Skating champions put on slick show

JAMMING TO SMUCKER'S STARS ON ICE

PEORIA - The audience at Smucker's Stars on Ice was in a "world of pure imagination" Sunday night at Carver Arena.

Six Olympic gold medalists and other figure skating champions humored, entertained and stunned an audience of 3,800 with the show, "Imagination."

As the performers' skates cut through ice and air, they also were acting.

Kurt Browning, a world champion figure skater, got a good response from the audience with his performance as "No. 1 Daddy" trying to fix a leaky faucet.

Dressed in a cape and wig Browning dug out of a toy box, he lets his imagination take him dancing and acting to the music of Harry Connick Jr.'s "Jitter Bug."

"Kurt Browning, to me, is one of the top skaters in the world," said Larry Watson, 68, of Pekin.

The skaters performed to the sounds of John Mayer, Aerosmith, Maroon 5, Beyonce, Queen, Genesis and more, making it one of the most modern shows Kara Clark, 41, of Sherman has seen.

Clark has seen Smucker's Stars on Ice for the past several years and said Sunday night's show was probably one of the best.

"It's the first time they've ever done special effects," she said. "Usually they have strobe lights, smoke, and that's it."

The music had Holly Whittlef, 20, of Madison, Wis., "jamming" in her seat.

"It's kind of funny because there's a lot of old people here and they can't relate to (the music)," she said.

Watson, who said the music was loud, agreed.

"It's not our type of music," he said. "Back in our days, we could hear the words."

Watson grew up listening to Elvis, a sharp contrast to some of the more contemporary music played during Sunday night's performance.

There were a few oldies in the mix, though. Alexei Yagudin, an Olympic gold medalist, performed energetically to "Shout," by Otis Day and the Knights.

And though the music was loud, gasps and sounds of surprise could be heard when Olympic gold medalist Elena Berezhnaya fell when trying to land a jump.

But some people in the audience understood the challenges of ice skating.

J-Rah Doromal, 7, of Peoria has been skating for four years. She said she's fallen plenty of times.