From: loosemore-sandra
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 22:56:33 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Sandra goes to Lake Placid, take 2

I just got back from another spur-of-the-moment trip to Lake Placid.
I had so much fun the last time I thought I'd try it again.  Alas, the
Weather Channel lied to me and the weather was snowy and messy both
for the drive up on Sunday and coming back earlier this evening.  At
least I was wearing my winter driving karma sweatshirt -- the one that
says "I yoosta be a Yooper" on it.  

Anyway, this time I saw lots of skating and didn't skate at all
myself.  Yesterday, with several of the "Stars on Ice" cast members
absent at "Skates of Gold", pretty much the whole afternoon and
evening were devoted to putting together an ensemble with Susanna &
Petri, Kurt, Roz, and Elena & Denis.  It's a Spanish song with some
sort of a cowboy theme, I guess.  I heard Sandra Bezic say that she
spent a whole hour listening to horse noises to find one to dub into
this.  I know that with last year's show people were wondering how
much of Kurt's schmoozing with Katarina was acting.  Well, if you see
Kurt and Roz schmoozing all over each other in this number, rest
assure that they literally spent *hours* choreographing all of those
gropes and grinds.  Highlight of the evening: Michael Seibert taking
Roz's role and demonstrating exactly how he wanted her to do it!

Backing up a little, before work on this number got underway the
skaters were all doing some individual practice.  Susanna & Petri did
runthroughs of pieces of several numbers, including one to accordian
music that I think is supposed to be funny, a serious "Sleeping
Beauty", their old "Batty Bride" program, and one to a new age type
vocal.  Kurt has got his jumps back, no doubt about it; I saw him do
several triple axels and his triple salchow/triple loop combination.
Roz, suprisingly enough, was also working on triples, and taking a lot
of nasty falls in the process.  I think she really *wants* to get her
triple toe back, but from what I saw it's not even close.  Tuffy &
Doug were also around practicing a bluesy rock ballad in the other
rink.

I also had a chance to watch the resident ice dancers for a while.
Shae-Lynn and Victor were there this time.  Was the day I was there a
couple weeks ago the day that she got hurt?  This time I saw her
rubbing her knee a couple times so I guess it is still giving her some
grief.  They were working on pieces of their Paso Doble but I didn't
see them do a run-through of the whole thing.  They simply *fly*
around the rink, though -- very impressive!  I also spotted Maia and
Sasha, who didn't seem to be working on anything in particular.  Maia
looks quite ordinary without the theatrical makeup, BTW.  And Sasha
was wearing baggy sweatpants so as not to excite the lust of the
spectators, I guess.  ;-)

On to Monday morning.  I'll pay homage to Trudi here by mentioning
that the cafeteria at the arena serves a decent breakfast as long as
you don't mind eating it with plastic utensils.  And there were no
lines at the ladies' room.  :-)

So, the entire SOI cast (except for Katerina Witt) showed up to work
on the opening number.  It's a lot further along than when I saw it
two weeks ago.  They did several runthroughs while Sandra Bezic was
conferring with someone who was presumably one of the production crew
about lighting, and Michael was trying to get everybody to stay in
unison and hold their arms the same way and things like that.

Afternoon, and the skaters broke up for individual practice.  Paul has
a new program under construction to music from "Apollo 13", and I'm
afraid folks who were pleased at seeing the new choreography in "On
the Waterfront" are going to be very disappointed in this one, because
all I saw was yet another rehash of stuff from Paul's old programs.  I
also think this music is just not very interesting.  I didn't see him
do "On the Waterfront", which I would have liked, but he did do a
runthrough of "How About You".

I hope I'm not giving away a trade secret here, but Scott Hamilton has
a new program to the theme from "Hair!".  I just about died laughing
when I realized what that music was.

OK, now it's on to the highlight of the trip.  I'd reported that on my
previous visit I saw Michael Seibert working with G&G on a piece of
Glazunov's "The Seasons".  It turns out this is part of an ensemble
number with Kristi and Paul as well.  Kristi's piece stands by itself
and I wouldn't be surprised to see her using it in some upcoming pro
competitions.  It's simply packed technically, with a triple
flip/triple toe combination, a triple loop, etc.  When I saw her doing
a runthrough of it I thought this program would stand up well at
nationals or worlds.  And in fact, later Paul made a remark to Sandra
Bezic about how this whole ensemble number was a throwback to amateur
days.  It's the kind of skating I love best, anyway: serious classical
music that's interesting in its own right, and choreography that
interprets the melody and musical phrasing in an abstract kind of way,
with an emphasis on flow and line and pure skating, and without the
skaters necessarily trying to act out roles or tell a (typically dumb)
story.  And this kind of extended ensemble treatment of a single theme
that goes beyond the confines of what an individual skater can do as a
competitive program is precisely the kind of thing I'd like to see pro
skaters do more of.  If we're going to get a steady diet of pro
skating on TV, I'd much rather see this sort of thing than all of
those inane pro competitions.  I fervently hope TNT won't chack this
number when they do the broadcast of the show.

-Sandra