Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Finally, my 2012 Stars on Ice Review!!!

Opening: Kind of cheesy and weird, with all the voice overs. I can kind of see how this number could not work with the timing being off, but the timing was on, so that was good. Loved Katia and Ilia skating together! So great to see them do a lift together! Funny part was when Joannie spoke in English, and the guys (I think Todd and Ryan) were like “totally understood that!”



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH_Jj4-Y2KI&list=UUBhXAiz1GilrJypHlFQwJ5Q&index=8&feature=plcp



Katia: “Love will keep us together”: Great number! Loved it, but I of course love Katia! So playful and fun! She unfortunately had a hard fall on her double axel, and she doesn’t have much weight on her to cushion the fall, but she did bounce right back up and carry on. Crazy that she is almost 41 and still doing difficult jumps!



Fun transitions happened with the guys in the first act, and the girls in the second act. Ilia is really funny!!



Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman: “Johnny Got a Boom, Boom!” so much fun to have these two back on the tour. They did all there big highlight moves, “Fly High and Say Bye”, “the head banger” and everything else under the sun. So much fun to see them!



Kurt: “I’m yours” Kinda bummed that Kurt recycled an old program, even though I understand he was dealing with being director and choreographer. Nice jumps though! He’s still got it! Kinda cheesy, but I still love him!



Sasha Cohen: “Dos Gardenias” Beautiful program! Sad that she doesn’t jump anymore, but understandable with school. She is still uber flexible, and fun to watch! Some new moves for her too, so that is nice to see. Much better costume than what Betsy Johnson designed for her for Fashion on Ice.



Ryan Bradley: “Foot Loose!” AWESOME!! He is so charming, and so fun to watch!! His still has his jumps, which is always nice to see! His back flip tricks are kinda scary though! I think we were spoiled with having Kristi Yamaguchi on tour for ten years, and doing all the big jumps!



Joannie Rochette: “Formidable” LOVE her too! This program was flirtatious, but in a cute way! Not over the top! She had a ribbon around her neck for most of the program, but then went into the crowd and flirted with a guy in the front row! Lucky guy! I really liked the song too, it switched between English and French (her native language). She had some jump problems, a nice triple toe, but then everything was doubled or singled (axel).



Todd, Kyoko, and John: “Waiter’s Gallop”: Fun number featuring the three, but one of Todd’s solos. He is the waiter for Kyoko and John. He gets there table ready, and then helps Kyoko to sit and tries to help John sit too, but he falls! And Todd proceeds to do a double axel and some spins, before John gets his attention and motions with his cup that he would like something to drink. So off Todd goes to get it, doing crazy footwork down to one side of the rink and he grabs a pitcher with water, and proceeds back to his table and spills the water all over on the way back to Kyoko and John! And then he pours water all over John, an accident of course! J Todd then goes to get them there food, and tries not to drop the trays while he does footwork back to the table! He does more skating and footwork, while his guests are eating, and then comes back to them to take their food away and give them the bill. Which John then mouths something like “Are you kidding me?” and while the waiter isn’t paying attention, his two patrons disappear, without paying the bill, so Todd gives it to someone in the first row!! Fun character driven number, and he is doing full out skating 95% of the time! The program says that Ben Agosto choreographed it too!



Sinead and John Kerr are a great addition to the cast! Love John, he’s such a cutie! They skated to a serious piece of music, but I did love it. I’m more into comedy, but this number kept my attention the whole time. Nice lifts and intricate footwork! Loved it!

Ilia: Violin version of “Who Wants to Live Forever”: I LOVE THIS SONG, and man can Ilia still skate. He hit a bunch of triples too!! I’m not a huge Ilia fan, just when he skates with Katia though! J



Rolling in the deep: LOVED THIS GROUP NUMBER!!!! So crazy with footwork (I’m sure that was all Kurt!) Starts with Kurt, Todd, and Ryan with miked skates (very reminiscent of 5 minutes for Icing, way back when!) It’s really cool the music that skating makes! J Then as the music picks up some of the ladies join in. Loved the ladies costumes, black pants and sparkly halter navy blue tops. After pairing off with the 3 guys, I think it was Katia, Sinead, and Joannie; then the John’s came in lifting Kyoko and Sasha. (John Kerr lifting Kyoko, and John Zimmerman lifting Sasha). And then they did this really cool weaving circle (kind of hard to explain) and it looked awesome. Not your typical group skate! There was certainly a possibility of a collision, but they were all on! And then all the guys grab a girl and lift her, so cool! And then the ladies do spirals down the whole length of the ice, with one push, and then the guys came and rescued them!! BEAUTIFUL! It was definitely my favorite group number of the night! It ended with Kyoko getting thrown up by John!



2nd Act opening: “A Life Loved” Featuring John and Sinead, Katia and Ilia, Joannie and Kurt, and Todd. Starts out with Todd dressed as an old guy sitting in a chair, looking at a picture of Katia (his wife!). Then the Kerr’s come out and do some skating and you find out they are in love, and then John pops the question. Then Katia and Ilia come out and do the same basic pattern we saw from the Kerr’s and when Ilia is lifting Katia, she starts to look sick, and then we find out they are expecting. Then Joannie and Kurt come out dressed as old people, and try to do the same routine, but since they are so old, it’s so hard for them to do it!! Funny! Then all of the sudden Joannie looks like she has a heart attack, and we all witness her “dying” and then Todd picks up the picture of Katia, and as the routines were happening you can see Todd reliving the moments. Such a sad number, but I did like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqBEcrkA9Oo&list=UUBhXAiz1GilrJypHlFQwJ5Q&index=7&feature=plcp

The girls do a lot of the transitions in between the second act performers. They all wore pretty red dresses, not spectacular, or out of the ordinary though!












Ryan: “The Best is yet to Come” Love me some Frank Sinatra, and really loving Ryan! He is so cute, and such a great performer! He landed a HUGE triple axel too!! Nice to see great skating with good jumping! More back flip tricks too!



Sinead and John skating to “Pencil Full of Lead”: They are both wearing BRIGHT pink! Starts out with them sleeping on the ice, and then John gets ready to blast her with an alarm clock. And she pops up, and off they go! Full of footwork and fun lifts. They also do there infamous lift, where she lifts him, which I love! These two are a great addiction to the cast! Have I mentioned how darn cute John Kerr is?



Joannie: Indestructible, wearing a SUPER tight black jump suit. I wasn’t quite sure about this program, I like Joannie when she does soft, lyrical skating, but it was nice that she is trying different pieces of music! Very upbeat and ‘dancey’ program! She had some more jump problems, just popping the jumps! She did do a nice triple toe though.



Todd: “Amazed” Love this song!!! Great skating, classic Todd. He did a nice double axel, but that was it. Love his spins, great program!



Waiting for my Real Life to Begin: Ryan, Kurt, John Kerr, and John Zimmerman: This was an AWESOME group number. They had 4 rigs of lights set up, and that was the only lighting they used in the program. Basically they all did there specialty moves in this little section of the ice.  Very different program I LOVED it! Kurt did some spread eagles all over the place, so the guys used the light and had it follow him. Each guy had his moment to shine.



Then they used these lights to shine on Sasha Cohen for her entrance to her Big Spender program! LOVED it, but was so afraid she was going to fall out of her costume! EEEKKK!!! Such a fun number, her personality is really coming out! Super sparkly silver costume!! No jumps, but understandable because of school.  Loved the different versions of Big Spender she used, and she had a lot of unique choreography, especially lying on the ice! And then the splits to end the routine at the end, OUCH!

Ilia: Love in this Club. Honestly I didn’t care for it, sure he’s a great jumper and everything, but I didn’t like the music, so that was probably part of it. But he still can seriously JUMP!!!!



Kyoko and John: Take Me There: LOVED THIS NUMBER!! It’s so nice that they show they can do the fast and fun numbers, as well as the slow and soft numbers. They do there awesome lift that they did with their Pink Floyd number where they do the star lift and then go into multiple positions. I love there lifts, and that they do a million positions in each one!!! Loved it!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjKcbIXDglo&list=UUBhXAiz1GilrJypHlFQwJ5Q&index=4&feature=plcp



Katia: Feelin’ Good was AWESOME!!! Loved the costume, and just how unique the program is. Very interesting! She nailed her double axel in this program. Love that she is still doing “hard” jumps, at least for a pair’s skater! Awesome footwork sequences too! It’s a different style for Katia, but I loved it. It was sexy, but not over the top crazy sexy! Then they transition from her to Kurt, who is skating to a different version of the song. She skates off, and you hear her say, “hey”, then Kurt says “hey back.” Then Katia says “Feeling Good?” and Kurt responds, “Oh yeah!” and then his version starts, which I actually liked his better. Then he flips her a black dapper hat, and she puts it on the ice and leaves.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb840kjIZLQ&list=UUBhXAiz1GilrJypHlFQwJ5Q&index=2&feature=plcp



Kurt: Feeling Good. So cool to see different programs to the same song, I don’t think that has been done before, since Katarina Witt and Paul Wylie did Schindler’s List in the early 90’s. He’s even wearing the same dark colors as Katia. I never have considered Kurt sexy, but this number was AWESOME!!! In the beginning when the music is crescendoing, he does a HUGE double axel; I swear he could’ve done a triple! J Then I thought ‘Cyril Lutz’ was going to do a triple lutz, but he faked me out and reversed direction into an awesome triple toe. He is the King of the double axel, triple toes, and triple salchows!!! I really liked his version of Feelin’ Good, better than whoever sang Katia’s!!



Finale time, so sad! In Lake Placid Sasha is lifted around the ice without any skates on, remisciant of her ballet inspired group number a couple years ago, but in Chicago she had the skates back on. Basically this number was all footwork, and when I say footwork, I mean FOOTWORK!!! They do this really cool move where they are all in a cluster together just sailing down the ice! I really liked the dresses the girls were wearing black with a bit of white, and the guys were wearing really cool black shirts with black pants. Then towards the end the music goes into a drum beat and they do these really cool moves in synch, and then the lights go out and so you think “oh sad it’s over!” but nope, then they go full speed into more footwork!! I loved the choreography and steps are different, and not the typical groups numbers!! Nice work Kurt, especially with just a couple days to work with the cast!! I thought it was a great show, wasn’t my favorite, but it was up there. Very sad that the Canadian tour is getting more stops than the US, hopefully there are more next year, although I think because of the small amount, that is why we get Katia, Ilia, Kurt, and all those who have kids at home. So it’s definitely a catch 22, but I will always make an effort to get to my favorite tour. Gotta start saving now for next year!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRPjl_X936s&list=UUBhXAiz1GilrJypHlFQwJ5Q&index=1&feature=plcp

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