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Art on Ice 2002 in Lausanne

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Well some hours before the show we learned that Elena & Anton wouldn't be there, which I guess proves that it's impossible that they'll ever show up somewhere where Steffi, Sara and I are going, since it's the third time in a row that we all went to an event where they were supposed to skate, but then didn't, obviously an conspiracy! Anyway, even without them it was still a great cast. After we heard that they aren't there, we wondered whether there would be a replacement for them, well when we were waiting in front of the rink before the show, I suddenly saw Abitbol & Bernadis walk by us, so the answer obviously was Yes...I think at least the French audience at the show was more than happy about their addition, judging from the aupplause they got during the show...

When we entered the rink, we were sure that the show wouldn't be sold out, because for an European show it was a very big rink, but to our surprise it actually turned out to be sold out.

Since the show was with live music, there was a stage on the ice (luckily on the opposite end of the rink from where we were sitting, our seats, even though they were only the 3rd category, turned out to be pretty much perfect, 2nd row in the corner), so the ice surface was a lot smaller than usually. The live musicians at the show were the Swiss rock band "Gotthard", a violinist called "Edvin Marton" and a female Swiss singer called "Eve Kay". I wasn't familiar with any of them, but luckily they turned out to be quite pleasant performers.

The opening was to live music by “gotthard”, they performed a song called “Let it rain”. First Debbie Park came out and did some of her usual stuff, then she was joined by a group of female skaters called the “Art on Ice Dancers”, who did a number with a couple of jumps and spins. The opening was a bit boring, but not too bad, I would have prefered to see all the skaters though.

Then the French presenter came out and did an introduction, which finally proved that my 3 years of learning French at school was a complete waste of time, because I couldn’t understand anything at all, sigh.

The first skaters were Chait & Sakhnovsky. I had already bought my ticket when only Fusar Poli & Margaglio were on the cast list for ice dance and I had been wondering who they would get as a second team, well I was VERY pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be C&S, both my current favorite dance teams in a show I’m seeing certainly isn’t bad

skated their Free Dance to “Lord of the Rings” (or at least parts of it, I think the very first part was missing). I hadn’t watched the dance again since I saw it live at the Bofrost Cup, so it was nice to see it again, even though I would have loved to see their “Stranger in my house” exhibition even more. Well seeing the FD for the second time, I loved it just as much as the first time and I can certainly say that it’s my favorite free dance from them so far (the one from last year is a very close second though). I love the music and mood of the program, going from very dark and dramatic to soft and harmonic (Enya’s May it Be) and back to dark and dramatic and I love the drama and intensity they manage to create in the program, as well as their step sequence that is different from the step sequences you usually get to see in dance nowadays. The program has some very nice lifts (they didn’t do the overhead lift though, as far as I remember, but i of course don’t know whether they got rid of it or whether the part with that lift was missing). I noticed that their twizzles were very synchronized and I think the whole dance looked smoother and more polished than in Gelsenkirchen already.

They were followed by Sarah Meier, who skated her new short program, to the following music selections (ok, I looked that up that ISU biographies of course):

Pure Mood - Orchestra Spyro Gyra No Women, No Cry by Bob Marley Could you be Loved by Bob Marley

I have to say i really liked the program, the music is great, very diversified, but the songs are still fitting together very well and I think her presentation again is improved in comparison to last year. It’s a very entertaining and cleverly choreographed program, that she presented very well. She doubled most of her jumps though (and did a single axel), but if she skates this program well, she should be very competitive with it.

Kovarikova & Novotny then skated their program to “Hero”, in this case sung live by “Eve Kay”, who was ok, but her voice isn’t really THAT convincing, at least when she sings live. They did a clean throw-3-toeloop this time, the program is still very nice, but I already wrote about it in my last review, so I don’t think I’m want to write the same things all over again.

Fusar Poli & Margaglio were next with their new exhibition to “Adagio” (that’s finally the one that was choreographed by Rahkamo & Kokko), usually they skate to the version by Lara Fabian, but here it was again Eve Kay singing live. She did a better job with that song than with the other one though. Well I totally loved that program, I think it’s by far my favorite exhibition program from them! It’s certainly a very different program for them, romantic, with very soft harmonic moves and very nice fluidity, they did some new lifts and moves, it was certainly very cool to see a program with totally new elements and none of their “usual” elements, I mean not that I have anything against their usual elements, but after several years things like their “hydroblading half-death spiral” do get a wee bit old and I don’t need to see them in every single program! Also this is a program which totally highlights both of them equally. One can definitely see the very different influence from Rahkamo & Kokko in this program, if you need a comparison to one of R&K’s program I guess saying that it’s something in the style of Valse Triste comes the closest. The only thing I didn’t like was Maurizio’s costume, Barbara was wearing a very beautiful white dress, but Maurizio was wearing some turquoise pants made of velvet fabric, velvet is definitely a fabric that does not look good on male skaters anyway and the color didn’t help.

Maria Butyrskaya skated her new “Shakira” program, well I’m not crazy about the music and not about the oriental theme either, but for whatever reason Maria is the only skater who can skate “oriental” programs and I don’t mind, I already liked her egyptian program from some years ago and this one was very nice too, I even didn’t mind the “egyptian arm movements”. She did a lot of belly dancing moves and really pulled them off perfectly, her dancing ability is just great! As jumps she did a 2-toeloop, a 3-loop with a step-out and a double axel, but since she didn’t have a fall, the program wasn’t disturbed at all and it was great to watch.

Armen & Akop, those Armenian (?) ice clowns were next, well before I saw the cast list for this show, I had thought that they had retired like 2 years ago, well obviously not. I didn’t remember, but Steffi told me that the program they did here was the same one as the one they did when they skated in Germany the last time 2 years ago. Well it was to music of “Captain Jack” (stupid German dance band), had a humoric military theme. Well their programs weren’t too stupid (for comedy acts), but strangely they don’t really do much, there are hardly any highlights in the program, there’s an awful lot of time where they just skate around with hardly anything happening, which is certainly not good for a show-act. The whole number looked kind of messy.

Stephane Lambiel skated next to some violin music, played live by Edvin Marton. It was a very intense dramatic piece and I just loved the program. I really like his presentation, it’s great for his age and I think he’s quite a natural dancer too. I loved his arm movements (very cool and very voidy) and generally the way how he uses his WHOLE body for his skating and his skating style is very soft and beautiful. His spins are just amazing, he should do a number together with Lucinda Ruh! I didn’t note down the jumps, but he did an extremely beautiful double axel, with great flow into and out of the jump. Actually the program and his style funnily reminded me a bit of Emanuel Sandhu this time, not as extravagant as him, a bit of a toned down Sandhu maybe, but that’s still more than cool.

On to the next great spinner, Lucinda Ruh, skating to some music with a female chanting voice. Well I’ve never understood the people who say that she’s a one-trick-pony and I still don’t, because she has just everything, except for the jumps. Her skating style is graceful and elegant, she has very nice spirals, graceful arm movements, ...the program was lovely and soft and she of course did some gorgeous spins, her spins just look so effortless, as if they could go on and on forever. She also did a very nice Ina Bauer (the Ina Bauer is one of my favorite skating moves).

Abitbol & Bernadis were next and skated to “Je suis malade” by Lara Fabian, another soft and fluent program, the actual skating was nice and they had some very good lifts, but they had too much posing in between. I was quite glad that I couldn’t see her facial expressions most of the time, because the one time I saw it, it was already starting to annoy me again. I guess that is also a reason why I enjoy watching them live a lot more than on TV, because on TV her facial expressions just get on my nerves, but live they are usually not that well to see (depending on the seats of course )and her actual skating is very good.

Yagudin ended the first half of the show, skating his short program to Safri Duo. I’ve never seen the competitive version, but I’m quite sure that the version he skated here must have been a bit toned down (there was no really difficult footwork) and also more “showy”, because he did a lot of interacting with the audience. The program was very entertaining to watch (even though a bit too pretentious for my taste), but Alexei definitely looked out of shape, he looked nowhere like the skater we saw here in Lausanne at Euros last year, his spins seemed a bit slow and he had 2 stumbles with no apparent reason. As jumps he completed some clean triples. (I think toeloop, flip and another one)

After the break, Armen & Akop did a second comedic number, they came out dressed as “cleaners” carrying buckets and brooms with them and additionally a fake radio. So they used the radio in order to “play” different kinds of music, first a Tango, then “Jailhouse Rock” and finally “Figaro”, doing satiric programs to the music, I think they were pretending to be cleaners, fooling around during work. I liked the idea of the number, it was kind of clever, and it was better than the first one, but I think they could have made a bit more out of it, again there were real highlights missing, just too much chaotic fooling around. I think they also can’t skate at all.

Lucinda Ruh then skated a number to a song by Alanis Morissette that I didn’t know. She wore her golden bodysuit, I had hoped to see her skate a number with that costume, since it already looked impressive on photos and it did even more live, it really helped making her positions (not only during spins) even more impressive than they already are. A great choice of costume. She did a beautiful spiral and generally is just beautiful to watch. I don’t have to mention the great spins again...

Abitbol & Bernadis then did their oriental exhibition, that I don’t like very much, it’s pretty boring, I liked the first number much better. In the second part of the program the music had French lyrics, I don’t really see how it fits together with the first half. I also wonder why they always have to have such long parts where they are only standing, sitting, kneeling, lying or whatever on one space, only moving their arms, it’s like that more or less in all their programs and it’s really irritating me.

Stephane Lambiel then did a second number, wearing a very cool bodysuit, it was dark purple with some orange stripes, the orange was glowing, which gave some very interesting effects, especially during the spins. Again this was a very nice program, I think it was his new short program, again he had very voidy arm movements, great spins and an interesting choreography. I liked the other program a tiny bit better, but this one was great as well. He definitely is a skater that I’m very excited about for the future.

then did I will survive, which was lots of fun as usually, but since it must be about the 8th time I’m seeing it by now, I really can’t think of anything else to say about it. Well only that watching it in exhibition is a lot more relaxing than in competition I wasted some time of the program for trying to take photos, but hitting the release of my camera at the wrong time 3 times in a row, always when they were facing away from me, aaargh, my photography skills still have lots of room for improvement

Then the Swiss rock band Gotthard came out again and performed some more songs, the first skaters to skate to them were Chait & Sakhnovsky, they skated to a song called “Blackberry Waves” (at least that’s what I think it was called), they had already skated this program at Art on Ice in Zurich in February, I have got it on tape. It was a very nice number, with some cool elements and movements and I actually liked the music a lot (I hadn’t be too sure how much I would like the music from Gotthard), it was a song with a quite hard rock beat, which is something we don’t get to see very often in skating, which is a pity in my opinion, since rock music is very well suited for skating (at least that’s the impression I got from watching this show), no need to always only have classical music or romantic ballads. In this program did the overhead lift that was missing during Lord of the Rings and I especially loved the energy with which they skated again, they were totally tiffin it, they just always look as if they are giving 100%, which I think is probably one of the main reasons why I enjoy watching them so much (and I have to say the more often I see them live the more I like them).

Maria skated to some rock ballad, also song by Gotthard of course. She had a scarf as a prop for this program and wore a black bodysuit, she started off with a nice triple-toeloop, then did a 3-loop (just saved) and popped the axel (a friend of mine wanted to know EVERYTHING about how Maria did, that's why I noted them down, not because I cared so much for them in a show ) It was a very nice soft romantic program, I think she’s just great to watch, I love her musicality. At one point of the program she did a long backwards spiral and I guess she had forgotten about the reduced size of the ice surface, because the spiral just went on and on until she finally crashed into the stage Nothing happened though and it was just cute and funny.

The next song was called “Stay” and Kovarikova & Novotny skated to it. Again it was quite a “hard” rock song and they skated very powerfully, a very entertaining program

Next was Debbie Park with her usual “off-ice” program, where she comes out barefooted and just climbs up some long band that is hanging from the ceiling and does some acrobat stuff up there. She had done the same last week at the ARD Gala, just this time it was music from Gotthard playing in the background. I used the performance to change films and took some photos of her that probably will turn out way better than all the ones I took of the skaters... after her performance Maurizio came out and carried her off the ice, just like last week at the ARD Gala.

Alexei Yagudin did the last performance of the evening, skating to Gotthard performing “Hush”, which was a pleasant surprise, because it is actually one of my favorite rock songs (in the version from Kula Shaker, but this one wasn’t bad either). It took a long time until he finally came out onto the ice, when he finally came he was wearing a leather jacket and carried a guitar, first he climbed onto the stage, doing some guitar playing on there with the band, then jumped onto the ice (without the guitar) and did a fun number, it was definitely more a show number than a skating program, not much skating content and the only jump he did was a 3-toeloop, but I guess that’s the best thing to do for him at the moment and it was very entertaining!

Then all the skaters came out for the finale, each doing a couple of elements, Gotthard played a well-known rock song (I don’t remember the title right now). Yagudin then did a short speech, thanking the audience and the skaters and the crew, saying something about how he loves the audience in Lausanne ever since Worlds in 1997...it was certainly nice to finally hear someone talking in a language I understand after the French announcements throughout the show

Afterwards Gotthard played one more song, so all the skaters lined up in front of the stage, Maurizio then went onto the stage first and quite animatedly encouraged all the other skaters to follow him, so they all went onto the stage and danced and waved, while the band was playing “Merry Christmas”. I mean there wasn’t really happening much, but anyway it was lots of fun to watch and very cute and I finally got into a christmas mood Great finale!

Overall it was a great show, of the ones that I’ve seen live so far, it was definitely the best one and I also really was surprised how much I enjoyed the music by Gotthard, they were much better than I had feared