Dreams on Ice in Chicago, 2/8/03

[Josef]

Just wanted to pass along some information on a showin the Chicago area this weekend:

"Dreams on Ice"
Saturday February 8, 2003, at 2 PM

Edge Ice Arena
545 John St.
Bensenville, IL

Tickets: $20
Information: 800-511-1552

Cast:
Brian Boitano
Lobacheva & Averbukh
Elizabeth Manley
Jozef Sabovcik
Kovarikova & Novotny
Rory Burghart
Dan Hollander
Gia Guddat
Irina Grigorian
Saakian & Manoukian
Manzanet & Soukharev (Balancing act)
Alexzndra Apjarova (aerialist)
JoJo Starbuck

[manleywoman]

Does anyone in the Chicago area know how to get to this rink? I know it's about 45 minutes from downtown Chicago.

[bleu]

Any reviews?

[Orable]

This is long...I was so very excited bc this was the first time I've ever been to a live skating show. I don't remember the order in which they skated...

Ok. so the crowd was basically sell-out, it was a small arena which was GREAT bc you could see the expressions on the skaters's faces. unfortunately, the organization wasn't that great; microphones wouldn't work properly, they started late and intermission ran late too. But when they did start, oh boy did they! All the skaters except Gia Guddat, Liz Manley, Jojo Starbuck (Jojo and Liz were our Mistersses of Ceremony) and the synchro team skated twice. the intro was cool; each skater/team did their signature move. when Irina G came out, she had on this skin-tight red catsuit type thingy. guy behind me was mighty appreicative.

Obviously BB got the biggest roar. no standing ovation (no one got one) but before he could start his first program, the audience just wouldn't be quiet! they had to restart tghe music, lol. the BB Fan Club that was there represented 10 states. He did a perfect 'tano lutz right in front of me in the first program! the second program he fell on that lutz bc: A. the rink was really small, and B. in each of the four corners of the rink, there were ice sculptures. so he fell, but he managed to get up and got a roar of applause anyway teh second program, btw is a male version of Hernando's Hideaway. complete with hat and cigar. IMO, Brian Boitano is definitely a skater you have to see live to appreciate the power of his skating. he is fast fast fast, powerful powerful powerful and incredibly, all scratch-free. I could not hear a thing when he whizzed past me. his jumps are still there 15 yrs after his Olys gold, and he was easily the fastest skater out there yesterday.

Rory Flack Burghart was AMAZING. her first program was a really balletic graceful one (sorry I do't have all the names of the programs...they didn't write them down adn I don't have them memorized) her second one was Hit the Road Jack. Her split positions are so high and powerful. she hit nice layback positions and had a nice Ina Bauer in one of her programs, but this audience was more intersted in tricks than in actual skating. boo...LOL. In the oepening and closing, they had her do (is it Russian) splits with Jozef Sabovcek. very cool.

Jozef Sobovcek (great segue, no? lol) was one that I was surprised to like so much. Like BB, he was fast and powerful and smooth and still has all his jumps. They were so high and easily executed. crowd liked his backflips the most. His first program was a nice ballad-y thing, and the ladies behind me (OH MY LORD, THEY WERE THE LOUDEST FOLKS EVER. ANNOYING CASUAL FANS) kept gushing "well fer goshssakes--wow. he's smooth." in really suggestive voices. His second program was that annoying creed song (sorry, I don't like em lol) but there were lots of backflips and stuff, so crowd was appreciative.

Crowd really loved Dan Hollander who did his Mrs Doubtfire and another progra like it. complete iwth all the hollander tricks.

Akop Saakian/Armen Manoukian. gymnasts on ice guys. Don't know which is which but one of them was the producer of the show, lol. the ladies behind me apparently thought they were gay (everytiem they'd hold hands to do a trick, the women would laugh suggestively ) so when Jojo mentioned that AkoporArmen--which one I dunno, lol--produced the shwo and just produced with his wife a new baby girl (btw, dumb way to put it lol) annoying casual fan number two was like, "a wife! well, fer goshssakes--who'd a thought!" whatever. AkopandArmen were cool. They did a military routine and an Austen Powers thing. After BB, ArmenandAkop got the most applause all afternoon.

Kovarikova/Novotny were really cute. at the end of each program, he kissed her head she fell on a (small) triple throw, but i think teh size of the rink had sth do with it. their lifts are amazing. I thikn G/G and B/S have ruined pairs skating for me--I can't look at other pairs w/o comparing.

Liz Manley skated to Madonna song and they mentioned that she'd broken her foot last year. she can DAAANCE! unfortunately she fell on one of her jumps, but it was a nice program.

Irina Grigorian did her hula hoop thingy. even though I dress conservatively (hello, lol) I ususally don't have to raise my eyebrows at what skaters are wearing unless it's ugly hehe. but her costume...whoa baby. at least the straight men were happy. ok, enough with teh snarky commentary. I'd never seen her before, but from reading reviews, I thought I woudn't like her. She was better than I expected and can even skate! the fire hula was amazing though. She got a lot of applause. And wolf whistles, lol.

Gia Guddat did a Spiderman routine where she had skates on her hand too. Too out there for most of the crowd to appreicate, but I loved the cool shapes she was able to make. It looked like she had four legs! she managed to do a few gliding handstands and a move wehre she 's in a push-up position, but her legs and body are completly parallel to the ice. I liked her a lot.

LOBACHEVA AND AVERBUKH!!!! hehe can you guess who I was there to see? they were intro'd as the 2002 Salt Lake City Olys Silver Medallists (ladies behind me wondered aloud if it was this last olys) reigning world and Russian Nat'l Champs and STILL tehy got a somewhat lukewarm response for their first program. It was the exhibition from last year, but with last years FD costumes. They looked tired but insanely happy. I noticed Ilia yapping away at Irina during the intro. The rink was so small and they were so close, I could see his dimples! (ok, that was odd and creepy...will stop being creepy fan now... )They both had huge smiles on their faces the whole time. I mean it, they looked khhhhheppy! anyway, after they finished their exh, they got HUUUUGE applause and actually, the audience grew more appreicative as the routine went on. My side of the rink was loudest and we were treated to Ilia blowing us kisses.

You know what their second routine was? hehe, yep yep, this years freedance! I must say, Irina's dress is the Most. Hideous. Shade. Of. Orange. Anywhoo, the music didn't start on time, and Ilia started tapping his fingers and dancing lol. He was really getting into it. Unfortunately, I was apparently sitting in the non-judges side as many of their moves were in the far far corner away from me and I got much of their backsides, but they did two beautiful, scratch-free dance spins right in front of me the last spin/dismount was off, but they looked happy enough. The music cuts are much different than they were at CoR. thankfully lol. Audience didn't really get into this program as much as I thought they would, but they still gave them a huuuuge round of applause at teh end. Ilia looked like he didnt want to leave--they stayed forever and after going to the skater's entrance, he turned around again and bowed and waved to the audience.

The closing was to Proud to be an American: all the skaters/teams came out and did their own special moves while holding the US flag--it fell from Dan Hollander--twice, lol. He was appropriately bashful :) At the end, all the skaters came out together, each holding flags from various other countries. And fireworks. Literally. It was a great afternoon for me, with the exception of some comments by clueless folks. If ppl want to hear how the synchro team, Apjarova and Libra did, please PM me.

Cheers, Orable
(told you it was long!)

[bleu]

Oh come on Orable....(bleu raise one of her eyebrow UP!!!).

...what is your opinion about L&A's free skate vis a vis B&K.

:oops: :roll: :lol: :lol:

Inquiring minds need to know.:lol: :lol:

[Orable]

LOL Bleu...well I haven't seen B/K's FD yet, nor did I see L/A's Euro version of their FD so I can't really make a comparison. At Dreams on Ice they looked tired but happy. They weren't as spot on as they usually are and obviously it was watered down. I love L/A but I tend to agree with the commentators who think this FD is too exhibition-y and they might suffer wrt to marks in comparison to B/K's FD. I read somewhere that B/K have out-Russianed the Russians in their FD, so it will be interesting to see the two programs going head to head at Worlds, with hopefully both teams skating at the top of their form. :)

Cheers, Orable