From: loosemore-sandra
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 13:12:49 -0400 (EDT)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.skating.ice.figure
Subject: Review:  An Evening With Champions
cc: skatefans-l@UDel.Edu
Sender: owner-skatefans-l@UDel.Edu

Here's my report on this year's edition of "An Evening With
Champions", the annual Jimmy Fund benefit at Harvard.  I went to two
of the three shows this year (Friday night and Saturday afternoon);
there were a few changes in between, which I'll note as I go along.
Perhaps someone else who was at the Saturday night show can fill us in
on what happened there.

Each show opened with a different set of local skaters.  Most notably,
we got precision teams -- the Haydenettes on Friday night, and the
Shoreline of Cape Cod junior team on Saturday afternoon.  It seems to
me like audiences at skating shows are getting more knowledgable about
precision now, and the Haydenettes, in particular, seemed to be a big
hit.  I think it must have been their short program that they
performed, with a clever ballet theme.  The other local skaters they
got were all comparatively low-level, mostly younger kids.

The first of the featured skaters was Ann Patrice McDonough.  She is
11 years old, trains with Kathy Casey, and was the US national
intermediate champion last season.  She skated "Samson and Delilah" (I
assume it's her competitive long program), wearing what looked like a
red version of Michelle Kwan's "Salome" costume with the dreaded nude
fabric midriff.  She has good, fast spins, and -- amazingly -- a
triple lutz.  However, she doesn't have the rest of her triples yet,
and even her double axel looked weak, and I'd guess she probably has
problems with her edge jumps in general.  She's still very young
looking, but she seemed to have a fair amount of presence and poise.

Michael Chack was next.  On Friday night, he skated to Billy Joel's
"Pressure" in a red t-shirt and blue jeans.  He skated well and hit
the jumps and other elements nicely, but my sense was that the program
was too generic and didn't really play up his strengths, and I didn't
think it caught the attention of the audience as a result.  So I was
pleased that on Saturday afternoon he switched over to "Anthem" (from
"Chess"), which is a slower and more lyrical piece with more
thoughtful choreography.  I think it showed him to much better
advantage.  (This was the program he skated at the Ice Castle 4th of
July show, which I had gotten a tape of, so it wasn't entirely new to
me.)  Once again, he nailed everything, including a nice triple lutz.
I liked it, and so did the rest of the audience.  He was wearing a
plain black outfit for this one.  BTW, for those of you who remember
how he looked at last year's show, Michael is growing his hair out
again.  "My hair is getting big!" is how he described it to me.

Kate Robinson & Peter Breen skated an Irish number in green costumes.
I guess this is part of their free dance, and I felt that it was a lot
more interesting and compelling than the program they did last year.
More on the continuing Hair Report: Kate is wearing her hair short
now, and Peter's is long.  It looked like he forgot to comb it that
day -- someone described this as the "Hugh Grant look".

Jessica Mills skated her "Addams Family" competitive short program.
It's a good program, but she was having major jump trouble in both
performances; on Friday she doubled everything, on Saturday she
tried a triple and fell, and in both shows she only did a single axel
instead of a double.  Given that the competitive season is approaching
fast, I don't think this is a good sign.

Elena Bechke & Denis Petrov skated to some fairly serious classical
violin and piano piece that I don't recognize.  I'm really gaining an
appreciation for this pair; unlike most of the professional pair
teams, they still do side-by-side jumps and throws, and they've been
very inventive with their lifts and other tricks and not just putting
the same elements in every program.  And they got a really good
reception from the audience, which I think demonstrates that the
skaters don't *have* to stick with a lowest-common-denominator
approach of flash instead of substance.

Dan Hollander did his janitor number from the TOC, which I had heard
about but never seen.  He had some minor jump trouble in both shows
but nothing disruptive.  The crowd loved it.  For an encore on Friday
night, he did a back flip over three people laying on the ice.  On
Saturday afternoon, there were *four* people.  Maybe by Saturday night
he was up to five?  :-)

Karen Kwan skated her competitive short program, the same one she had
last year.  Unfortunately, she was having jump problems in both shows,
falling on the triple toe.  I do think that her speed and confidence
on the ice have improved since last year, though, and when she skates
cleanly (as she did in San Jose) this program can be quite lovely.
She was wearing the peach-colored costume with the flappy fabric strips
that Michelle has also been seen in.

The Protopopovs closed out the first half of the show skating to
"Thais" in green costumes.  They aren't putting a great many "tricks"
in their programs any more but they have such elegance about them and
project such joy in their skating that they're wonderful to watch.  I
think it's great that they're still coming over to do this show every
year.  Unlike last year, this time the rest of the audience apprecated
them, too.  For an encore, they did a long, long pair spiral around
the rink.

Following more local skaters, the second half of the show opened with
Eve Chalom & Matthew Gates.  On Friday night, they did what looked like
their free dance, and on Saturday afternoon they did their tango.  They
skated well enough, but perhaps because Eve (in particular) looks so
young, I still tend to think of this couple as "talented kids" rather
than "mature artists".

Caryn Kadavy skated the same program in the satin & chiffon dress as
she did at the "Three Masters" show in New Haven.  She had trouble
with the triple toe in both shows but it's a good program for her.
(But having seen it three times now, I'm not sure how many more times
I'd care to see it....)

Kyoko Ina & Jason Dungjen skated what has to be their new short
program.  They were dressed in striking black and purple costumes, and
the music was some really weird, intense stuff with a lot of
percussion, and they both seemed to be quite serious in their
expression as they skated.  I really liked it; it's a style that works
for them, and shows off their technical abilities.  Friday night's
performance was a little messy (Jason had a fall at the end of the
program that was actually kind of humorous) but Saturday's was nice
and clean.  Their twist lift is really big, they've improved their
unison on their side-by-side spins, and they went for the triple toes
both nights.

In the Friday night show, Ilya Kulik skated next.  He was a no-show on
Saturday, no explanation given.  He was wearing this extremely weird
black costume with red flame-like inserts and silver trim and a fringy
thing around his waist and big shoulders, but who knows what it's
supposed to represent?  It was his competitive short program to some
violin concerto I didn't recognize.  He stepped out of the triple axel
but landed a nice lutz.  I didn't think all of the arm-thrashing in
this program matched the music, but maybe it went with the excesses of
his costume.  For an encore, he did what I believe is a section of his
new long program.  It was new to me and I had a hard time soaking it
all in.

On Saturday afternoon, Ilya was replaced with Paul doing his Bach
Adagio program.  He seems to be more comfortable with the program now,
and I was able to appreciate the choreography more, seeing more of the
interconnections and how each movement flowed into the next instead of
just noting that he was doing a lot of individual moves that were new.

Josee Chouinard skated to some lightweight latin disco thing in a
program that did nothing to show her off.  On top of that, she was
having jump problems in both shows, which maybe looked worse than they
really were because she was so stiff on her knees that even the jumps
she was landing cleanly looked awkward.  Josee has her hair cut short
now, BTW, and she was wearing a bright pink dress for this program.
(As an aside, Josee was introduced as being "known for her beauty and
grace on the ice", which struck me as an incredibly sexist remark.  It
would be ludicrous to introduce a male skater that way, commenting on
his looks or physical attributes instead of his skating, wouldn't it?
Maybe it's time for me to do another satire for my web page....)

Bechke & Petrov skated next, the only ones (other than Paul in the
Saturday show) to do two numbers.  This one was a light and humorous
Russian folk dance thing, again filled with a lot of original moves.
There's one thing they do where he tosses her over his head while
they're doing a pair spin, and they also did a couple of flippy little
lifts.  They really do seem to be favorites with the audience.

In the Friday night show only, Irina Slutskaya made an unexpected
appearance.  She was not listed in the program and didn't participate
in the opening or closing numbers.  She skated what I think was last
year's short program, a latin thing in the black dress with pink
ruffles.  Unfortunately, she had a fall and it wasn't a really good 
performance for her.

Paul was the last skater up, with his "Bring Him Home" program.  I
have to admit that this program has really grown on me and I think
it's on its way to becoming one of his signature pieces.
(Interestingly enough, I saw Oleg Protopopov come out with a home
video camera to tape Paul skating this program.)  Paul was also having
some jump trouble, doubling the lutz on Friday night and falling on
the triple on Saturday afternoon, but it didn't destroy the effect of
the program.

Then it was the not-so-grand finale with the entire cast.  I saw part
of the practice on Friday morning where JoJo Starbuck was putting
together the choreography and they were still working on it right up
until the very last minute.  (On top of that, Ilya had a solo bit that
had to be rechoreographed for Michael and Dan on Saturday.)  Well,
somehow, the skaters managed to pull it off.  The highlight was
definitely seeing Oleg Protopopov boogie to "Jailhouse Rock" as the
skaters were going off the ice.

Overall, I thought the show was very good, with a much stronger cast
than last year's edition.  It was unfortunate that so many of the
ladies, in particular, were having problems with their jumps, though.
They were doing retakes for TV after the Saturday afternoon show so
maybe it will all look OK when it finally is broadcast.  I really hope
they don't chack Michael :-( again.  He's not a big-name skater (yet),
but he *was* basically the only one who was skating cleanly all the
way through.

I know the organizers didn't have much choice about the scheduling
this year, but it's got to be tiring for the skaters to have to do two
shows in one day -- especially for Paul, who was doing the hosting
duties as well as skating two solo numbers.  Michael told me after the
Saturday afternoon show that he was already exhausted.

Finally, it's time for the Cat Report, since a lurker :-) encouraged
me to continue including this in my reviews: this time Slinky and Nerf
behaved themselves while I was away, and I didn't have to clean up any
hairballs.

-Sandra