Best of the best

The Smucker's Stars on Ice show at Cumberland County Civic Center on Saturday is an example of the dedication of figure skaters to their sport and their fans.

"If it's not real," says four-time World Champion Kurt Browning, "people don't want to watch it." Browning, who spoke in a phone interview from San Antonio, will skate for the Portland audience, along with some of the world's best skaters.

Indeed, the Stars on Ice show is the real deal. In its 17th year, the Stars on Ice program originally was conceived by Olympic Champion Scott Hamilton and has a powerhouse cast.

There are several Olympic champions: Russian Alexei Yagudin, Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, and German Katarina Witt.

Also appearing: six-time U.S. National Champion Todd Eldredge, three-time U.S. National Pair Champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, and two-time U.S. National Dance Champions Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur.

Browning, who has been skating with Stars on Ice for nine years, says that he would not be the skater he is today if not for his experiences with the show.

From being a dancing cowboy in one program to something else entirely in the next, Browning says he and other skaters have "to do more than your own style of skating." He added that working with some of the top skaters in the world raises the bar on his own skating.

"These people [other skaters]," he says, "are pulling you along - making you better."

There aren't many who would argue that Browning needs improvement. In addition to being a four-time World Champion, Browning, a Canadian, holds numerous professional and Canadian championship titles and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for performing the first successfully completed quadruple jump in a world competition during the 1988 World Championship in Budapest.

Browning is not only known for his athleticism. He's also a top performer. His programs vary widely but are certainly not often the typical for a figure skating program. Case in point: his sexy number set to The Commodores' "Brick House." This year he performs two provocative numbers on the tour. One is set to Tony Bennett's version of "How Do You Keep the Music Playing," and the other, comedic, is performed to James Cotton's "Slippery Side Up."

Saturday's program also includes a powerful performance by two pairs who were rivals at the Olympics in 2002: Sale and Pelletier, and Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, who were at the center of a Salt Lake City judging scandal.

In an effort to show skater solidarity, the two pairs perform together as the last performance of the first act.

In a different sort of solidarity, Paul Wylie, a 1992 Olympic Champion, announced the creation of the World Skating Federation on March 25. Browning, a supporting member of the organization, says it was formed by some skaters who have been "disgruntled about how skating is run."

Browning says that skaters are just trying to find a place where they can skate with integrity.

Although some disgruntled skaters are forming groups to gain some control over figure skating ethics, Browning laments that fans "are starting to give up on it (the figure skating industry)."

Browning says that attendance across the United States at the Stars on Ice shows hasn't been booming. Adding to fans' concerns about the skating industry are worries about the economy and the war, he says. Also a factor in fans' lessened interest in attending Stars on Ice shows, he says, is Hamilton's retirement from touring.

"People believed in Scott (Hamilton) so much," says Browning, "that when he wasn't in the show, they felt it stopped." While Hamilton did retire from touring full time in 2001, he still makes surprise appearances at various shows, and he co-produces the tour.