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Stars on Ice Holiday Tour Review - Abbotsford, BC - Dec. 16, 2022
Written by Tina and Brit
Just got back from the Stars on Ice Holiday show in Abbotsford, BC. It
was a really fun show, with some surprisingly good group numbers and
solos. It was interesting, though, because very few skaters actually
did traditional Christmas music, though they all did one number that
could be construed as at least wintry and maybe holiday-ish if you
looked at it sideways. Jeff Buttle choreographed the show and was
supposed to be in the cast, but unfortunately had to withdraw due to
injury.
Opening - Fanfare
Kurt Browning, Elladj Balde, Nam Nguyen, and Elvis Stojko led off the
opening number to "Fanfare." They did side by side jumps and death
drops and a lot of group skating. There was a cute choreographic bit
where they came together as a group with their arms around each other
and then turned outwards to the crowd, kind of like they were
including us in their camaraderie. Then, Alissa Czisny, Satoko
Miyahara, and Mariah Bell came out together with joined hands, doing
side by side spirals down the ice, before breaking off for some lovely
skating of their own, doing spins and spirals and spread
eagles. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro did an overhead lift
and death spiral and then were joined by Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew
Poje. While the skaters did get their individual spotlight bits, there
was a definite theme of coming together as a group or family in the
choreography.
Alissa Czisny - Chasing Cars
Alissa did a really lovely number to a female rendition of Chasing
Cars (originally by Snow Patrol). We both really liked this
number. Brit thinks it's one of the best solos she's seen Alissa
perform live. I think it's definitely up there. It was a plaintive,
heartfelt performance. Very lyrical and emotional and connected to the
music. Alissa's got gorgeous edges and glide, and of course her
spirals and spins are wonderful.
Nam Nguyen - It's the Most Wonderful Time
Nam looks like he's having a blast on tour. The size of his smile and
facial expressions just light up the arena. He embraced the cheese of
this song and amped up the energy, just projecting it out through the
arena. It was a lot of fun to watch, and a fun way to handle the
Christmas theme.
Kaetlyn Osmond - Mr. Grinch
This number really suited Kaetlyn's playful, flirtatious, coy side,
which she does so well. She is such a performer, connecting to the
audience and just really being engaging the whole program. She came
out at the beginning with a red sack, which she left on the ice for
the majority of the program, but at the end, she retrieved the sack
and handed out presents to some of the kids sitting on ice.
Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje - I Wanna Dance
Kaitlyn came out alone to the beginning of "I Wanna Dance." This was a
really odd version of the Whitney Houston's classic song - a lot
slower and moodier. I'm not sure I liked it, to be honest. Her
choreography had a lot of stiff jerky motions with her arms that kind
of reminded me of the "Creep" group number from years ago. There was
definite storytelling in this number in the way it developed from
Kaitlyn skating plaintively alone to Andrew joining her on the ice but
skating separately for quite a while, before they finally came
together. It was interesting because the number never had a cathartic
coming together like they actually found someone to dance with. It was
very much about separation and skating alone, even when they skated
together. Brit liked it.
Elvis Stojko - Black Hole Sun
When this song started, I was very much like "this is such an Elvis
Stojko song," which it was, but it suited him well. I thought he
carried the mood and feel of the song well, and had a good amount of
variation of choreography and style that matched the song and managed
to grab the audience. Elvis' jumps and spins are still really solid
and impressive, and the audience loved him.
Mariah Bell - Whole Lotta Woman
This was a strange program. It felt like there were a bunch of
different possibly good programs that were just stuck together. It was
an odd medley of music with abrupt cuts between songs that didn't
particularly flow or feel like they went together. Each segment was
fine with Mariah performing her heart out to that particular mood, but
then it would abruptly change, and I wasn't sure why.
Kirsten Moore-Towers & Michael Marinaro - Skate
Skate was one of Kirsten and Michael's numbers from the spring 2022
tour, and it was fun seeing it again. It's a really high energy number
which they seem to enjoy performing. Kirsten in particular really
projects and connects to the audience, and draws the eye to her. They
just dance it up and never stop moving.
Kurt Browning - Who's Got the Pain
Hmmm. What to say about this one. I love Kurt, but this is one of my
least favorite of his programs. I can't stand the song. I can't stand
the voices. I don't like the costume. It's honestly very gimmicky. But
it's Kurt. He is amazing with a hat. He has great footwork and facial
expressions. He performs his heart out and tries to connect with the
audience. I will be honest, I'm not entirely sure he succeeded tonight
with the whole audience. I thought the audience was surprisingly quiet
for long periods of time where there should have been laughs. I do
think there was something strategic about choosing a program that
wasn't so full of difficult tricks, and relied more on performance. He
did land a couple triple toes, though.
Satoko Miyahara - Paternera
This was an awesome number. It was possibly Brit's favorite number of
the night and definitely one of mine. It's a flamenco-inspired number
very much in the vein of Nyah, with the same kind of tension in body
movement and stillness, and deliberate motions and poses. She pulls it
off beautifully, with the utter conviction necessary to sell a program
like this. I think she did this number in Japan as well, so I'm hoping
it was captured on film, because it's just that good.
Elladj Balde - We Are the World
This was Elladj's "holiday" number, which took the music's inclusive
theme and extended it to the audience. Elladj at times in his
choreography seemed to be literally reaching out and embracing the
audience and inviting them to take part. And the audience responded by
pulling out their phones and using them like lighters, creating a
beautiful backdrop as he skated. Elladj definitely throws his whole
body into his skating, and is just so charismatic that he draws the
audiences in every time. That worked well for this number.
Kaitlyn Weaver, Alissa Czisny, Kirsten Moore-Towers, Satoko
Miyahara, Mariah Bell - Light of a Clear Blue Morning
From everything I've seen on social media, this number was Kaitlyn
Weaver's first group choreography for Stars on Ice, and holds a great
deal of meaning for her. This was a beautiful group number with
gorgeous costumes and just lovely skating. It had a lot of moments of
community and bonding between the women, lifting each other up,
holding each other, and generally supporting each other. It definitely
had a different feel from the "girls numbers" of the past and was very
moving. It was a surprisingly good number for a holiday tour,
honestly, and it's a shame it wasn't filmed for TV.
Act I ended up with an extended WorldVision plea as usual, by Kirsten
Moore-Towers this time. She actually did a really good job of making
the extended plea sound natural, heartfelt, and funny.
Act II
Cast - What a Wonderful World
Act II opened with the same group number that opened act II of the
spring Stars on Ice 2022 tour, "What a Wonderful World." I was happier
because it was lit brighter (thus easier to shoot), but that probably
made it a bit less moody. This number worked well, and was obviously
quite well polished since everyone in it did it in the spring. It had
some nice moments, and was simple, but effective. I do still wonder
why they put them in muddy colored costumes, though,
Nam Nguyen - Piano Man
We really liked this number. It was somehow a moodier number, yet
still uplifting in the way that Nam skated it. He just exudes such joy
and charm in his skating, that there's an underlying joy even in the
moody songs. He also decided to go for 5 or 6 double axels in this
number, and landed them all, which was quite impressive, and led to
escalating applause and amazement from the audience as he landed each
one.
Mariah Bell - Snowman
I don't honestly remember a lot about this program except that it went
from a slower more lyrical start to a more fun upbeat mood partway
through. I remember enjoying the number well enough, but I think it
doesn't help that neither Brit nor I knew the song, so we can not
remember what it sounded like. Mariah does also exude joy when she
skates, and was fun to watch.
Elladj Balde - Uptown Funk
It is possible that we don't remember Mariah's song because Elladj
immediately came out and blew the roof off with his dynamic
high-octane performance to Uptown Funk. Elladj is always charismatic
and engaging but somehow this number just took it to a new level. He
had the audience in the palm of his hand, and he just never stopped
moving. Even when he was stopped on the ice, he was bouncing. He of
course did a backflip in this number (he did in both) and made the
audience sound twice as big as they were, they responded so
enthusiastically.
Kirsten Moore-Towers & Michael Marinaro - River
In a complete change of mood, Kirsten and Michael did a lovely skate
to "River", a song which has been done a bunch but really does seem to
suit skating amazingly well. It took a minute to adjust to the very
different tone, but I actually thought they did a really nice job of
interpreting the number, and not losing the audience.
Alissa Czisny - Charlie Brown Christmas
Kurt came out on the ice with a bunch of props - a stool, record
player, his skates, and a bunch of records. Soon after, Alissa took to
the ice and began skating around to "Christmas Time Is Here" from A
Charlie Brown Christmas. At some point, she went over to Kurt, who was
busily setting up his record player, startling him, and seemed to be
requesting some music. He held up two records, and she chose one,
which he pretended to start playing. After a loud record scratch sound
that "startled" him, "Skating" came on, and Alissa did her program to
that while Kurt busied himself with putting his skates on and
occasionally reacting to her number. The choreography was pretty
reminiscent of Kurt's "Skating" program from 2001, with a lot of light
springy footwork dancing across the ice. It was a cute number, which
she performed nicely.
Kurt Browning - Bing Crosby Medley
If we remember the transition correctly, Alissa went over and startled
Kurt again, and in response, he took her record off and put his Bing
Crosby record on instead. Except, it being Kurt, of course things
didn't quite go smoothly. If we are remembering correctly, he started
off skating to "Silent Night", which was going beautifully until the
record started "skipping" on "Round yon virgin, mother and child" (as
he did a bit of circular skating), and his choreography repeated over
and over with the skipping, until Alissa "changed" the song. The
program basically continued that way, with sudden skips between songs,
either because of record malfunction or Alissa or Kurt deciding to
suddenly change the song. It was definitely more of a skit than a
program, with style and choreography changing abruptly as the songs
changed, and cute interactions between Kurt and Alissa. Kurt also did
a lot of humorous mugging as he toyed with record player, at one point
turning DJ and scratching the record repeatedly. At the very end, he
stopped Alissa from putting away the record player and said "as long
as I've got this out here..." and started playing "Brickhouse", miming
the opening choreography until Alissa firmly shook her head and took
record player away.
Satoko Miyahara - Winter
Song-wise, this was a very loose tie to a holiday show, as Satoko
chose to skate to "Winter" from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi. I guess
it thematically matched, but it's definitely not what I would usually
think of as a holiday song. It was very dramatic and very well
skated. Satoko is a very expressive skater, and really matched the
dynamics of the song. It reminded me of one of her numbers from the
spring tour, which also impressed me a lot. Definitely a highlight of
the night.
Elvis Stojko - Northern Lights
Again, a rather loose connection to the holiday theme, but a really
good program and good choice of song for Elvis. This was Elvis in his
more ethereal mode, rather than his rock mode, with lots of gazing off
and reaching into the distance. Elvis is always a great spinner but he
had a particularly astonishing scratch spin in this one. It was
blurringly fast, really long, and very centered, and he came out of it
really nicely. His sit spins were also particularly impressive tonight
- very centered, low, and quick.
Kaetlyn Osmond - Dolls
This program was marked as "Dolls" on the runsheet I got but I'm not
convinced that's what the song was called. Unfortunately, I don't
really remember the lyrics, so I have no idea what the song was. This
was another charming, audience-engaging number from Kaetlyn. She
really is a very open, engaging performer who seems to make eye
contact with every member of the audience, and just draws them
in.
Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje - Auld Lang Syne
I guess New Year is part of the holiday season, too! BTW I don't
actually mean to sound very down on the music choices, it doesn't
actually bother me that they didn't do much Christmas music, but it
does amuse me how tenuous the connection to the season was in so many
cases. This program seemed more an opportunity to do a Scottish-themed
number, with a kilt for Andrew and a matching tartan dress for
Kaitlyn. The program started out a bit slow, but really got fun when
they broke into all out Scottish-inspired footwork. I think Kaitlyn
said on social media that Sinead Kerr was involved in this program
somehow.
Finale - Ceelo
The finale was really fun with very colorful costumes. It started with
4 men again, but this time it was Kurt, Elladj, Nam, and Michael, who
seemed to be having a great time skating together and engaging the
audience. They were then joined by Kirsten, Satoko, Alissa, and
Mariah, eventually pairing off with them. Since I was looking through
my camera lens and could only see one pair at a time, I'm not sure,
but it looked like Kurt and Alissa were kind of goofing off and doing
somewhat different things than the rest of the pairs. At one point
each guy picked up the girl and spun around, except Kurt was going
suuuuper slowly and Alissa was laughing her head off. It was very
cute. Elvis was given a whole highlight section of his own, where he
skated out past the line of skaters and did death drops and that
spinny thing he does on his hands, which he did faster and more
crisply than I remember him doing it in the spring. Eventually all the
skaters were out doing a whole bunch of different tricks. I was amused
because Nam was having so much fun that he was literally whooping and
randomly leaping as he zipped around the ice. Honestly, all the
skaters seemed to be having a great time, and really enjoying being
out there. They ended with the traditional kick line and bow and
slapping all the on ice people's hands. But of course, Elladj couldn't
leave the ice without doing one last backflip, this time over Andrew
Poje. And with the excited screams of the audience in their ears, the
skaters made their way off the ice, and the show was over.
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