From: loosemore-sandra
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 23:57:51 -0400 (EDT)
To: skatefans-l@copland.udel.edu,
        rec.sport.skating.ice.figure-news@babyblue.cs.YALE.EDU
Subject: New Haven TOC report
Sender: owner-skatefans-l@UDel.Edu

Just got home from the New Haven edition of the Tour of Champions.
The disadvantage of going to an ice show within walking distance of
where you live is that you get wet walking home if it happens to be
raining out.  Which it is.  :-)

I screwed up by ordering my ticket late and wound up in row 25, almost
into the nosebleed section.  I did manage to get center ice this time
instead of winding up in the lutz corner yet again.  However, this may
be because the New Haven Coliseum doesn't *have* any seats in the
corners.  :-)

I'm not going to bother listing the running order and who did what
here since it was virtually the same as what a dozen other people have
already described.  Yes, Ilya Kulik and the other Russians were still
in this show.  No, Dan, Tonia, Scott, and the other replacements for
the departing Russians did not skate.

There were quite a few falls and poorly-landed jumps in the show.
Perhaps the most spectacular was Jenni Meno landing her throw double
axel on her butt and sliding halfway across the rink.  A lot of the
skaters were taking it easy and not attempting anything harder than a
triple toe.  Rudy and Todd did triple loops, Surya Bonaly did a triple
toe/half loop/triple salchow, Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano did
triple lutzes, and Viktor Petrenko had the only triple axel of the
night.

A few impressions about specific skaters:

Nicole's bird program worked a lot better than it did when I saw it
in Boston last month.  She landed a triple toe and double axel cleanly,
then fell on her butt on a second triple toe.  But the jumps she did land
were big and powerful again.

Surya was a big hit with the audience because of all the tricks she
threw into her program, but I was really put off by her awkward entrances
into her jumps and her clunky spirals and spins.  This is the first time
I've seen her in person and she looks worse than on TV, IMHO.

Ilya skated his "Addams Family" short program.  He was having trouble
with turning out of the landings on his jumps, but geez, that guy can
sure do terrific footwork.  I think I'm in love.  :-)  From where I was
sitting, his arm movements didn't look overdone, either.  Obviously I
didn't get a chance to pat him onna head from the 25th row, though.

Alexei -- wow, is he fast.  The audience loved his knee waggles!

OK, I admit I didn't "get" Usova & Zhulin's program with the mask and
noose.  But I like the music (the Rachmaninoff C# minor prelude), and
of course we got to see Sasha in tights -- yum!  :-)

I noticed that Viktor seems to have acquired a bald patch on the back
of his head.  No wonder he spends half his program wearing a hat.

Sorry, Nancy K fans, but she was pretty dreadful.  Her presentation was
terribly robotic, particularly in her arm movements.  She turned out of
the triple toe she tried, and went sprawling on the ice on a double axel.
She got a lot of applause when she was introduced, but I don't think
the audience was impressed with her skating.

Oksana Baiul had her problems too -- she went for a triple salchow
which she landed awkwardly on two feet, and then she popped an axel.
But at least she was convincing in her presentation.  The lady sitting
next to me was wondering if Oksana was anorexic, BTW.  It does look like
she may have lost some weight since I last saw her perform in person
in Toronto last fall.

As usual, I found that Brian Boitano comes across better in person
than he does on TV.  I did find all of those spread eagles kind of
excessive, though.  C'mon, let's see some more variety in the
connecting elements, please.

-Sandra