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Kaleidoscope on Ice - Charlotte, NC - Nov. 18, 2011
written by Tina
The third annual Kaleidoscope on Ice* show was
held in Charlotte, NC, the home of the new Levine Cancer Institute,
and adopted hometown of Paul Wylie. The show has always celebrated
cancer survivorship, and various cancer and health initiatives that
exist to support cancer survivors, but a new running theme through
this year's show was the community they were trying to build at
kaleidoscope.org. The idea was that instead of just a once-a-year show
to raise awareness, they wanted to create a year-round community
online for survivors to find resources and support.
The show opened almost half an hour late, thanks to an apparently
ridiculous amount of traffic and difficulty parking. I had been told
earlier in the day that the Christmas Show across the street had
created mile-long lines of cars, and the situation didn't get better
with the crowds coming to the Bojangles Coliseum for Kaleidoscope. One
person I talked to after the show said she didn't get into the show
until after 9, because it took almost an hour to move maybe a
mile. The show was sold up to the rafters on both sides and the end,
but the audience was sparse in parts of the arena due to the
latecomers.
On the plus side for those late arrivals, the show was being taped for
television, which meant a lot of "holds" while they prepped things for
TV, whether it was moving props onto and off of the ice, setting up
intros, getting the recording ready, re-recording flubs. As a result,
the first act didn't end until 9ish, and the whole show ended closer
to 11. Luckily, we had two entertaining and charming hosts in Scott
Hamilton and Dorothy Hamill, who cracked jokes and interacted with the
audience while we waited. We also had a super-enthusiastic crowd, who
cheered wildly at everything, with frequent calls of "We love you
Paul!" "We love you Jordin!" "We love you Johnny!", etc etc throughout
the night.
After opening remarks from Mike Burg of Edge Health, Morgan Fogarty,
Derek Raghavan of Levine, Linda Greeson of Pfizer, and Charles
Hugh-Jones of Sanofi, emphasizing the importance of cancer research
initiatives and survivorship, the show kicked off with the cast
skating to "Party Rock Anthem." It led off with local skaters dressed
head to toe in white body suits with colored lights tubes running over
their costumes skating out in the dark, and then lighting up to cool
neon effect. The main cast then joined them on the ice to a simple
group skate, with each skater getting their highlight moment. There
were definite bits of distinctive personality in these bits - Johnny
Weir doing the fierce thing, Joannie Rochette skating sweetly and
elegantly, Paul Wylie's fleet-footed beaming presence on the ice,
Sasha Cohen's incredible flexibility, Kurt Browning's goofy
self-deprecation (dropping to do push-ups after watching Sasha skate
by) and audience engagement, Sinead & John Kerr's energy and
impressive gender-reversal lifts, Elvis Stojko's macho persona and
spinning on his hands and back down the ice, and Nancy Kerrigan's joy
and comfort in front of the crowd. The musical guests - Patti LaBelle,
Jordin Sparks, Hunter Hayes, and Andy Grammer - lined up on stage for
their introductions, and the number ended with everyone striking a
pose in front of the stage.
Scott Hamilton and/or Dorothy Hamill came out between most numbers to
do intros and set things up, but I confess I wasn't paying as close
attention this year since I was trying to manage the memory space on
my camera, and kept taking advantage of breaks to delete photos. I
did hear Scott and Dorothy chatting with some of the local skaters,
asking them how long they'd been skating and who coached them (and
there was clearly a lot of local club support in the audience, given
the whoops and cheers for each coach). At another point, they pointed
out some Girl Scouts in the audience who had a lot of energy, and
asked them for cookies. Dorothy said she had helped create the ice
skating badge for Girl Scouts, because back in the day there wasn't
one, but ice skating was the only thing she knew how to do. Scott had
a way of gently mocking the process in a slow, exaggeratedly patient
voice, cracking that he was now doing broadcast commentary for a set
change, saying "I'll do whatever you want me to do, but you have to
tell me what you want, or nothing will happen", "Oh it's Dorothy's
turn? Then, I will leave the stage...because it is Dorothy's turn, not
mine..." (you had to hear it for the comic effect). Since I can't
remember when any given comment took place in the evening, I'm kind of
just throwing them all here.
The initial intro had to be kind of long because they needed to set up
a bunch of street sign light posts on the ice to give the ice a New
Orleans sort of feel. This, of course, was so Johnny Weir could put on
a slinky, vamping performance to "Lady Marmalade" with Patti LaBelle
singing live. Patti seemed to genuinely enjoy being there, calling out
"you go Johnny!" at one point, and watching him skate as she
sang. Johnny started things off in a black cloak, gyrating his way
around the lamp posts, before throwing off the cloak to reveal a
rather sheer clingy black costume with a sparkly top. What Johnny
lacks in smiling engagement with the audience, he makes up for with
intense commitment to putting on a fabulous performance.
Scott and Dorothy introduced Joannie by saying people might want to
move up closer because the next skater could melt the ice, making a
hot song even hotter. Joannie's first program was to "Show Me How to
Burlesque" by Christina Aguilera, dressed in hot pink and wielding a
silver cane. This was Joannie's Stars on Ice program last year, and
the polish on the number shows - she is very at ease with the
choreography, and thus can give that extra sparkle and flirtiness with
the audience that brings the performance up a level. Partway through
the program, she tosses the cane off the ice where it's usually caught
by a fellow cast member - at Kaleidoscope, she tossed the cane to
Scott Hamilton, who danced a few steps happily before trotting off
with the cane.
Scott's intro to Nancy Kerrigan was about how in 1994, she overcame an
unimaginably difficult scenario to win the Olympic silver medal. Nancy
skated a holiday number to "Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart", and
what struck me about her performance was the joy she exuded on the
ice. She seemed fully happy to be out there on the ice, and it just
shone in her eyes and her smile and her ease on the ice. The program
was heartfelt and joyful, and really nice to watch.
There was a pause in the show at this point as stagehands pushed a
small stage with a keyboard and mike out onto the ice. This was so
Andy Grammer could get more involved in the performance, being out
there on the ice singing "Keep Your Head Up" while Paul Wylie
skated. Scott spoke about how Andy had lost his mother to cancer, and
how both of Paul's parents were cancer survivors, and how this program
was a tribute to their commitment to fight cancer. Andy Grammer is
quite a charming, talented performer, who engaged with the audience
and with Paul as he performed. Because he played the keyboard the full
time, he couldn't watch any of the skating behind him, so the staging
was a little odd, but it was nice having him out there. Paul seemed to
enjoy it as well, skating to Andy, and doing steps and spread eagles
around the stage from time to time. I love Paul's bounce on the ice -
it's like he has springs in his legs, and at times it almost feels
like he's bounding over the top of the ice, rather than skating in it,
which is really neat. He's also in remarkably great shape, landing
solid jumps and a beautiful fast scratch spin, a fact Scott Hamilton
kept remarking on with envy (at one point calling out "Hey, Skinny!"
to Paul as they were waiting for the set change). That great shape was
put to the test though, since he and Andy had to immediately reskate
the entire number due to audio issues at the beginning of the first
run-through. Poor Paul looked like he was getting quite winded towards
the end of the second run, but he gamely kept the smile on his face
and kept the performance up.
I was amused that Sinead and John Kerr performed a medley of Elvis
songs, with Elvis Stojko in the house, just because Dorothy's intro
for them talked about "The King" and then later she intro-ed Elvis
saying something like "Elvis isn't just in the house, he's in the
building" (??). There were some interesting choreographic choices in
this medley, like the fact that they kept resetting to the same
position at the top of the ice on each song change, but overall it was
a fun, dynamic performance. Both Sinead and John know how to engage
the audience, and really play up the energy on the ice. At times,
things felt a little messy, possibly due to the energy level, but it
was never not fun. And the audience always loves it when Sinead lifts
or swings John around.
Dorothy intro-ed Kurt Browning saying that you expect a four-time
World Champion to be really good and make everything look easy, but
this four-time World Champion makes everything look a little *too*
easy and a little *too* much fun (Kurt waved this off out on the
ice). Kurt's first program was to "Honey" by Jin-Young Park, and I
kind of wonder what the audience first thought when they heard the
song, given it's entirely in Korean and probably entirely unfamiliar
to most of them. They got over any unfamiliarity quickly though,
getting caught up in the fun fast beat and Kurt's very "on", very
entertaining performance. When Kurt performed this program in Korea,
his legs were burnt out from being on the ice six hours a day for
rehearsals, so it was fun but not that clean. In Charlotte, it was
clean, with some very solidly landed jumps and crisp, clean footwork
and dance moves. It's a shame it probably won't make the TV broadcast,
because the program was fun, engaging, and the audience really got
into it.
Elvis Stojko's first number was to "Lift You Up", and was really
energetic and audience-engaging. Possibly a little *too* audience
engaging for my taste - my complaint about Elvis in the past has been
that sometimes he likes to do a little too much skating around the
outside of the rink pointing into the audience and getting cheers, and
he did a bit of that in this number. However, it wasn't too egregious,
and the program overall was athletic and fun and had some cool
moves.
The first act ended with Jordin Sparks and Sasha Cohen performing
"I'll Be Home For Christmas". The stage was set up with a lit
Christmas tree and an easy chair by the tree. When Scott intro-ed this
number, he jokingly indicated the tree saying that we had skipped
right through Black Friday and were into Christmas already, and he
hoped everyone had done their shopping. The audience went wild when
they saw Jordin sitting in the chair, screaming out "we love you
Jordin!" with great enthusiasm. The program itself was really pretty -
Sasha in a blue and purple dress skating gracefully as Jordin poured
all the emotion she could into the song.
During intermission, the big screens up top in the arena played
interviews and clips from past shows talking to skaters like Oksana
Baiul and Sarah Hughes about how cancer had affected them.
The second act opened with a musical performance by Hunter Hayes,
singing "Somebody's Heartbreak" with his band. I'd never heard of
Hunter Hayes before, and I'm not really a country music fan, but he
was a dynamite performer - even during dress rehearsal, he was out
there giving it his all, looking like he has having the time of his
life, which is fun to watch. And he's a great singer.
Hunter stayed out on stage for the next number, which as Dorothy said,
paired a skater with over 25 years of experience with a singer who was
only 20 years old (and evidently played every instrument on his album?
Did I hear that right?). Way to make Kurt feel old, Dorothy! The song
was "Storm Warning" and gave Kurt the chance to do some country steps
and a bunch of dancing before showing off his footwork and some nice
jumps out on the ice. It was just a high energy sort of love song, and
it was fun to watch.
Hunter had one more number to perform, this time with Jana Kramer,
star of One Tree Hill. They sang "Almost Paradise" from Footloose,
while five younger local skaters performed. The number was cute, with
parts that were definitely choreographed as an ensemble, with the
skaters weaving back and forth, or spinning simultaneously, or doing
spirals in sequence to beats of the music down the ice. Other parts
allowed each skater to have a little breakout moment. Some of them
were noticeably nervous, but it was quite impressive to watch their
general composure on the ice in front of such a large audience.
There was a rather long break between performances here, and evidently
Kurt and Elvis took it upon themselves to entertain the crowd. I
missed the beginning because I was bending down, but when I
straightened up, they were out on the ice, coordinating side-by-side
jumps and other moves with each other. It felt very very much like their bit at the
1993 Worlds Gala where they skated together. After landing not
quite coordinated wonky side-by-side triple toes, they set it up again
and landed a picture perfect, totally in sync, side by side triple
toe. It was quite awesome. Kurt also did that "I'm not worthy" bow to
Elvis afterwards, but honestly, his height in that jump matched Elvis'
perfectly and he had nothing to bow down about. They looked like they
were having tons of fun together, too.
Johnny Weir likes his Gaga. Last year at Kaleidoscope he did "Bad
Romance", and this year he pulled out "Poker Face". He does Gaga well,
and I like both songs, but it does make him feel a tiny bit like a one
trick pony. Leaving aside past performances though, I certainly can't
fault Johnny's intensity or commitment to the spirit of Lady Gaga, or
his presence on the ice. The audience adored him as well, cheering
wildly for both his performances.
I really liked Sinead & John Kerr's second performance. In my runlist,
it's simply entitled "Exhibition", and I'm not sure what the music
was, but it was slower, kind of ethereal, and built really slowly, and
I quite enjoyed the effect. It was also a lovely contrast from their
first number, which was all about energy. This number was much more
subtle and lovely, much more about the glide and flow. The music could
have been boring for this number, but there was something about it
that just worked.
It was time again for another music-only performance, this time by
Jordin Sparks, singing "The Cure". Jordin is an extremely passionate
performer. I never watched American Idol, so I wasn't familiar with
her, but she *really* got into the emotion of her songs, in facial
expression, body language, and vocal emoting. After her number, she
and Dorothy had a bit of a cute exchange across the ice where Dorothy
told her what a fan she was and wished her luck, and Jordin was all
flustered and flattered and kept thanking her.
In dress rehearsal, Paul Wylie was extremely amused by Dorothy's intro
to his second program, saying the song contained one of his favorite
colors...the Olympic silver medalist with the heart of gold, skating
to "Silver Bells." I just get very happy watching Paul Wylie skate
these days - it brings back great memories of Stars on Ice and the pro
shows and competitions of the 90s, and he's still got all the
qualities that made him so enjoyable back then. Those light feet, the
bounce on the ice, the engaging personality and smile, the technical
skills... I think one of my favorite things about going to
Kaleidoscope the last two years has been the opportunity to watch him
skate again.
Sasha Cohen's second number was her "Mein Herr" from last year's Stars
on Ice. She clearly loves this program - there's an extra bit of sass
and engagement in her eyes and her body language as she performs. She
plays every little wrist flick and choreography with her hat to
deliberate effect, and she really gets into the character. It's fun to
watch, and the audience loved it.
Andy Grammer got his turn at a solo live performance, doing an
acoustic performance of "Fine by Me". I wasn't familiar with him
either, coming into the show, but I really enjoyed his performances in
this show. I liked his voice, and he's very charismatic.
Then, three slightly older local skaters came out to skate to Andy
performing "The Pocket". I was really struck by one of the skaters,
who seemed super at ease on the ice, and was very much a
performer. She had a natural smile, a definite style and poise, and
was a very smooth skater. The other two skaters were good as well, but
definitely seemed less at ease - one of them was noticeably very
nervous, which is completely understandable. It was a fun performance,
and Andy was quite appreciative of the skaters at the end.
Elvis Stojko's second performance, to "When a Hero Cries", was a much
more serious, emotional performance than his first, and I really
enjoyed it. He wore all black, with a subtle Superman "S" on his
chest, which kind of would imply a less serious program, but the
choreography and music was more heartfelt and meaningful. I'm hoping
this is the one of the two performances that will make it to the TV
broadcast, personally.
The last solo performance of the evening was "True Colors" by Joannie
Rochette. As Scott said in his intro, the program really fit the
"Kaleidoscope" theme of the night, and was really lovely to
watch. Joannie does the sassy "Show Me How to Burlesque" well, but I
think she really shines in quieter programs like "True Colors". She's
so graceful and her gentle reserve fits the feel of the number really
well. She had to do a quick retake right after her program for a
missed jump, which she did smoothly and without music. That seems
evidence to me that this will be the number they air for her in the
FOX broadcast next Thursday.
The show closed with a group skate to "The Most Wonderful Time of the
Year" with Patti LaBelle singing live. I will admit, I find the
Christmas theme of a show airing on Thanksgiving rather odd, but it
does create a festive atmosphere. The skaters wore
holiday-themed/reminiscent clothing (lots of red, white and green),
and seemed to have fun just skating around with each other. They once
again got their little highlight moments in the finale, and then took
a turn around the ice waving at everyone. This was a fun opportunity
to see Scott and Dorothy take to the ice briefly as well.
Overall, despite the delays necessitated by the TV taping,
Kaleidoscope was once again a really fun, entertaining show with some
great music and skating performances. I really enjoyed it, and look
forward to watching it, albeit in cut-down form, on FOX on
Thanksgiving Day from 4-5PM. As they kept mentioning, it's on after
the football game, so set your DVRs accordingly.
* Third annual Kaleidoscope - fifth annual show
by Edge Health. The first two were Frosted Pink and Frosted Pink with
a Twist.
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