Standard disclaimer: Below you'll find my latest skating event review.
At events I am concentrating on photography and take no notes, so this
review is from memory. As a result there may be some errors, but I'm
trying my best! I am also largely a mens fan, so they'll often be the
most detailed parts. This review may be posted to other lists so long as
this disclaimer is included and you let me know where you sent it.
Questions/comments can be sent to me at hoo@hooloovoo.com
Ok here I sit at the Saskatoon place waiting for the start of the first flight of ladies and so I opted to drag along my laptop to work on my review - given how that flight practiced yesterday I'm not going to miss much. Now since the event was last night and I took no notes, be aware that this might not be the most accurate review, but I'll do my best! My thanks to my seat mates Betsy and Carol for helping me remember the elements!
Practices
Practice all week for most skaters have been pretty decent for the top skaters. I've seen all the mens and one of the ladies and pairs. The top men are looking sharp. Elvis was practicing much better than he performed at the Goodwill Games - his run throughs of "Dragon" have been wonderful as he's been working mostly on the in-betweens and that's one of Elvis's best programs. Yagudin of course has been spot on - and I can't complain seeing all the run-throughs of "Winter" over and over! Eldredge is also looking spiffy - having some trouble on the quad (mainly popping it to a 3toe) but he's landed at least two in each practice. I am much impressed with Ferreria this year! I haven't seen him since last year's Skate Canada and I swear he's grown a foot and added several inches across his chest! His axel technique is still rather frightening, on the double he's got a wild swinging leg and on the triple as he turns forward he seems to almost coast along that forward edge before launching. His lutz is looking better and he has landed 2 or 3 quad-toes that I've seen, plus it seems that he's learned a new trick - the spread eagle and as a result it's all over his LP :) Emmanuel has been having hot/cold practices - sometimes it's beautiful and other times it's just awful - typical Emmanuel really. The rest of the field is looking ok - nothing really standout. Liu has been having some excellent practices - his 4toe is just huge - I swear he has massive hang time on that thing
Mens SP
Yagudin - "Winter"
My god but I *LOVE* this program of Alexei's! I got the chance to speak with him briefly on Wed and told him how much I loved seeing that program at the Masters and he smiled and said he hoped to skate it as well here. He looked *really* tense in the warm-up and the program was missing a bit of the flair it usually has, but it's still the class of the field by far. 4toe-3toe, 3axel and 3lutz. But the jumps are really the least part of the program - it's the two footwork sections that was just breath-taking! The circlular section just flies and the qucik toe pick turns on the straight line are just wonderful! I could probably go on for hours about that beautiful footwork!
Stojko - "Lion"I think Elvis was smart in bringing back two of his best programs. This sp is really one that was just made for him. He went for the quad combo but fell on it so he was out a combo. He did land the 3axel and the 3lutz though. And like Alexei he's got some fantastic footwork in this program! He didn't seem really happy about it :(
Unfortunately at this point the quality of the programs dropped off the chart until Todd and Emmanuel skated. Watching them you'd never know that these men had been ladning the jumps in practice only hours beforehand!
Liu - "Pearl Harbor"
*sigh* if only Liu had not left it in practice. He went up on the quad-combo but there were problems - I think there was a 3turn in between. I can't remember what it was but it was off and it just sucked the air right out of the program. He followed with a wonkly 3axel and 3lutz, but the feel of the program was just off. It's too bad as this music is just really a good selection.
Weir- "Umbrellas of Cherborg"
I like Johnny - he really does have some beautiful lines, but the music has got to go - it's way too feminite for him. (thankfully his long is better). He fell on his combo and his triple out of footwork but did land his double axel. But the whole highlight to the program are his spins - the sit spin where he folds his leg under and then puts his hands down through the leg toward the ice is just wonderful!
Takeuchi - "Ride of the Valkeries"
*ouch* I felt really bad for this kid - I think he was just about on the ice for every jump attempt. The costume was also, err, "interesting" with lots of red/orange flames like on a black one-piece. I think part of the problem was the music - it's just an incredibly ambitious piece for someone starting out at seniors and if it's not done well it just doesn't work :(
Jeannette - "??"
*eek* is all I have to say about this costume. Sort of a metallic gray cowboy cut that had a short top so you saw his stomach the whole time. He unfortunately left just about all his jumps in practice. Going for the quad it looked like he just slid right off the toe-pick and didn't even get up in the air which was too bad. He then fell on the 3axel and singled the 2axel. It was sadly not the best outing I've seen from him.
Ferreira
Ben, ahh my sentimental favorite - he's the Canadian I want to see step up to the plate and really put it together. It wasn't Ben's best night though. He hit the 3axel-2toe and landed it clean but put the free leg down rather quickyl afterward. Same thing for the lutz which was too bad because he definitely had the jumps landed to start with. He did land a clean 2axel. The highlight was the circular footwork which I think he has much improved since last I saw him.
Serov
What is it with weird costumes and dye-jobs from the Russian men? Roman was in a oil slick iridescent pants, black mesh and overlapping iridescent grid on the top. I'm blanking on his elements, though he wasn't as on as he'd been in practice.
Eldredge - "Jumping Jack"
At this poin we were wondering if we'd manage to see anything like Alexei's program again and Todd managed to pull us out of the downward spiral. He landed the 4toe-2toe but there was a 3turn in between. It's possible there was a hand down on it as well, but the quad comes right at out section and it's at a hard angle to see. He did land a huge 3axel and landed the 3lutz though it almost landed the sucker on toe-pick alone! Costume was the old "New York, New York" black and silver one that's just *way* too bright for good taste! He said that Jeff Bilings was supposed to have the new one ready for this event but got held up with costumes for Kurt's show. The footwork in the program is better than what he's had before, and the straight line work is pretty spiffy. The circular footwork is much slower than say Yagudin's but it's more complicated than he's ever done before. Sadly the judges must have been watching someone else as his marks were awful and the US judge gave him a 4.8! His final placement was right below Stojko and it made no sense to this fan as how with a fall on the quad Elvis beat Todd whoa t least stood up and tacked on a 3toe. Bizarre. But Todd was happy with his skate so that's all that's important.
Vlaschenko
Poor Andrej - I felt bad for the position he had to skate. The audience was really angry about the marks Todd got and it sort of sucked the life out of the arena. I can't remember all the elements but I do know he landed the 3axel-2toe with a 3turn in between I believe. It wasn't the best program of the night, but it was one of the better ones I've seen from his which was nice.
Sandhu
For once Emmanuel put it together when it counted! He just nailed very single element in this program and his 4toe-3toe was just massive ith lots of flow and *oomph*. He got composed and did a lovely 3axel and 3lutz. By the end of the program he was just grinning from ear to ear and the circular footwork just sang! It was nice to finally see him put it all together in an event that matters. I'm not really much of a Sandhu fan but he really did have the skate of his life for the SP and it was great to see.
Mens LP
Roman Serov
Wins the award for the most bizarre musical combination with selections from "Casablanca" "On The Waterfront" and "Lawrence of Arabia" - and even after watching him skate the program I'm not sure why anyone would combine those very different sounds into one program - made it seem rather incoherrant. And sadly his skating sort of backed that up as it just sort of fizzled. He went for I believe the 4 loop, but since I haven't heard much talk about it I'm not sure if I really saw him 2 foot that or if it was just an overly large 3 loop.
Yosuke Takeuchi - "Tarzan"
Please someone take this man to a real costume designer. Now while it wasn't as awful as his SP, there was just way too much leopard print happening here. What I remember of this program was a very entertaining circular footwork sequence. It had him mimicing jungle animals (believe me it looked better than it sounds) and I kept thinking in practice that it really reminded me of Yagudin's mimicing of musical instruments in his Nutcracker SP. Well during the LP I noticed his choreographers were none other than Tarasova and Morozov! He does have some wonderful personality so it will be interesting to see what he can do over th e next few years.
Ben Ferreira - "Celtic Selections"
Why do current Canadian men seem to keep wanting to break my heart in their LPs? With the retirement of Jeff Langdon Ben became my favorite eligible Canadian after Elvis, and it doesn't look like being his fan is going t be much easier than being Jeff's. Now while Ben seemed to have some great run throughs of this program in practice, he just couldn't get it together for the long. Near the end he seemed terribly out of breath so I was wondering if his asthma had acted up. He went for the 4toe but had a step out and while he landed most of his other triples, not all of them were textbook pretty or had long controlled edges. It's almost like he's not positive he can stay on the one edge so he puts the other foot down shortly after landing. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Canadians though - I'd love to see him make the Olympic team!
Johnny Weir - "??"
Now this boy definitely has some wonderful lines! He had sort of a light program - for some reason I don't seem to remember seeing as many triples as the other men, but he had such lovely in betweens, not just plain stroking. I'd like to see a bit more speed and connection with the audience but I think those will come as he grows. For his first big GP event, Johnny certainly did really well and should be happy with his skate. And that final sit (?) spin with the hands down through his legs to the ice is just wonderful!
Stanick Jeannette - "??"
Talk about a meltdown. While practices went well for Stanick, this LP bore no resemblence to his practices at all. He only landed at 3axel, otherwise it was all falls or doubles. And even his footwork was off.
Andrejs Vlaschenko - "Blues in Rock"
not much memory here of the program. I do remember he landed the
opening 3axel/2toe combo though.
Alexi Yagudin - "Man In The Iron Mask"
Having disliked this program as an IF at the Masters (it looked empty) I can say it's much better as an LP. I don't think it will top "Gladiator" as a program, but it's hard for me not to like this program as the music is just an absolute favorite of mine. Opened with a 4toe/3toe combo and I swear I saw a 4toe/3loop combo, but I almost don't believe it since I never saw that in practice. It was in the corner that was hardest for me to see, but it was impressive. Had problems with both his 3axels though which was unusual as they'd been going well in practice. I think the program has a bit too much miming in one place for an LP but it's got some nice emotion to it. You can tell he really enjoys whole sword-fighting footwork sequence :)
Anthony Liu - "Journey of Man"
Now this is a skater who can do quads - I swear there's enough hang time up there for another revolution or two! Light and effortless! Sadly the same cannot be said of his 3axel which is completely unreliable :( Liu goes for the soft-sell approach which is nice and the program really works for him. Combined with his nice SP these should be a power-punch set of programs if he can only manage those axels.
Elvis Stojko - "Dragon"
Ahh, with apologies to my fellow Todd fans, this was the highlight of the night for me! "Dragon" is my all-time favorite Elvis program and this was my first chance to see it live and it really lived up to everything I could hope for! He gritted his teeth to stand up on the quad and fell on his 3axel, but otherwise his jumps were much better than last year. While some may call the choreography typical Elvis, it's really right for the music, the arm motions and short spirals with the skate turned up and out really carry off the martial arts theme. Got a standing ovation that was much deserved!
Todd Eldredge - "1492"
Nothing like following Elvis in Canada (which always seems to be Todd's luck), but Todd stayed composed to open his program. Unfortunately the quad was popped to a huge 2toe, which was sad since even in practice when it popped it at least popped to a 3toe. Used the 3loop to compose himself but doubled the flip right after. Came up with a gorgeous 3axel/3toe combo though. Plus a 3lutz, 3axel and 2sal. I like this program for Todd, but when he's not fully 'in the moment' like he was at Worlds the program labors a bit - the music needs some passion from the skater to really capture the audience. Given how well practices had been going for him for (with the exception of the quad) it was a bit suprising to see him have an off performance like that. Spins were still first rate though!
Emmanuel Sandu - "??" (piano)
Oh gods, I knew it was going to happen - I think Emmanuel's just not capable of putting two good programs together back-to-back. He had a huge fall on the 4toe and followed that with a 1axel. Came back for a 3flip but it was like he gave up right there for some reason. Going into the next 3axel, before he even took off you could see him just drop his shoulders entirely and the jump just went no where. I have no idea why he gave up before the jump instead of after - too weird. He then singled another axel and as he slowed when he landed I seriously thought he was just going to stop and quit the program entirely. He completely abandoned the choreography at this point and he just seemed to be wandering the ice til the end of the program - though he did manage to squeek out a 3loop/3toe combo. Pathetic.
Overall the mens field had some really mixed results with no one skater delivering a complete perfect performance. Alexi definitely deserved the top spot and Elvis the silver. It might have been close between Eldredge and Liu, but Eldredge did have a slight edge. Sandu's just lucky he didn't finished in a negative placement after that free skate.
Medal ceremony
Pretty typical of a medal ceremony, but the highlight moment came
after Alexi had gotten his medal. It shortly after this that one of the
medal presenting or congratulatory women came to give him the standard
kiss on each cheek when a fan yelled out "Give him one for me!" *really*
loudly. Alexi, who I thought you pretty much couldn't shock or embarrass
turned this adorable shade of bright red! It was too cute/amusing when
coupled with the sheepish grin on his face - thank heavens for the
big screen showing a close-up :)
