World Famous skaters take over HCA

The ice was smooth, the Huntington Civic Arena was set up and the "Stars of the Ice" were ready to get their first of 61 shows underway. The national traveling ice skating extravaganza, "Stars on Ice", made a stop in Huntington on Friday evening. The tour, sponsored by Smucker's, brought some of the best skaters in the world to Huntington.

The show got underway as the entire cast skated around the ice doing various stunts with Ozzy Osbourne's "The Great and Powerful Oz" playing over the sound system. As soon as the cast got off the ice, 2002 Olympic gold medallist Alexei Yagudin took to the ice to give the Huntington fans a taste of his phenomenal performance in Salt Lake City, in which he received the highest marks of any single skater in Olympic history. Yagudin skated to Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild while wearing a black leather jacket.

After World Bronze medallists Kyoko Ina & John Zimmerman completed their first performance on the Civic Arena ice, the Canadian duo of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier took their turn. The pair came away with a gold medal at the 2002 Olympics after a controversy with judges. Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharurlidze also emerged out of the ordeal with gold metals and were also in Huntington last night. All four skaters showed no hard feelings and even skated during one song together. The four performed while fellow Olympic skater, Todd Eldredge, a 6 time United States Champion, narrated. They all met at center ice and shook hands to finish their portion of the first half of the show.

"I really liked seeing the Canadian and Russian pairs," said Anita Grey. "You saw them on TV all the time when all that Olympic controversy was going on. It was really neat to see them live and skating together."

Katarina Witt, who owns more medals than any other skater in history, is also part of the tour, which is in it's 17th year. Witt's first performance of the night was with Gorsha Sur and John Zimmerman. The two men fought over Katarina during the skit the 3 performed on ice.

After an hour worth of nonstop ice skating action there was a 20-minute intermission. When the arena lights went back off and the spot lights came on Elena Berezhnaya, Kyoko Ina, Jenni Meno, Renee Roca and Jamie Sale appeared on the outside of the ice, dancing with cowboy hats for the crowd. Minutes later the "gals" stepped onto the ice and here came the guys dressed in western wear. Kurt Browning, David Pelletier, Todd Sand, Gorsha Sur, Alexia Yagudin and John Zimmerman then escorted the women off the ice and they took back their cowboy hats. The 6 guys then did a dance together on the ice much to the delight of the females in the audience. The men then proceeded to skate very close to the fans, at times even jumping off the ice inches from the fans. They finished with their hands on their heads and their hats covering their crotches as the lights dimmed.

"I was in heaven with all those studs out there on the ice shakin' their booties," said Erin Smith, a 19-year-old fan from Chesepeake. "That was worth all the money I paid for these tickets right there."

Katarina Witt then took to the ice for her first solo performance of the evening. She skated to the slow Barbra Streisand song, "The Rest of Your Life". Fellow World Champion Todd Eldredge followed up Witt's performance with his second and final solo performance of the night.

As the lights slowly came back on Kurt Browning was spot lighted standing off ice in the East corner of the arena wearing a white t-shirt, baggy blue jeans and suspenders. He then proceeded to step onto the ice with his blade covers still on his skates. He acted like he did not know what was wrong as he slowly pushed him self to a section of fans sitting a few feet from the ice. Browning talked with the fans a few seconds before sitting on one of the female fans laps and taking the covers off his blades. He then got back on the ice and still acted like he did not know what to do. Kurt continued this type of behavior during his whole set and involved the fans a lot. The performance provided several laughs and got some of the loudest cheers of the night.

"That guy (Browning) was crazy," said 11-year-old Ben Adkins. "He acted like a clown you see at the circus."

Three pairs changed the tone back to a serious one as they followed up Browning by skating to the romantic number, "Love on the Rocks", sang by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman.

The controversial Canadian and Russian pairs then hit the ice for back-to-back performances to cap off their incredible night in Huntington. The Russian pair skated to a combination of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe songs, as they were both dressed as the two late singers. Alexei Yagudin was the last individual performer of the evening.

The entire "Stars on Ice" cast skated and did a dance rendition to Will Smith's "Can't Stop" to finish the Huntington show off. The small crowd of about 1,500 gave the world famous skaters a standing ovation as the skaters shook hands and hugged fans who were in the front row.