This Conversation Seems Like A Dream

Friday night.

I had such a crappy week at work that I really didn't want to go to the Champions On Ice thing that I had tickets to. Thankfully, a couple of people who are a whole lot smarter than me finally got me to leave the house. Brett kept saying that I'd be glad I went, and would be kicking myself if I *didn't* go.

He was right.

I wish I could remember the order in which everyone skated--I only have some vague impressions of the exact list, and had no pen to write anything down with, so all this is going to be from a two day old memory... :)

The intro for all the skaters was done to a neat montage of songs from musicals. They're celebrating the 25th anniversary of the tour, so there were som old songs, and some new stuff. Each skater or pair got a minute or two to show off moves by way of intro, then the actual show started.

Nicole Bobek went first, and oh my god, the legs on that woman, I swear...Very nicely done program, though not as energetic as I've seen her do in the past.

I feel really awful, because I don't remember much about any of the pairs who skated, except for one rather, um, unorthodox pair, which I'll mention later. :)

Rudy Galindo, local boy and crowd favorite, came screeeeeeaming into the ice in purple velvet from head to toe, with a big fluffy purple cape that had his name in sequins on the back. He skated to a montage of Prince tunes--Let's Go Crazy, 1999, etc. He didn't do as much of the flashy stuff as he usually does, either, and it was kind of disappointing, even though it was awesome to see him skate.

Other notables:

Philippe Candeloro is ohmygod cute, and skated to God Bless The USA (with an American flag taped to his arm...which is sort of interesting, because he's *French*. But it was a great program, very energetic.

The Junior champion (I wish I could remember her name) skated, to Come What May from Moulin Rouge, so I spent that whole routine in tears. I love/hate that song.

Timothy Goebel skated a neat program, and used 'With Arms Wide Open' as his music.

Michelle Kwan was her normal energetic, beautiful self.

Irina Slutskaya skated to some very interesting Russian pop stuff, which was a little strange, but...oookay. :)

Sasha Cohen is amazing, I just have to say that right out. She looks about twelve, but holy crap, can she skate.

Evgeni Plushenko is flat out amazing, and was a complete joy to watch.

Elvis Stojko is another one of those dead sexy kinds of guys.

Victor Petrenko wasn't as much fun to watch as I was hoping--not bad, but not the best.

The two best parts of the evening for me were actually the two 'novelty' skaters--one duet, one single. The pair went first, Vladimir Besedin and Oleksiy Polishchuk. The things these two guys do...holy shit. I'm in awe, seriously. I mean, check out some of these pictures. Yes, that is one of them balanced upside down on top of the other's HEAD with just one hand. :)

The other was Irina Gregorian, who skates with hula-hoops. More pictures. Like, does jumps while spinning in a hula hoop, even. Like, spins eight of them around. Like...finishes off by spinning them around so much that she looks like she's inside a slinky. It's really damn impressive. :)

I'm kind of disappointed that we didn't get to see Surya Bonaly, because I really liked her, and we didn't see Sarah Hughes. All in all, though, it was fun, and I am glad I went. :)

Posted by Liz at June 1, 2003 01:38 PM