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Kaercher Gala 2002 in Frankfurt

Also check out the "Photos" section for a few photos of the Kaercher Gala.

Frankfurt was quite a nice change from Steffi and my usual skating trips, because unlike most of the time we didn't have to travel several hours in order to get to the event. It's only an one hour train ride from our home to Frankfurt. Nonetheless we had decided that we would book a hotel room, because we didn't feel like travelling back home after the show. The trainride to Frankfurt was uneventful, but then in Frankfurt it took us nearly 45 minutes to find the hotel, even though it was supposed to be directly next to the main train station. Well to be honest, it kind of was, at least it wasn't very far away, but that doesn't really help much when you're walking around in the wrong streets...and they definitely need more streetsigns in Frankfurt, since half of the streets didn't have any

Well we then arrived at the rink in Frankfurt about 90 minutes before the show started and there actually still were some skaters training on the ice, but just Germans and Debbie Park and they left like 5 minutes after we arrived. We met Jyrki from Finland before the show, who showed us the time plan for the show and also informed us that Kierkgaard & Jeschke wouldn't skate (also we had learned before that Kati Winkler was ill), but I didn't mind too much when we heard that they'd be replaced by Kovarikova & Novotny! I wonder when Mikkeline & Norman will finally have their long announced premiere though...

So the show seemed to have some "theme/storyline" this time, according to Daniel Weiss some "winter fairytale" thing, whatever. Before the show started Daniel gave like a million instructions about how to applaud and not applaud during the part that would be shown on on TV live, apparently audience giving applause at the wrong time during a live TV broadcast must be a HUGE catastrophy We also learned that the show had gained a new sponsor (a candle producer), so we all would have to light a "candle of hope" during Krylova & Ovsiannikov's skate (the candles were lying on everybody's seats). Again, whatever.

So the show finally started...all the skaters came out and took a pose on the ice, then Mandy Valentine (German novice champion of 2002) came out with a magic wand and "awakend" all the skaters who each did a little element, it was quite nice actually. I wonder who chose the costumes for the opening/closing though, because especially the pants and shirts that the men were wearing had a very unfortunate cut, so that all the male skaters looked fat, not only the ones who actually were pretty fat *cough* Oleg *cough*, but also Rene Novotny, PMM,... didn't exactly look favourable.

So Kati Witt opened the show, started with a beautiful double axel. The program was pretty boring though, I can't think of a song that could have been any more boring, some extremely slow female ballad by Barbra Streisand (who I usually really like to listen to). Kati didn't do much, except for posing and some spins (those were very good quality and fast though!). Also the program seemed very short, only like 1:30 or 2 minutes???

were next, with "Conquest of Paradise", I had been a bit worried about how their performances would be like, because I had heard that they hardly had found time to train lately, but except for an a bit shaky starting pose/lift and the fact that the first half of the program was skated pretty slow it was a smooth performance with nice positions and lines. I really love the music of 1492 too. Again the program seemed very short to me, well maybe it was normal exhibition length.

Plushenko was next and skated his short program, I still like it a lot, not much else to say. He didn't try a quad, but I couldn't care less about that in a show.

14-year old Peter Liebers skated a nice, upbeat program, he was enjoyable to watch and for his age I think his presentation isn't bad at all, he has lots of energy too. He didn't have any problems doing his jumps and his spins were fast (even though travelling).

Kazakova & Dmitriev skated their "doll" program, sorry I forgot the title of the music. I had actually never seen this program before, it's definitely very interesting, with lots of cool elements, like a (double?) throw out of a death spiral, very nice lifts and a cool choreography. They had an a big rough skate though. For the last part of the program Oksana took the "clown-like" costume off and under it she was just wearing a costume that consisted of 90% flesh colored fabric and a bit of black material at strategic places, certainly interesting...

We had already learned at Gelsenkirchen that Daniel Weiss quite likes Jennifer Robinson's looks, again he announced her by telling us that she's beautiful. Well maybe next time, instead of inviting her to skate, he can just put up a big photo of her at the rink wall and look at that for his personal enjoyment She skated to "Jingle Bells", it was a nice playful program, nothing special, quite some butt-wiggling, some jumps.

Debbie Park came out, well at least she wore skates, did some stuff that showed her flexibility, backflip, some acrobatic stuff, all too some depressing dramatic music, zzzzzzzzzz.

Silvio Smalun then skated his free program, which I just love, cool voidy choreography and he knows how to sell it! I love the choreography and the way he moves his body, but as typical for him he screwed up all jumps besides his 3-toe. But he's just a skater that I enjoy watching immensly, no matter what he skates to.

Kovarikova & Novotny were next, skating to "Music". Their program was by far the highlight so far, it really had the audience going too. Their skating style is wonderfully smooth and harmonic and their unison is very good too, the program was exciting and beautiful, even though they didn't do any jumps and throws, but the lifts were spectacular and they had a cool death spiral variation where she holds onto his leg. They ended with an excellent headbanger that was even a bit too scary for my taste!

Mandy Valentine did a 3-Toe next and Evgeny came out and spontanously applauded her...well as mentioned before we had seen the time plan for the show and in there it word-for-word said "Mandy Valentine does a 3-Toe, Pluschi (yes he was written as "Pluschi" everywhere in the plan ) applauds". In the same way all the in-betweens of the show were noted down in detail, was quite interesting to read.

So Pluschi then did parts of his new free program, well at least that's what Daniel Weiss said, but I don't really think so, because I think both music and choreography was different than in Gelsenkirchen. Steffi suspected that it were parts from his Moulin Rouge free program from last years GPF. Whatever it was it was very good and I enjoyed it a lot.

Krylova & Ovsiannikov then came out (I have to say he's become FAT! but it didn't have any bad impact on his skating, so it's really not a problem) and Anjelica lighted a candle (to remind the audience that they should light theirs, as Daniel had told us before the show, well we didn't light it anyway. I already had enough things in my hand, with my camera and my notebook ). They then skated their Indian program, well I really loved the first part with the pole, I love the way they included it into the choreography, but as soon as they abandoned the pole, the program got boring (I also thought that the music was too monotonous in the second half) and it seemed to last very long. They didn't get too much applause, of course due to the fact that half of the audience couldn't clap because of the candles they had been "forced" to hold, stupid idea overall

Kati Witt then did a second number to "Fever", after I had been quite disappointed with the first number, I liked this one a lot better It had much more content and the music was much more interesting too. The program included a very nice step sequence that really showed of her wonderful musicality and soft fluent style. The program ended with a long spread eagle. I also noticed how much better her overall skating quality (except for jump content of course), like stroking, flow, musicality, still is than Jennifer Robinson's for example.

This program ended the first part and also the part that was shown live on TV. From what Daniel said I got the impression though that the second part would eventually be shown on TV somewhere and somewhen too, I hope so, because the second part of the show was a lot better than the first!

As mentioned before, the show had a theme, that was told with the help of little videoclips between the skaters and always included Mandy Valentine. Well I guess you can tell how much it did for me by the amount of text I wrote about it in the review so far I've seen Mandy Valentine before and she's a talented and expressive young skater, so I really would have prefered it if she had gotten to skate a real program instead of just this little tidbits in between. She sold all her bits very well though, she certainly has lots of charisma already, probably because she's originally a "perky Canadian"

Steinel & Tsvetkov opened the second part of the show, skating their OD, well it's the third time I've seen the program, so I didn't pay too much attention, all I can say is that her dress is still awfully ugly (imagine Kati Winkler's OD dress, just in another color), too long and heavy (made her look clumsy) and that their sbs step sequence was pretty chaotic and out of synch. Barbara Fusar Poli had come out of the backstage area next to us and watched the dance too.

Peter Liebers than skated another program, this time Plushenko came out to take a look, but left again after 30 seconds or so. The program had some very nice in-betweens and his choreographies are really well-thought out for a junior skater and he's already able to present them well.

Kovarikova & Novotny skated to "Hero" from Enqrique Iglesias, well I don't like that song, but the program was just as great to watch as the first one. They tried a Throw-3t, but she stepped out. The program was beautiful and soft, only her costume colors were a bit strange. The elements were similar to the first program, but I really couldn't care less, actually I think I could watch her skate circles around the rink forever without getting bored, she has such a wonderful skating style and lines, she's just beautiful to watch. I wonder where the Czech get all those spectacular female pair skaters from! It's also great in what good shape Kovarikova & Novotny still are, so long after their amateur career. To keep this a bit less long, just imagine 10 more lines of gushing here! Even if they were "just" replacements at this show I think they were definitely one of the absolute highlights!

Silvio Smalun then skated to "Unchain my heart", this time he at least did a nice 3-flip and a 2-axel, the program was cool, entertaining and he's a great dancer! He's like the German Emanuel Sandhu, just with even worse consistency and nerves According to the text about him in the program (that contained completely idiotic texts about most skaters, especially the one about was totally ), he is very close to making the 3-axel and the 4-toeloop "standard elements" in his programs We were very irritated during this skate, because Evgeny Plushenko had again came out of the backstage area to watch and immediately a hord of girls run to him (DURING Smalun's skate) and asked for autograph, some of them even stayed near the entrance to the backstage area during the whole second part of the show, waiting for any skaters that might come out, you sure must be a huge skating fan if you'd rather do that than actually watch the skating

K&O then skated "Ave Maria", oh well it's VERY beautiful, but it's also very slow and I couldn't help getting a bit bored. I tried to take some photos though, because they weren't moving very much anyway, maybe they'll turn out well.

Debbie Park then walked onto the ice barefoot and climbed that rope/band/ribbon thing that was hanging from the ceiling for her and then did tons of the same acrobatic elements up in the air. Boring, boring, boring. I never cared for this kind of circus acrobat stuff, I already hated it at the circus when I was a child. well actually I generally hate circusses and everything that has to do with it, so Debbie Park is certainly not for me. Also the floodlights were shining directly into my eyes, so that I couldn't really see much of Debbie anyway, even if I had been interested. Again I thought her music was too dark and dramatic.

FP&M then came onto the ice and Maurizio carried Debbie of the ice, B&M then did their exhibition version of IWS, I of course have seen the program before several times, but I always was too nervous during competitions, so it was very nice to finally see it live "just for fun" and especially I was glad to finally see it skated in the costumes that they only had used at practices at Bofrost Cup 2001 before and that were way more beautiful than any of their competitive versions. Without the slow part in the middle it seemed way too short again though.

Jennifer Robinson then skated to "Teach me Tiger". This time Daniel informed us that she's pretty, instead of the usual "beautiful". Oh well, I really have absolutely nothing against her (and she IS pretty!), but her skating...I just don't know, besides her stroking being crappy and she's too slow, all her programs always look the same to me, no matter what she skates to and also what she does never seems to have anything with the music. Also her program seemed to last about 3 times as long as FP&M's, but I somehow suspect that the programs had about the same length... Daniel Weiss said that she wants to continue skating for a couple more years (really?) and that he's sure that she'll also continue to have good results at future Europeans and Worlds. Guess he's not that used to having North American guests...

Kazakova & Dmitriev then skated a classical program, that turned out to be another highlight of the show. The music was some song sung by Pavarotti & Friends. They did a 2-twist, the program was incredibly beautiful and their lines were wonderful! There just was a great overall quality to their skating, I was very impressed by seeing them live for the first time, especially by Oksana, she's exquisite. And they have lots of interesting and original elements that other pairs don't do.

Plushenko finally REALLY did parts of his new free, again I enjoyed him a lot and I love the step sequence of his program. I think he landed a 3-3-2 combo at least.

The show then was over and Daniel Weiss skated out onto the ice and announced that he now would say something that he actually really hadn't wanted to say originally. He said that in such a dramatic, ominous tone of voice that we all got the impression that he would now have some kind of really bad news to announce. Katja later said, that she thought someone must have died (I personally thought it would be some bad news about Winkler & Lohse, like that they had retired or something like that). Well...all he did was thanking his wife (who also had a page of the program (with a HUGE face shot) dedicated to her, yeah we know she's Mrs. Super-Opening and Closing-Choreographer...) and the rest of the crew. Typical for Mr. Dramatic

Then the finale followed, where Mandy Valentine put all the skaters back to sleep with her magic wand and that was it.

Well from the overall cast list I had expected a nice show, but nothing spectacular and that's exactly what we got, so I was contented !