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Skating show in Mannheim 2002

Steffi and I left for Mannheim on Friday afternoon after work. The train ride went relatively well, except for that the second train was about 20 minutes late and we missed the third train and eventually needed a whole hour more. Katja picked us up at the train station and we then went to her home were we would stay the next 2 nights. We spent the evening watching some skating tapes (what else ;-)). On Saturday morning we went to the ice rink where Katja always skates and did some skating of our own...the first time in like 10 years that I've actually skated myself. It went pretty well though, of course I did nothing but skating forward, but at least that didn't make me any problems and I'm really looking forward to finally start taking some adult skating lessons soon! Afterwards we drove to Anke, who would join us for the show. We stayed at her home for a while and watched "Top Jump" on TV, that happened to be on this afternoon. I have to say I found this competition quite boring and I especially thought it was stupid that all the pairs teams tried throw quad salchows in the last round, considering that (except for Shen & Zhao) none of the teams practices those throws, so I found that a really stupid and dangerous thing to do and we saw some really ugly splats as well...of course I guess the teams might have had to do it. After Top Jump we left for the gala, so here we finally get to the skating!

The show started off with some stupid comedian (without skates) who did a really unfunny introduction that didn't exactly get the audience going either. He was followed by two boring speeches, I think it took like 20 minutes till the skating actually started.

The opening was a chaotic number with tons of children, including a few short track speed skaters, it was quite cute to watch.

The first skater was a little girl from the Mannheim skating club, called Sarah Hecken, who did a zestful number to Russian folk music and nailed all her jumps.

She was followed by the "Mannheim Rising Stars", the club's junior synchro team, who were nothing special. I didn't take any notes on them.

The next skater was another young girl from the club, 12 year old Mandy Valentine, she skated a really cool "James Bond" program, she was very charismatic and had very nice fast spins.

Next were the pairs team of Nönnig & Bleyer. I forgot to note down what they were skating to, it was a nice program with quite detailed choreography. They have a rather nice style, even though they are rather athletic than artistic. Unfortunately she had 2 bad falls on the throw jumps. To be honest, they don't seem to have made any progress since I saw them at German Nationals last year and they also looked rather tense.

They were followed by a team of acrobat/artists from Canada called Pete & Violetta (she's originally from Russia though as far as I know). I hadn't expected to like them, since I'm really not into acrobats in skating shows usually, but they really were quite entertaining and from Violetta's basic stroking alone it was visible that as opposed to some other "acrobats on ice" she actually must have a good skating background. Their first number was to "Romeo & Juliet" I think, the soundtrack of the modern version. They did some adagio pairs stuff and she did a really nice Bielmann spin too.

Next was Katharina Haecker, who did a nice, clean program, I think she really lacks musicality though, although her style isn't that bad, rather athletic. She did a 3t, 2axel and another jump that I didn't note down.

Andrejs Vlascenko skated an exhibition to Andrea Bocelli, that was really beautiful. I was really taken away by his presence, ice coverage and speed on the ice, the basic quality of his skating is really top-notch and I still do enjoy his style a lot. The program was soft, with quite some Todd-like angst voids! (his costume was quite Todd-ish too). It certainly was a highlight. He completed a 3L (loop), 3T and 2A.

Steinel & Tsvetkov performed their new Free Dance. The music is exactly like I expected from the description, quite cheesy old Italian songs, but it was a nice entertaining program that didn't get boring. They skated quite far apart and were rather slow though, but I liked this a lot better than their Grease FD from last year. She's blond now, I *think* she was brunette last year or at least the hair was darker?

Stefan Lindemann skated a modern program to some techno music (with some bells in the beginning), that might be his new short program. He fell on the 3A and completed a 3T and 2A later. The program fits his usually not very artistic style quite well, although it got a bit boring at parts. His footwork sequence was rather slow and I think his footwork from last year looked a bit more difficult, this sequence didn't impress me very much.

Originally Kierkgaard & Jeschke had been supposed to be at the show, but they didn't show up, which didn't surprise me all that much, I doubted they would be ready. They were replaced with Fitze & Rex, in who I was just as interested anyway. Hopefully Mikkeline & Norman will be ready for the ARD Gala on December 15th were they are supposed to take part. Eva and Rico skated their new short program, they started with sbs-3T. Well I honestly can't say how that went anymore, I had thought that Eva's was clean, but he had some problems, but later Katja claimed that Rico's was clean, while Eva had a problem...well it's obviously difficult to see this from centered first row on-ice seats ;) Well whoever had the problem, the attempt looked pretty good anyway, both were at least close to landing it. They then did a throw-2salchow (which I'm sure was intented, because they're still working on the sbs-3s). They then did a surprisingly good star lift, that looked secure and Rico actually covered quite some ice. The sbs spin and the pair spin was also surprisingly good, totally in synch and fast. Also they skated with very good speed and already quite harmonic, they certainly looked like a pair already. And they looked as if they were enjoying themselves on the ice. The program was to fast techno music, I liked it a lot.

Laurent Tobel did a NEW (*eek*) program to "I feel good". Well it was NEARLY a real skating program, for his standards, still lots of goofing around of course. Looked somehow like Evgeny Plushenko's Sex Bomb, lots of hip swivelling too, just with more clothes (THANK GOD!!!!), he only took his jacket off and luckily was wearing something under it. Did a 3z (=lutz) and a 2z.

Winkler & Lohse then presented their new Free Dance as well. According to the presenter it's called "Plus/minus" or "Energy". Whatever :D As costumes they only wore both black pants with colored shirts, their shirts had a "-" sign on the back and a "+" sign on the front (or the other way round). I guess that was a reference to batteries or whatever. (The FD is really not as weird as that sounds ;-) ) Naturally, their competitive costumes will be different. I thought the FD was really cool. And totally different than that awful Ragtime crap or that equally bad Gospel (sorry, but i hated those programs). It's obviously a very modern free dance, if you need a comparison I guess Grishuk & Platovs 92 FD or Winkler & Lohse's own "Time goes Millenium" FD comes the closest. I thought the choreography was very cool, it didn't get boring at all and they really seemed to do tons of footwork, that at least on first view looked very good. The lifts were nothing REALLY spectacular, but not bad either, they just didn't stick to my mind (yet). The music was "Crazy Benny", then the Dire Straits song (instrumental), then "Played-a-live". (fast-slow-fast) I had been wondering how the D. Straits song would fit in, but it fit in very well, as a slow part, actually I was wondering to myself when the Dire Straits song would start when I realized that it was already playing So overall, I really liked the program, maybe the slow part is a bit low of highlights, but it's not like I did get bored. Also they managed to make the theme of their program work, it's hard to explain how they did it (well actually I could easily in German, but I'm lacking some words in English), i guess if I hadn't know anything about the program, I would have guessed that it is about "electricity", which comes close enough to their own "description". Rene's hair looked as if he had touched into a plug socket too (intentionally ;-) ) Only thing that still has some need for improvement, is maybe their speed, it was quite good in the OD, but not as good in the FD. And I was really surprised by how polished both their programs already looked so early in the season.

Next was the senior synchro team, the "Shooting Stars", who were second at German Nationals last season. Well I have to say they were classes better than the team we had to watch at Nations Cup last year (which I think was 4th at German Nationals). They actually really were synchronized and skated very well. Their program to "Maria" was actually entertaining, that was the very first time I've seen synchronized skating and wasn't bored!

Another young girl Larissa Vetter skated next, a nice fast program with good spins.

She was followed by 15 year old Norman Keck, who did a program to Irish music, but struggled with some jumps.

14-year-old Denise Zimmermann skated to some Blues, she seemed a bit tense and her presentation was a bit "cold", even though her style was quite nice. She had 1 fall, but landed a clean 3T and 2A.

Nönnig & Bleyer's second program was a fun "summer" number to a Stefan Raab song...They only did sbs 2T and a throw 2-salchow on which she nearly fell anyway. Their lifts are generally ok, but their entries always looked a bit scary. They weren't really able to pull of the presentation that well, they just didn't look as if they were having any fun, which isn't very good for such a supposedly "fun" number. Generally they made a pretty bad impression during the whole show...they either had a very bad day, or problems with the show lightning OR they are in real trouble...

Christiane Berger skated to "What a feeling". She did a 3S, but fell on the next triple and popped the axel. She has a nice style, but she also is rather an athletic skater than artistic. The presentation seemed a bit rehearsed and she ended way after the music.

Steinel & Tsvetkov skated their new Original Dance, her dress was a bit too heavy and distracting. Their sbs step sequence was very chaotic and totally out of sync. Overall I didn't really like the dance, but the last part was quite nice. And I thought it's still better than their OD from last year that I really couldn't stand. I like her expression a bit better than last year.

Pete & Violetta now did a number with hoola hoop loops that was really cool. Especially the colors of their costumes and the loops gave some great visual effects too. They skated to "Played-A-Live" (popular song obviously). They did a lift where she lies on his heads, while he spins and doesn't hold her with his hands at all. It was a highly entertaining number that again involved at least SOME real skating.

Fitze & Rex then performed their new long program. Well maybe it would have been better if they hadn't, because it kind of ruined the great impression from the short program, because they weren't really able to complete a single clean element. But maybe they want to use every occasion to try out the program and gain experience. They skated to "Waterworld", I can't really say whether I like the program yet, it still seemed to lack some choreography, but maybe it was just marred by all the mistakes. Despite the mistakes they again skated with lots of speed. They started of with a 2 axel - 3 toeloop jump sequence, but both had problems with the jumps and I *think* Eva fell on the toeloop (I haven't written it down). Then they did an ok throw-2-twist (the 2-twist was ok in both short and long, but it somehow doesn't look as if they have a 3-twist yet, the 2-twist still looks too shaky for that). They then tried either a sbs-3S or 3L (it could have been the loop, since I know that they want to do it), but she overrotated. They then did another double throw, probably the salchow and finally she fell on the throw-2-axel. They also did a sbs spin that was totally out of synch (if I remember correctly she changed positions either too early or too late) and she came down early on a lift. Despite all the problems in the long, overall I think they made a good impression in this exhibition, their short program is already quite polished and if they really get all those jumps cleanly that they are planning to do that already would be a great thing. I think with more experience and more work on the long program (that still is quite new anyway), they could turn into a really good pair, they certainly already look more like a pair than Noennig & Bleyer. It will be very interesting to see how they and Kierkgaard & Jeschke turn out in the future.

Next was Stefan Lindemann with an exhibition to an Elton John song. Well I had to change films for my camera, so I missed the first half of the program, which I really regretted later, because I thought this program was actually really cool. I've never enjoyed Stefan's skating so much. I thought his presentation was classes better than I've ever seen him, the choreography was really cool, he did some fun dancing in which he actually showed musicality and had a cool combo spin, I also liked his footwork. Hopefully he will be able to transfer this new "artistry" to his competitive programs as well. The first program in the show didn't really look different from his older programs though, but maybe/hopefully it was just because of the techno music...

Katharina Haecker skated to a Janet Jackson medley in her second program. She popped her first jump, I can't read my notes about the other jumps. The choreography was cool, but she just hasn't got enough musicality to pull it off convincingly.

Kati & Rene then skated their new OD, it's very traditional, they wore quite simple, but beautiful costumes, Kati's dress was rosé, and simple, with a rather short skirt (for ice dancing ;-) ). The choreography, well I can't really say much, except for that I liked it a lot, didn't get boring and I really liked the sbs step sequence, looked rather difficult too. Generally I had the impression that both their programs have more difficult footwork than last year. Speed-wise they were quite good in the Original Dance too (faster than in the Free Dance) and I really thought they captured the theme of this years Original dances very well. And I especially thought that they were already looking very good, they are definitely ready for the season, I thought they already looked smoother and more perfectionated than the whole last season long.

Andrejs Vlascenko then skated a fun number to a Lou Bega song. This program had a very different style (fun/comedy) than his usual programs, but his good speed and presence was again very noticable. It was a very entertaining program, he doesn't really look like the type who's able to pull off comedy, but he was really good at it (maybe he should think about a different style for his competitive programs too, instead of the same old every year) and the audience loved it, he was the first one to be asked for an encore spontanously.

Then the synchro team "Shooting Stars" skated again, to "Mack & Mabel" and I really liked it again, it was another entertaining number. 2 of their skaters had a stupid fall, but since it was as the very end, directly before the ending pose it really didn't hurt the program and otherwise they again were very synchronized. They also did a single jump and a lift (always 4 skaters lifting 1 skater). The presenter said that such elements have only been allowed since this or last year and I think jumps and lifts could really make synchronized skating more interesting.

Tobel then did "Carmen", yuck!! Of course, with us sitting front row in the center, he did some of his facial expressions directly in front of us and I really didn't know where to look, god is that program idiotic. I could have made tons of "great" photos, with him like 1 or 2 meters in front of us, but ahem who would want to look at them...I can't stand this program, but most of the audience loved it. I doubt he'll ever retire it, even though I'm sure I've already seen it 3 years ago...he did a clean 3z in the encore (he must really like the lutz, since I think it was the only jump he did in the show)

The finale was pretty long, with all the skaters, a pathetic firework on the ice and ended with all the skaters dancing to the "Ketchup song", with the "typical" dance moves from the music video clip.

Overall it was a very nice show, exactly what I had expected. One or two international skaters would have been nice (other than Laurent Tobel), but it still was a nice show and great as an opening to this years skating season :D