Anaheim, CA - January 15th, 2000
Arrowhead Pond
Review by Julie Bixby
Hi, attend the show last night with hubby & mom & in-laws.
Didn't take notes, so I may be missing a jump or two and have the numbers
out of sequence:
First Half:
Jenni & Todd--she had to fight for the landing on the throw 2Axel.
Both in this number & in the opening sequence, crowd was thrilled by
their swing down exit on hand-to-hand lift.
Tara's Genie--3toe, 3toe, 3loop, all clean
Renee & Gorsha--mesmorized the crowd, several "ooooos." I
really liked this & so did my mother-in-law.
Katia's ribbon--solid 3toe & 2Lutz.
Ilia's first number--3Axel, 3toe, 3lutz (I think--or a flip--not sure--had
to fight for the landing on whatever it was). Crowd amazed by the
height his split leap jumps.
Kristi's Troubled water--solid 3lutz, 3toe, a little shaky landing
on her 3loop.
Kurt's clown--solid 3sal to open, then 3toe-3toe combo (only combo
of the night). Little shaky on landing second 3toe of combo.
Scott's Al--little shaky on his 3toe, but hung on; several 2Axels &
a 2salchow.
Second Half:
Steven--Big 3sal, fell on 3flip, solid 3toe.
Lu--fell on her 3toe. Would Sandra please put this poor girl
out of her misery and give her a *slow* number?! The fast numbers
just leave her with no energy to complete the jumps.
Elena & Denis--one of the crowd's favorites. Good throw 3sal. This
was one of my favorites both because of the variety of moves and due to
the fact that the lighting stayed constant throughout. More on this topic
at the end.
Kurt's funky music--rocked the house. He fell on a 3flip attempt,
but at least he's trying to get the jump back.
Kristi's Santana--also fell on her 3flip, in almost the same
spot that Steven & Kurt fell on theirs.
Tara & Kurt's duet--crowd enjoyed this, and my mom loved the side-by-side
3toes (I did, too :-).
Katia & Ilia's duet--still a blank look on Ilia's face, but nice
side-by-side 2Axels. Katia didn't seem to smile as much during this as
the one shown on tv--maybe she's staying more in character--but still projected
more to the audience than Ilia.
Jenni & Todd with Renee & Gorsha--this was interesting for
the fact that during the combo pair/dance spins, J&T were clearly slower
spinning than R&G. I saw in a promo article that Jenni calls
this number their "ice dancing debut" and it shows :-).
Ilia's baseball cap--not thrilled with the music, but this number seemed
to have more spark to it than his first half routine. Did someone choreograph
this for him? It seemed more "polished." Put a hand down on his 3flip.
Just a 2Axel this time. Dropped the cap once but recovered quickly.
Tara's American woman--3toe, 3 toe, 3sal. Wish she could share some
of her consistency with Lu...
Scott's ballet--well, for me this was a disappointment--it seemed a
rehash of previous numbers. I liked Figaro much better as a classical
comedy. I wish he'd do something more introspective again, like the
routine he had skating in jeans just before his cancer ordeal. Nevertheless,
the crowd gave him the only individual ovation of the night.
Other notes:
I had a big beef with the lighting this year. I know the show is proud
of how far they've come in the lighting department, but they've gone too
far, IMHO. It started with the opening number. My mom was disappointed
(as I've read of others here) that in the opening number, that half of
it was in the dark, and the other half was glaring. My husband also complained
of the rink side lights that swiveled and shone into the audience -- he
joked he should have worn his hat to shield his eyes! My pet peeve was
how during the numbers the lights would be "medium" strength for jumping
activity, but then get really dark with spotlights for the "in-between"
stuff. This constant shifting from light to dark literally gave me a headache!
Because of all the difficult elements in their routine, the lighting of
B&P's Hungarian number was the only constant "medium" lighting, and
it was a relief! Maybe it's not as dramatic, but let the skating speak
for itself--don't overwhelm it with constant light shifting! Or, if they
must go dark-light-dark, don't go so dark! Have everything on constant
"dim," so when the lights need to go medium for jumps, the change is not
as jarring and disruptive to the viewing of the program.
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