The Heart of the Matter

Friday night I attended a fabulous iceskating production called "We are the Champions."  Jim and I planned to attend this together, but, alas, he was called out of town to assist a young couple in their adoption process.  (Jim often does medical evaluations for adopting couples and then writes up his findings in a format that is easily understood by the American physicians when the new family returns to the States.)  Anyway, Jim knew how much I wanted to see Ekaterina Gordeeva so when he went to purchase tickets and discovered that they were out of the cheaper tickets, he bit the bullet and bought 10th row seats.  As he said, HE wanted to watch ME watch the skaters!

In Jim's absence, I invited Cara, a fellow missionary here, to go with me.  I didn't know until we got there that she had never seen a live performance of international skating.  And SHE never knew that I hadn't quite mastered military time...we arrived a full hour early!  Okay, now I'll never forget that 20:00 is 8:00!  Everything else here tends to start at 7, so I didn't even take the time to calculate the hours.

Actually it was kind of nice to have a whole hour to talk and observe the crowd as they came in.  The show was sponsored by a chocolate company, and there were small dark chocolate candy bars in each seat.  We were so surprised to watch a couple of girls actually sit in the wrong seats, eat the candy, and then move to other seats...and then eat THAT candy.

Another surprise was that after the zamboni made its final run on the ice, a young boy in street shoes began sliding all around the rink.  He fell once and hit his head, but it didn't stop him from continuing on.  Cara and I wondered why he would be allowed on the ice, especially carrying in the dirt from outdoors on his shoes.  We hoped that the skaters wouldn't trip over some foreign debris!

The show was great, in spite of the fact that it seems the routines these days feature ever-new ways of removing more and more of their costumes.  The skaters usually begin in full costume, but typically end in much less!  Cara described Philippe as a Chippendale wannabe, and I must agree.

The exception to this trend was Ekaterina.  What a classy, elegant skater.  Nothing showy, just perfection on the ice.  I couldn't help but wonder what she must think as she takes the ice, having lost her husband and pairs partner at a rehearsal of "Stars on Ice" in Lake Placid in 1995.  Though she has married again, she remains a solo skater.

Viktor Petrenko organized the show, and skated some very clever routines -- one with a "partner" actually sewn to his costume.  And I thoroughly enjoyed his interpretation of "Mack the Knife."  Probably HIS highlight of the evening was his 8-year-old daughter's debut.  Viktoria even skated a short bit with her famous daddy.

It's great fun to spend an evening in "another world."  If this show comes to a venue near you, I would recommend that you attend...and sit back and simply enjoy.