Ice festival in Moscow
By Reut Golinsky
In the middle of October, just before the "serious" figure skating season begins with Grand Prix series, moscovites got an "ice" present from Ilia Averbukh and his team. The grand ice festival started on October 14th with an ice show, or I'd call it even ice musical, "City Lights", performed throughout the weekend and finished with "Crystal Ice Awards" on October 18th. As the cast was almost the same and a few numbers were repeated also during ceremony I decided to make "two in one" report about those events.
Stories of people living in the big city, stories of love and hate, meetings and farewells, loneliness and fortune, they are sad and funny, loud or quiet, but always interesting to watch. The title might be a bit misleading because the play doesn't follow the story of Charlie Chaplin or his films, it's mostly variations on this theme about different people living in a big city and the interweaving of their destinies. Though one of the main characters, the narrator of the story (played by Marat Basharov, famous Russian actor who also took part in Ilia Averbukh's skating TV project) is also the Tramp, like in Chaplin's films. He is the soul, the guarding angel of this city, who helps two young people (Petrova/Tikhonov) to meet and fall in love or fools the policemen (Besedin/Polishchuk), comforts the little girl whose parents (Drobiazko/Vanagas) had fight and, by chance or on purpose, breaks the two newborn robots Adam and Eva (Totmianina/Marinin), created by famous scientist (Vanagas).
For me personally the number of Adam and Eva was one of the highlights. Tatiana and Maxim always had "cold and pure" style in skating, at least this is how I felt it, and this perfectly suited to their roles of cyborgs. I also respect them for working hard to keep their skating on the high level. Alexei Yagudin played an unusual for him role of the "bad guy", he was the main antagonist of the Tramp. I loved the jazzy "Casino" number he had in the Act I. When I watched it I thought to myself that I would love to see him in the new program made in such style.
One of the most touching moments for me personally was the number performed by Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, their famous "Kid" exhibition to Chaplin's music. I never had a chance to see them skating live before. And was sure already I will never have this chance. It was very special to see Elena and Anton skating together, again, those same costumes, those moves... The feeling was bitter-sweet as quite some years passed and they can't perform it the same way and on the same level, but I feel very honoured and lucky that I could see this program live.
The extravaganza had in its cast not only very decorated skaters (Olympic and World champions and medallists), but also great dancers, the music written by Roman Ignatiev was performed live by singers of leading Russian musicals, ice and even aerial acrobats were there too. The light, the decorations, everything was very complicated but thoughtfully designed. Sometimes you didn't know where to look first: to the ice with skaters, to the stage with dancers, to the upper level of the stage with singers. I was also very impressed by group numbers, especially "Sing Sing Sing" and "Mechanical morning" ("This is exactly how the regular morning in Moscow looks like," - wrote someone in his feedback afterwards). The choreography of so many people together was mesmerizing, the blend of different performing arts was spectacular.
Four years ago Figure Skating Federation of Moscow and company "Ice Symphony" established the new annual award, "Crystal Ice", to support figure skating in Russia, known for its very rich tradition in this sport. The main goal was to mark professionalism and achievements of sportsmen as well as coaches, journalists and companies who invested into development and popularization of figure skating in Russia and around the world. Among those who got awards in previous years are Ekaterina Gordeeva, Johnny Weir, Elena Berezhnaya, Irina Slutskaya, Elena Vodorezova, Irina Rodnina, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean and many others.
The winners of Crystal Ice 2010 were:
Breakthrough of the Year - Artur Dmitriev Jr.; Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov
Best coach - Tamara Moskvina
Special prize of Channel 1 - Tatiana Tarasova
Discovery of the Year - Elena Ilyina and Nikita Katsalapov
Overcome - Evgeni Plushenko; Maxim Shabalin
Special Prize of "Russian paper" newspaper "Fair Play" - Tatiana Totmianina
Revival - School of CSKA Moscow, Elena Vodorezova
Best children's coach - Natalia Golubeva
High Standard - The Federation of Figure Skating, Republic of Mordovia
Special prize from the Figure Skating Federation of Russia "Outdo yourself" - Maxim Kiselev
Recognition - Ludmila Kubaschewski
Inspiration (prize for media) - Nikolai Dolgopolov
Audience Choice award (for foreign skater) - Stephane Lambiel
Legend of the sport - Alexander Gorshkov
Special prize from the Ice Symphony "For support and promotion of skating" - Ferrero Russia
Between traditional Oscar-style speeches when happy awardees thanked their teams, families, friends and fans the public could enjoy exhibition programs from young promising Russian skaters, famous champions, group numbers from "City Lights" show and more. I would like to mention some in detail.
Adelina Sotnikova, the young raising star, who recently won two Junior Grand Prix events (and won her first senior(!) national title when she was 12) showed her short program of this season. Her light and graceful performance to waltzes of Johann Strauss included almost competitive set of elements with double Axel, triple loop and combination 2A-3T.
Lubov Iliushechkina and Nodari Maisuradze showed a very funny and lively exhibition program which they kept from last season. Inwardly I gave it a nickname "The Young Lady and the Holligan". No they didn't skate to the famous Shostakovich's music, but Lubov was such an attractive young lady and Nodari was definitely a hooligan who tried to steel her purse. But in the end of their program you understand that he didn't really need this purse, he just needed a little bit of attention and a little bit of love.
Ekaterina Riazanova and Ilia Tkachenko skated their last season's free dance to "Master and Margarita" soundtrack and this brought back memories from Nebelhorn Trophy 2009 where I saw it for the first time. It was Saturday, early in the morning, ice dance practice. I was in a very calm and light mood after the beautiful walk in the woods I had just before. I still remember the shivers I got from Katia and Ilia's skating to this powerful music, their passionate dance broke my serenity into pieces. I think, this program is perfect for the shows, it looks even better and more expressive in show lights.
We can call it a premier for the newly created pair Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov. This was the first time this pair skated for the wider audience and TV-spectators (many more times to come hopefully!). To tell the truth I wasn't impressed. Maybe because as many others I have really high expectations from this pair while I forget that the process of adjusting to each other is obviously still not over. Maybe because the program they showed was rather empty and boring, mostly "skating while holding hands" (and, by the way, it was exactly the style Maxim recently stated he doesn't like and had enough of with his previous partner, Maria Muhortova, "lyrical snot" as he called it). Probably they should have skated one of their competitive programs instead.
On the other hand I really loved the slow and lyrical program performed by their team mates and rivals Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov. I should admit that it was the first time I really saw and felt the pair and not two people who by chance happened to be on the ice together.
Maybe also their costumes helped to my perception, they were flawless: elegant, simple but beautiful (you wouldn't believe, but Alexander looks great in the shirt without low-cut neckline). I loved the choreography of their romantic dance, it had many beautiful details, positions in lifts were very intricate but also aesthetic.
Stephane Lambiel skated his "Wilhelm Tell", the short program from the last season. I secretly hoped to see his jazzy "Let The Good Times Roll" instead, so I was a bit upset. But I agree with him saying that "Tell", while being created as competitive program, is a great choice for the show too: it builds up the excitement of the crowd, starting with the fluid silent part, and gradually makes the transition to the energetic straight line step sequence when the audience can't help clapping to famous trumpets' theme. He got a huge applause from the Russian public which totally proved that he deserved the award he received in this ceremony. It was really cute that he started his speech in Russian with "Spasibo, Rossia" (Thank you, Russia) and he mentioned that it was especially moving for him to get the award at the very same ice arena he won his first World's title five years ago.
The show was finished on high note with Alexei Yagudin's "Sway", one of the sexiest of his old programs which starts with him flirting with some (very lucky) lady from the audience when he almost sits on her laps and continues with push-ups on the ice and other very "macho" moves (I do remember that there should be some stripping in the middle too, but unfortunately not this time). Although only one of his four jumps was triple, the footwork was to die for as always and his charisma and energy won public's admiration and loud ovations.
All in all I had two wonderful evenings full of beautiful skating. And I definitely enjoyed watching Russian stars performing with their real skating partners more than them skating with celebrities in shows Ilia Averbukh brought to Israel for the last few years. I have a feeling they enjoyed it this way more too.
Published on AbsoluteSkating.com: