Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 12:09:07 -0400
From: Sandra Loosemore <loosemore-sandra>
To: skatefans-l@udel.edu,
        rec.sport.skating.ice.figure-news@babyblue.cs.yale.edu
Subject: Review:  "The Art of Russian Skating"

Last night I went up to Simsbury to see "The Art of Russian Skating".
This was an IMG-produced, one-time show, which turned out to be very
much made for TV.  It's supposed to be broadcast on A&E in September.

The Simsbury rink is pretty small; I guess it seats a couple thousand
on the bleachers on one side of the rink.  They had some seats on the
ice as well, but directly in front of these seats they had a TV camera
running back and forth on tracks, accompanied by a cameraman, two
"pushers", and a guy to keep the cables and wires from getting tangled
up, which must have been pretty distracting to the people who were
sitting there.  They had the other three sides of the rink completely
draped in floor-to-ceiling black curtains and some pretty fancy lights
installed.  There were many long gaps in between the skating numbers
while the production crew messed with the lights.  Bob Young, the head
coach and guru at Simsbury, acted as the host and tried to keep the
audience entertained during the delays.  Because of all of the retakes
and delays, the show wound up running well over 3 hours.  There were
no fancy programs, just a photocopied sheet they were handing out at
the door.

Act I opened with Ekaterina Gordeeva skating "Giselle".  This is an
old program by now, but I thought she seemed kind of slow and
tentative, and she had trouble with her jumps, which were "fixed" in a
later retake.

Bechke & Petrov skated their Shostakovich program, which is also
familiar by now.  A typical performance for them, with a throw triple
salchow and side-by-side double flips.

Usova & Zhulin skated their "Love Story" program.  Frankly, I found
this rather tedious.  It was more adagio skating than dance, with lots
of lifts and posing but not a lot of footwork or skating close
together or even paying much attention to skating in time with the
music.  Knowing their history, the theme of the program isn't
particularly convincing to me, either!

Maria Butyrskaya was next, skating a program that was new to me: a
kind of modern arrangement of the Albinoni "Adagio", with flute and
spanish-style guitar.  She was wearing a tasteful, plain white dress
with a halter top and a long sheer skirt with a gray tint to the hem,
and had her hair up instead of in her usual ponytail.  I liked the
look and the program, which was cleanly skated with a double axel,
triple loop and a triple toe.  I think that perhaps the most impressive
thing she did, though, was a camel spin -- perfectly centered and in
a particularly nice arched-back position.

Then it was Ilia Kulik's turn, with his "Faust" program.  Alas, this
was just not Ilia's night.  He popped the axel combination, stepped
out of the triple lutz, and came close to losing it on the death drop
as well.  In retakes at the end of the first act, he made 9 more
attempts at the triple axel combination without getting a clean one.
I suspect what makes it into the broadcast will either be the clean
double axel/double toe, or the one where he did a double three out of
the triple axel into a double toe, although I thought the most
entertaining one was the triple axel/triple toe where he wound up
landing on his butt and raising his arms in a flourish.  ;-)

Krylova & Ovsiannikov were next with the "Malaguena" program they are
said to be doing on the TOC.  This was another show program with the
emphasis on lifts and posing rather than fancy footwork, but it was
certainly convincing and dramatic, at least until an unintentionally
humorous moment near the end.  Angelika wears this long, ruffly skirt
with the hem tied to her wrist that she waves around throughout most
of the program, but then she sheds the skirt entirely to reveal an
unmistakable wedgie!

Irina Slutskaya was next, wearing that red beaded dress that has also
been known to cause her a different sort of embarrassing costume
problem, skating to Saint-Saens "Rondo Capriccioso".  Yes, this is the
same music Michelle Kwan used for a competitive program a couple of
years ago, and I wondered if this might actually be Irina's new short
program for next season.  She tripped up in the circular footwork 
sequence but that was fixed in a retake later.

Katya came back out with her Rachmaninov program.  She seemed less
tentative than before but still managed to single the axel and fall on
the double salchow in combination at the end of the program.  In the
retakes, though, she got them both cleanly on the first attempt.  

Ilia Kulik was the first skater up after the intermission, skating his
"Liebestraum" program that I'd heard about but never seen.  He's
wearing a loose white shirt over black velvet pants.  Well, it's still
not Ilia's night; he doubles the opening triple loop, splats on the
triple axel out of the spread eagle (you could just hear everyone in
the audience groaning as we realized we were in for more endless
retakes), and doubles the triple flip.  He got the flip on the second
retake and the loop on the third, and wonder of wonders, actually
landed the triple axel after a few more attempts!  He got a standing
ovation when he finally did it.  When he does land these jumps,
they're just gorgeous to look at -- high and straight and tight and
landed in a nice position -- but he's been having so much trouble with
inconsistency of late that I can see why he's doing a program with
only one jump in it on the TOC.

Irina Slutskaya was next with the "Kalinka" program she's doing on
the tour.  She has her hair in pigtails, carries a handkerchief in
one hand, and wears a red costume with a stiff ruffly skirt that
doesn't seem especially flattering to her.  This program includes
a change-of-edge spiral that isn't nearly as impressive as Michelle
Kwan's, and a triple salchow that she stepped out of (fixed later
in retakes), but the real highlight of the program is her spins --
very fast and well-centered with complicated changes of positions.

Kazakova & Dmitriev were next with the exhibition version of their
"Zarathustra" program.  They're wearing their long program costumes
from earlier in the season -- the black lacy dress, etc.  They screwed
up the throw triple toe, but the audience loved it, especially that
lift at the end that starts out looking like a star lift before Artur
changes his hold so that he's supporting Oksana by her leg.

Krylova & Ovsiannikov came back to skate a blues number.  I found the
whole program kind of blah and uninteresting.  Angelika is wearing
pants for this program so at least she manages to avoid getting another
wedgie.

Eltsova & Bushkov did their "Caruso" program.  For some reason this
pair never seems to be able to come up with very exciting programs,
and this one was no exception.  I thought the most interesting thing
about it was this upside-down swing element.  I'm not usually a big
fan of "tricks" like this, but I thought this one looked neat.

Next up were Usova & Zhulin, doing "Red Flower", the tango-type piece
I've seen before from them on TV.  Again, lots of lifts and not much
dancing, but I thought the program was a lot more effective than the
first one they did in the show.

Bechke & Petrov skated "Romance" next.  This is a program I've seen
many times by now, but once again it was a typically professional job
from them.  This program also had a throw triple salchow and double
flips, but the thing I like about it most is that lift that evolves
into a spin and back into a lift.

Katya was the last skater of the show, doing the "No One is Alone"
program from SOI.  It was a clean skate for her, except that she
doubled the toe loop, and it got her a standing ovation.  Something
rather amusing happened in the retakes on that toe loop -- the first
time around, she landed a nice triple, but her hair came undone!  So
she had to try it again after getting her hair pinned up again.

And that was the show.  There wasn't any semblance of a closing number.
After the retakes were finished, the skaters were just called back out
to center ice to take their bows, and that was it.

Overall, I'd say the show was marginally worth having gone to.  I
definitely like the more informal events in the smaller rinks better
than the big arena shows, but the made-for-TV atmosphere at this one
was kind of a put-off, and the endless delays and retakes became
tedious.  I think I would have had more fun just watching the skaters
practice.  I'd seen most of these programs before, anyway.

I spotted Viktor Petrenko and his wife in the audience.  Also sitting
one section over from me were Simsbury regulars Vladimir Petrenko and
April and John Thomas.  If Oksana Baiul or Scott Davis were there, I
didn't see them.

-Sandra