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Ice Wars XIII Review
Sears Centre - Hoffman Estates, IL - Nov. 2, 2006
Commentators: Verne Lundquist and Scott Hamilton
Judges: Kerry Leitch (referee), Yuri Ovchinikov, Mary Lynn Geldermann, Ron Luddington, Christine Sweeney, Paul Duschenay, Tai Babilonia, Josef Sabovcik
Shizuka Arakawa - lovely, lovely program to Ave Maria. Sounded to me
kind of like Sarah Brightman's voice, but I could be wrong about that.
Shizuka was amazing tonight - spot on perfect in everything, gorgeous
jumps (She did a 3-3-2 combo!), beautiful choreography and skating,
spins, that incredible ina bauer, etc. Kurt said that he had seen her
compete live before but he was captivated tonight, that it really was
something special. She was definitely the World Team's special
weapon. After her program, Kurt was making hand motions in the kiss
'n cry to the judges, holding up 10 fingers, and then doing 10
followed by 1 =). But since she was first, I guess the judges didn't
want to give her a perfect score:
9.9 9.9 9.9 9.9 10 9.9 9.9 - Total: 49.5
Rory Flack Burghart - Get Here by Oleta Adams. Rory's jumps were not
working for her, unfortunately, at least not the triple toe (she kept
doubling it in practice and I think actually messed it up altogether
in the competition) but she was very entertaining to watch. She
emotes to the rafters, skates her heart out, and she's so flexible -
those hyperextended split jumps are just amazing. She also does jumps
with a different approach - just doubles, but they look different in
their takeoffs to fit the music, which is fun to see.
9.7 9.6 9.6 9.6 9.7 9.7 9.7 - Total: 48.3
Angela Nikodinov - To Love You More by Celine Dion. Angela also seemed to be suffering from a case of
nerves in the first half of the competition, and unfortunately screwed
up a few (IIRC) of her jumps. She skated beautifully, though, to a
really pretty number that was really nice to watch.
9.8 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.8 9.6 9.7 - Total: 48.6
Oksana Baiul - ?? - This was a rather odd program that she said was
about her life. It started off with her in a clown wig and clownish
costume, skating to just the sound of applause, looking uncertain and
eager to please. She moved through stuff like some of her familiar
looking Swan Lake choreography, at various times, put on a tiara, a
medal, and a gold hat. Then she suddenly shed all the clown stuff as
the dramatic strains of Carmina Burana?? (I was told) came on, skating
with great angst and drama, and then came back to the boxes on the ice
with her clown gear, put that back on, as the applause resumed and her
name was announced. I'm not entirely sure I understood her program
but I have to say, if it's meant to depict her life, she has a *very*
cynical view of her life. I didn't think much of the program as a
skating program, or even as artistry, but it was different, I'll give
her that.
9.8 9.5 9.6 9.6 9.7 9.7 9.8 - Total: 48.4
Total at this point: World: 97.9 vs USA 96.9
Alexei Yagudin - a comedic blues number. Alexei totally played up the
comedy in this number. I have to say, watching both his programs
tonight, I see a *strong* Kurt influence or similarity. I don't know
if it's actually conscious or intentional on Alexei's part, but there
is so much in both programs that I find strongly reminiscent of things
Kurt has done in the past. In this number the way Alexei utilized
comedic moments, the types of facial expressions, some of the moves
(faux ballerina position?) etc, felt to me like influences of Raggy
and other comedic programs Kurt has done. This is not to say that the
number was a Kurt clone number. It was distinctly Alexei, and it was a
nice use of the music and a fun number. I liked both of Alexei's
programs better than his programs from last season. I felt they relied
less on outright flirting and more on a showman's flair.
9.8 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.9 9.8 - Total 49.0
Kurt Browning - Easy by Barenaked Ladies. Kurt was relaxing on the
couch with the World Team, being the good teammate as Alexei got his
scores, and was a bit slow to get up to skate, making a move like "oh,
my turn?" before getting up and running onto the ice =). The program
was a bit altered from Gotta Skate (it had to be cut down, time-wise,
and he had to change stuff around since in the show he went up and was
just playing with the band for a while) but it's a good program on
him. The song has this loose, relaxed flow to it, and Kurt totally
goes with it. He said that whenever Ed Robertson sings the word "Easy"
it makes him want to fly, but he has a limited repertoire of jumps, so
he just did 2-axel after 2-axel. He did *SIX* double axels over the
course of this program. Also did 3-toe, 3-sal, but then messed up his
last 3-toe, which obviously pissed him off. At the very end of the
program, he hit his final pose and then as soon as the music was over,
he was like "agh! this close!" with the body language and the facial
expressions, and then as he skated off the ice, he shook his finger at
the part of the ice he had done the jump on. This is a great program
on him - I'm not sure I noticed it as much (was distracted by BNL) at
Gotta Skate, but I really enjoyed it here.
9.8 9.8 9.9 9.8 9.8 10 9.9 - Total 49.2
Michael Weiss - I Can Only Imagine (guessed from the lyrics - a
"spiritual" song very much about Jesus and religion). It's odd, b/c I
do respect other people's religions, but I have an instinctive
antipathy to having it shoved in my face, and this program (or rather,
the lyrics to the song) kind of triggered that response. The program
was perfectly fine - well skated (though IIRC, not perfectly skated),
nice, emotional, etc, etc. But I just couldn't get over my reaction to
the song. Which is odd, b/c I even listen to some Christian rock
sometimes. I can't really explain it. But unfortunately, my
impression of this number was affected by that.
9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.9 9.8 - Total 49.1
Brian Boitano - music from Pride & Prejudice. I have to say, it's a
real, real shame that Brian had an off-night with his jumps, because
this was a beautiful program. I could see that this program would
have been gorgeous if it had been skated perfectly - great emotion,
drama, flow, beautiful edges... Unfortunately, Brian had a hand down
on his tano 3-lutz, and then a hand down again later. He also tried I
think a 3-2-2 combo, but had a hand down after the first triple. He
seemed to be skidding off his edges a bit on his landings. I've been
told he was landing everything beautifully in practice, so it's
unfortunate that the ice gremlins bit him for the competition. Lovely
program, even so.
9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.9 9.8 - Total 48.6
Total at this point: World 196.1 to USA 194.6
CBS likes to shoot "faces in the crowd" to fill into the live
broadcast, so they did this at the beginning of each half - asked the
crowd to cheer as they focused on different people in the crowd. In
the process of all this scanning around the audience, it was revealed
that Dick Button was in the house =).
Second half was skater vs skater, with scores announced after each
pair. Scores from this part of the competition were doubled. Matchups
were Shizuka vs Rory, Alexei vs Michael, Oksana vs Angela, Kurt
vs Brian.
Shizuka Arawaka - You Raise Me Up. Unfortunately I can't say much of
anything about this program b/c my camera decided to break during this
program. I guess break is a bit strong b/c it eventually came back to
life...after the program ended...but for the longest time it was
refusing to let me take pictures, and I was panicking and trying to
fix it, so I didn't end up getting almost any photos of Shizuka and
didn't end up watching most of her program. It's a shame because what
I saw of it was beautiful, and I heard raving reviews about it from
more than one person afterwards. This is something I'm looking forward
to seeing on TV b/c I want to see it, darn it! Stupid camera.
Rory Flack Burghart - Last Dance by Donna Summer. She started this
program right next to me, sitting on the boards, which meant a camera
man sat right behind me to catch her. He was a really nice man,
chatting with us and making sure that it was ok with everyone that
he'd be there. She was really cute, jumped up on the boards and
smiled at me and was like "hello!" Then everyone was cheering for
her, and she was laughing, and then she goes "no, stop, I have to be
sad", trying to look serious, and then cracking up again. This was a
tremendously fun, high energy program. Rory definitely knows how to
show skate and sell a program to the audience, and boy did the
audience buy in. She even got parts of the audience to stand at the
end of the program. Great program, and so much fun to watch. But in
a matchup vs Shizuka, I don't know how anyone ever thought Rory could
stand a chance.
Scores:
Shizuka: 9.9 9.9 9.9 10 10 10 9.9 - Total 99.4
Rory : 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.8 9.8 - Total: 98.0
Alexei Yagudin - Spanish (tango-ish) music. IMO, influences of Nyah
here, plus programs where Kurt has worn a hat. I told you I was
seeing Kurt all over Alexei's programs. At any rate, this was
footwork-filled program, sold with Alexei's showman flair and topped
off, IIRC, with some nice jumps. I thought this was a really good
program and really enjoyed it.
Michael Weiss - Get Down Tonight/Boogie shoes/That's the Way I Like
It. I think this is a number Michael's done before a lot. He wears a
big afro and very disco-ish bright shiny costume, and just boogies
down to the music. The program is high energy and a lot of fun. Not
great art, but it's a definite audience pleaser and he seems to really
enjoy performing it.
Alexei: 10 9.9 9.9 10 9.9 9.9 9.9 - Total: 99.2
Michael: 9.9 9.8 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.8 9.8 - Total: 98.4
Oksana Baiul - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall. I'm
not sure how this song has anything to do with Oksana being blond,
single, and Russian, but it sure was a fun song for her to skate to.
It helps that I like the music, but I thought it suited Oksana really
well. It was high energy, allowed her to flirt with the audience, and
just had a nice driving rhythm all the way through. IMO, much better
than the first number. She still was having problems with her jumps,
though.
Angela Nikodinov - There You'll Be (tribute to her mother). This
program was just a beautiful, heartfelt program. Listening to the
lyrics, and knowing at least something about Angela's story, you could
just see that the program meant a great deal to her. She's such a
lovely skater, and this was such an emotional, beautiful skate.
Oksana: 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 9.7 - Total: 97.0
Angela: 9.9 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.8 9.8 9.9 - Total: 98.6
In the interview after the scores, Oksana was all teary and wouldn't
even really talk about her own program, saying that she knows what
it's like to lose a mother and that Angela's program made her cry,
that she loved the program. Angela was in tears herself, saying that
she didn't really expect the program to hit her so hard emotionally
when she was actually performing it, but she had to fight back tears
at times. Afterwards, Oksana and Angela hugged each other for a long
time.
Kurt Browning - Expectation and the Blues by Corb Lund. Kurt said he
met this artist the previous year while filming Alberta Bound, and
that his music inspires him and he really wanted to skate to him. As
you may have guessed, this is one of his numbers for Country on Ice
next week (the other is Rebel Yell by Gretchen Wilson). I have one
note written down for this program (I don't usually take notes), and
that is AWESOME FOOTWORK. Kurt said he didn't have much time to train
his jumps so he went all out on the footwork for this number. He was
personally disappointed with his performance - said his thighs gave
out on him from practicing too much and that he wasn't able to make it
all the way through the way he wanted, and that his footwork was
sloppy and not precise like he did it in practice, that he left out
steps, etc. I have to be honest - I couldn't tell. The choreography
is quite loosey-goosey, so the sloppiness seemed to me to be
intentional and fit with the music and the feel quite well. I really
enjoyed the program, mostly because, as I said...AWESOME FOOTWORK. I
think he may have messed up a jump or two in there, though.
Brian Boitano - That's Life by Frank Sinatra. Brian said that his
choreographer, Renee Roca, always wanted him to skate to "That's
Life", so he was. This program suited Brian really well. It was far
more light-hearted than the Pride & Prejudice piece, but it was
light-hearted in a very Brian way. Dignified light hearted? =)
Sinatra does suit Brian well, and this program was a great deal of
fun. He also landed a beautiful tano 3-lutz with a great deal of
determination (and earning a huge cheer from the crowd), and nailed
the rest of his technical elements. Kurt and Brian always provide
such a nice contrast to each other, and together, make for a great
ending to a great night of skating.
Kurt: 9.9 9.9 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.8 9.9 - Total: 98.8
Brian: 9.9 9.9 9.9 9.9 9.8 9.9 9.9 - Total: 99.0
Brian just barely edged Kurt on this one...
The final score:
USA: 588.6
World: 590.5
And the World Team wins!
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