Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 15:50:23 -0400 From: Sandra Loosemore To: skatefans-l@udel.edu, rec.sport.skating.ice.figure-news@babyblue.cs.yale.edu Subject: Review: Skate the Nation, 4/27 I suppose one measure of one's dedication as a skatefan is how much time one is willing to spend travelling to see a show or competition, compared to how much time one actually spends watching skating. Well, I think this event set a new record for me: 10 hours of driving to see 2 hours of skating. I'd been hoping to see this show in New Hampshire on Friday night, but for various reasons didn't get organized in time, so I wound up doing the Sunday matinee in Syracuse instead. Incidentally, a better name for this tour would be "Skate a Few Small Cities in the Northeast and Midwest" rather than "Skate the Nation"! The remaining shows are later this week in Toledo and Green Bay. I met up with Trudi before the show. Downtown Syracuse seems to be even more dead than New Haven, at least on a Sunday, but we eventually found a restaurant that was open and traded skating gossip over lunch before heading off to the arena. This is a smallish arena and it wasn't anywhere near full. We wound up sitting about four rows up at center ice, with lots of empty seats around us. When we got our programs, we spent some time ooh-ing ah-ing over the cast, as there were some surprises we hadn't been expecting. The opening ensemble used the "diamond commercial" music (which is not anything classical at all, but something composed specifically for the commercial to *sound* like Vivaldi). After that, we were on to a succession of unrelated "cold spots". Yuka Sato's program, I think, was new, but I have no idea what her music was. It was some pop thing with a female vocalist. She was wearing a stunning new costume, too -- sort of a fuschia color, with an asymmetrical pleated skirt that was dyed a lighter pink around the hem, and some sequins running diagonally over the bodice and over the shoulder. The effect of the program was disrupted somewhat when she slipped off her edge on the entrance to a loop jump -- whoops! Peggy Schwarz & Mirko Muller were one of the "surprise" additions to the cast. Unfortunately, my reaction to their program was kind of, "huh?" This is a case where the costuming was a distraction. Peggy was wearing a black velour catsuit, very low cut on the top, and with feather trim around the ankles and wrists. It made an odd sort of contrast with her very short, severe haircut. Mirko, BTW, could pass for John Baldwin Jr.'s double. Scott Davis skated to "Still Got the Blues". I'll leave it to Trudi to comment on how this compares to Brian Orser's version. Given Scott's propensity for making faces during his programs, though, I think we were probably fortunate to be on the "back" side of the arena for this one. ;-) Scott was taking it easy in this show, doing lots of doubles and not having much luck with the few triples he did attempt. The jump award for the night had to go to Maria Butyrskaya. In the first half she did the same "Adagio" program I saw her do in Simsbury last week, with an apparently effortless triple loop and triple toe. Roca & Sur did some sort of rock'n'roll program with lots of arm-thrashing and dancing on their toe picks interspersed with lifts and other "tricks". It didn't float my boat, but the audience seemed to like it. This was another instance of strange, distracting costuming. Renee was wearing tight pants made of black lace over a hot pink lining -- is this supposed to be attractive, or merely outrageous? Caryn Kadavy skated "It's all coming back to me now" for the umpteenth time this season. This program is so familiar by now that one of the kids sitting behind me was singing along all the way through it. Steven Cousins, one of the other "surprises" in the cast, skated some country music thing. It looked to me like he's been taking lessons from Gary Beacom, doing a sitspin with about 5 changes of foot in the program, among other gimmicks. I found the whole thing kind of tedious but the audience generally seemed to like it. Next up was yet another "surprise" addition to the cast -- Stephanie Stiegler & John Zimmerman. They did "Dude Looks like a Lady" yet again, but one thing I can say about this program is that I've never seen them do it in the same costumes twice. This time Stephanie was dressed like a cheerleader and John was wearing shiny, tight, black faux-snakeskin pants and a leopard-print shirt. I spent most of the number admiring John strutting about in those pants. ;-) Jozef Sabovcik was next, skating to (guess what?) Bruce Springsteen. He had some nice split jumps in this program and a couple of triple toes, but it seemed kind of weak on connecting elements -- a lot of standing around posing, two-foot skating, and crossovers. Kitty & Peter Carruthers skated an old, old program, "Here's to Life", which I remember first seing in person at a show in the fall of 1992. They did a throw double salchow as well as their lateral twist. Peter looks to be a little out of shape but he looked like he was having a great time and they did a surprisingly good job, given how little they must be training nowadays. Before I saw them announced for this show I had thought that they were pretty much retired now. Next, Paul Wylie skated "Bring Him Home". The jumps weren't quite there for him in this performance (that triple lutz was downright scary), but he seemed to be much more "into" this program than when I'd seen it last fall -- he was singing along with the lyrics, and all. Katarina Witt skated "Baby" next. This wasn't her day for jumps either -- only a double toe and single axel. This led into the closing number for the first act, "Bring on the Men". What a hoot -- all of the male members of the cast (sans Paul) chasing Kat around the rink. She wound up vamping with Scott Davis, yipes. I was giggling uncontrollably by the end of the number. That was the end of the first act. During intermission Trudi and I wandered over to chat with NotDeby and her mom, who I'd spotted a little earlier. As we were rushing back to our own seats at the end of the intermission, we practically bumped right into Paul Wylie, who was rushing out to make his cue. (We've really got to stop meeting like this! ;-) I'm almost afraid that Paul must think I'm stalking him on purpose.) Paul started out with a spiel about the joys of skating to movie music, and that's what we got. My notes on the second half are sketchier, but just to pick out a few of the highlights: I liked Steven Cousins' second number as much as I disliked the one he did in the first half. He skated to "Help!", portraying a perfect dweeb, complete with glasses that he had to hold on his nose whenever he did a spin. I guess I just find geek humor more convincing than country-hick humor! The other surprise for me was how much I enjoyed Katarina's "Evita" program. She seemed more "on", jump-wise, than in the first half (she had two clean double axels this time), but more importantly the program worked as a whole. I also enjoyed seeing Roca & Sur skating "Maria" again. I think the slower-paced music and more lyrical style suits them better than the frenetic jiggling they did in the first act. To fit into the movie theme of the second act, Paul skated "Mission Impossible", with more double jumps. (I wonder when we *are* going to get to see him do "Touch Me" again....) One of the joys of going to these IMG-produced shows is playing "name that costume" for the ensemble numbers! They're thrifty folks at IMG and you never know when those old "Stars on Ice" costumes are going to show up again. This time, for the closing number we got to see the costumes from the Beatles finale from last year's tour. Earlier in the show, we'd also seen some of the Rolling Stones costumes and the black-and-white costumes from the opening number 2(?) years ago. So, that was the show. I left quickly at the end, so that I could get back on the road. Actually, I can't complain -- I made it home earlier than I did after the Simsbury show a few nights before. -Sandra