, but wrong on so many levels. He did Sister Act in a nun costume and then swtiched over to Devil in a blue dress in well, a blue dress.
Fumie - nice light program. Didn't seem as fast as she was at worlds last year. She had these fans and gave them to the crowd.
Phillipe Candelero - was expecting him to do Kung Fu fighting or something, but he didn't. Interesting program I thought. The music is engaging. He did have some comic relief though playing to the crowd flirting with this woman that was swooning over him.
Tanith and Ben - really fun number. Ben is just a ball of energy. That made him seem kinda hott to me .
Rudy Galindo - skated to beyonce's "Star Spangled Banner". Had some ppl on their feet afterwards. It was a sort of emotionally charged program. But going patriotic usually makes it easier for that to come along.
Irina - nice 2axle. Doubled a jump. All else was nice. Spins are getting back on track. She really is more graceful in person than on tv I think.
Shen and Zhao - they are amazing. Immediate practically full standing O. Crowd gasped at their throws(even did in the opening). I swear I almost cried(I know I'm a sap ) Their emotion is just really moving to me. I'm lucky to have seen them live finally. I'm happy to see the magic that filled that arena one year ago which led them to their second world title was still there. Must have been a wonderful memory to have. This was absolutely my favorite performance of the night. They made me SO glad I bought tics the last minute.
Act II
Nicole Bobek - Pretty dress. Pretty spiral(about as good as Michelle's, but not as good as Sasha's). Wasn't so into the program. Music was pretty nevertheless.
Kimmie Meisner - "Here comes the sun?" Singled lutz, but had a true one. Had a nice combo spin. Fell on sal. Did split jumps(weren't too great). Fell out of deathdrop spin thing. hit 2axle which the crowd cheered nicely. Need polish, but she's a junior so it'll come in time.
Irina Gregorian - My roomie was all like "this is supposed to be family right?" She said that b/c Irina was dancing on this metal cube like a poll dancer or something. Lotta flesh fabric and risque costume. Did a toe with the hoola hoop. Then a hoola hoop spiral. Her music was club type music. Very loud applause at the end. She was second to S&Z.
Timmy - skated to Rocket Man. He spun out of loop. Had a nice long sit spin. Did a 2axle. Also did a nice hydroblade.
Kazakova & Dimitriev - don't remember much. Skating to man of la mancha or something. She did a long forward Sasha skid spiral type thing. I wasn't really into the program. FOr some reason S&Z kept popping into my mind. At the end, they did this stop where I thought he was going to cause her to slip, but he didn't.
Viktor Petrenko - pranced around in the center for a while and gyrated. Then later one hit a 3 toe, then anothe toe I think, then a 2 axle. Did a crowd tease with his shirt.
Oleksiy and Polishuk? - Oleksiy is very graceful he was a dancer and the other guy was this hockey player. These guys were a real crowd pleaser. Oleksiy is a pretty decent break dancer!! He was doing some nifty moves spinning around on the ice with his back. Several people gave standing ovation.
Elvis - skated to "harder to breath" His version had that profanity at the beginning edited out LOL. Very high energy and a loud ovation.
Totmianina and Marinin - he doubled SBS jump. They actually have a nice line in their skating and good basics. They are no S&Z by a long shot, but I do commend them for trying to express a little more.
Sasha - Costume and whole getup was actually kinda cool! Was announced as the current World Silver Medallist(sounded pretty good in my book). She landed everything! 3Toe, 2axle and a 3flutz at the other end of the rink. Landed them all beautifully. I KNOW it was a flutz, but I was paying close attention and didn't see the edge flip over like I did with Jenny's, so maybe Sasha's working on it and it's not so severe as some were claiming. She did her spread eagle at teh beginning and it was really really nice. She held it a while. She also did her stag split. Did her OE spiral that lasted for a while. She did a pretty Ina Bauer. She only did a camel spin and a final combo spin to my recollection. No forward scratch blurr. She did that in the opening. She had a really big ovation at the beginning and a nice one at the end where some people standing for her. I think it's really nice to see Sasha skate for the first time and not fall(like she did last year at worlds). I really enjoyed it. She was really happy and that rubbed off on me. The program could use more choreo, but she did say it wasn't finished and she and robin would be tweaking it as the tour went on. Also, her basics really HAVE improved. Nicer overall edge quality there.
Evgeny - either a 3/2 or a 4/2. Fell on 3 axle. Did an OE beagle. It was high energy. Had impressive footwork with a lot of it being on one foot. Nice fast more centered spins. I think the song was called "I want a lover like you" or something. I wasn't all THAT impressed with the program, but I love him anyway.
Michelle - loudest greeting but well, duh! Had a teeny problem with the flutz, but landed it. I noticed her blade turn over to the IE too for it. Her hair gets in the way. Nice full COE spiral. Last year at worlds she kinda half-assed it just doing a really deep IE and practically no OE at all. Her IE wasn't as deep as last year but I guess that she didn't wanna have to fight so much for the edge to change this time. Had a nice hydroblade. For one of the "emotional" michelle performances, FOG was the better of the two. It's early on in the tour though. Not too much choreo. Got an almost full standing O(about like how much S&Z did) but it wasn't immediate like theirs. More people started standing as she was bowing.
Finale -
They paired up skaters. I remember victor and elvis doing deathdrops. Viktors is better :P Irina and Elena S were paired up. They did laybacks and spirals. Sasha came out in a really pretty dress. She did the Sasha curl into her charlotte which got applause, then she did her layback in center of the ice, then she did this ending glide thingie. S&Z kinda fell out of their throw jump but that's ok, I love them anyway. Evgeny singled a lutz. Michelle did her gorgeous split leaf. The skaters had such pretty costumes on in the ending.
Overall I had fun. Didn't get any autographs, but maybe next year. I was a little concerned about how the turnout would be becasue me and my roomie bought 3rd row tickets on thursday. But when I got there, by the time the show started, we were almost a sell out. Only a few seats up the rafters were available. I thought it was kinda a shame how they didn't have the big jumbo tron up becasue the skaters probably looked like peas to them in the top. Oh well. Hope next years is fun too!
Also, I'm not really obsessed with flutzing. I just read reports from people all the time about it from comps and I wanted to see for myself if I could detect the switch live, not on tv or in slo mo ;)