Skaters: Kristi Yamaguchi, Kurt Browning, Victor Petrenko, Brian Orser, Roslynn Sumners, Surya Bonaly, Renee Roca & Gorsha Sur, Jenni Meno & Todd Sands.
Musical talent: Martina McBride and Bryan White
I didn't decide to go see this show until last Wednesday, because I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to rain. I didn't want to drive from the Bay Area to Reno in the snow! The weather people were predicting great weather, so I called to get tickets and a place to stay. I've never been to the Reno Convention Center before, so didn't know if the tickets I got were good or not until I got into the arena. The had 4th row seats at the very end of the rink. There were people sitting at the end of the rink but that area was set back and higher that were we were sitting. Actually, some of the people in the row ahead of us, all moved over into the row that was empty because the people there decided to fill in the row that was empty below them. I believe they didn't sell tickets there, because of the view being blocked by the railing, but I guess those people didn't care. So when those people moved, we have a clear view of the ice which was great! The first two rows in our section was completely empty.
Now for the review of the show. We both loved this show and were glad we decided to see it live! It looked like the show was pretty much sold out. I'm not good at distinguishing jumps and I didn't write anything down. I wanted to just sit back and enjoy the great skating that was to follow. I didn't see any falls or mistakes for any of the skaters in the first half of the show. Surya just fell out of two of her jumps in her second skate, but they did have the audience stay to do some reskates. More on that later.
All the skaters came out to do the group number, All Night Long by Kentucky Headhunters. Great routine with each skater coming out and did their routine and then they paired off at one point to do a little square dancing. Kristi paired off with Kurt.
Surya Bonaly skated to Down at the Twist and Shout by Mary Chapin Carpenter. She wore a brown velveteen western looking costume with a cowboy hat. I liked this program and she skated it cleanly with her one footed backflip.
Brian Orser skated to I Love The Way You Love Me by John Michael Montogomery. Skated cleanly.
Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur skated to Claudette by Kwight Yoakam.
Rosalynn Sumners skated to Valentine sung by Martina McBride live.
Kurt Browning skated to Boogie and Beethoven by Larry Gatlin. Lots of great footwork.
Jenni Meno and Todd Sand skated to Crying by Shania Twain.
Kristi Yamaguchi skated to From This Moment On by Shaina Twain. She wore the same pink outfit from A Golden Moment. Before Kristi came out, Kurt came out with a cowboy hat on and had Bryan White's guitar. He said he wanted to experience how it felt to come out with the guitar, but the thing he wasn't going to do was sing. Then Kurt introduced Kristi as his best square dancing partner. Kristi skated cleanly, but I think she doubled one jump.
Victor Petrenko skated to So Much for Pretending sung by Bryan White.
Intermission. After the Zamboni finished, the StarSkates crew came out with a canvas cart onto the ice. We were intrigued as to what they were doing. I had my binocular and watched them. They had the camera zooming in for a shot of whatever was inside the cart or something on the ice. Couldn't tell because they had the lid sticking up. Then one guy lifted up around 4 cowboy hats and they took the cart off the ice. My sister heard somebody say that they were filming a shot for the TV show.
Rosalynn was the first to skate after the intermission. She skated to Man I Feel Like a Woman by Shania Twain. A pretty sexy number and she landed the 2 axle. One fan sure liked it. He was sitting in the front row center ice. After Rosalynn finished her number, he stood up and started to yell, "Yeah!" many times. When Rosalynn turned around to skate out, she noticed him and blew him a kiss. The guy turned around to the audience and kept yelling, "Yeah!" and pumping his fist. The security guys escorted him out of the arena.
Victor skated to Desperado by Clint Black.
Jenni and Todd skated to Even If I Tried by Emilio. I think it was this program that Jenni's belt on her costume came undone. I could see that with the binocular.
Kristi came out to introduce Surya, who skated to Till the Heart Caves In by KD Lang. Surya fell out of two of her jumps but landed her one footed backflip into a 3 sal.
Brian skated to High Steppin' Daddy by Kentucky Headhunters.
Renee and Gorsha skated to Please Remember Me by Tim McGraw.
Kurt skated to Heaven Sent sung by Bryan White. Another great skate by Kurt. One part he did 3 triples close together and several 2 axels in the program.
Kristi skated to I Love You sung by Martina McBride. Kristi wore a black halter top and low cut tights-like pants with a glittery belt.
All the skaters came out for the closing number, Line Dance Party by The Woolpackers. They were all wearing the same western shirt and black pants. The women tied the end of their shirts in the front. All the skaters seemed to enjoy skating to country music. They skated with a lot of joy and fun. The audience gave them all a standing ovation at the end, but there was no standing ovation for anybody after their skates that night. I will tape and save this show when it's shown this coming Sunday on NBC.
We stayed for the reskate. The announcer wanted everyone to stay and wait to leave until after the reskates, but still many people left. Kurt came out to ask the people to stay for the reskates. He said it'll be a few minutes while the skaters change back into their costume. Kurt said it would only take about 15 minutes for the skaters to do their reskates. He said the shows not over till all the cows has come home or are all in (something like that). Then Todd came out alone. Kurt said that Todd didn't want anyone to know that he was skating with a wrinkled shirt. He didn't have time to iron it. Kurt joked around about Jenni losing her costume and that she's trying to find it. Kurt and Todd skated over to the audience and found out it was someone's birthday, so they had the audience join in and sing Happy Birthday to Jean. Jenni finally came out and they reskated the part where her belt came undone in their 2nd program.
Surya came out and Kurt compliments her on her awesome one foot backflip into a 3 sal. He said that is harder that a quad jump. He asked her how she does it and she just shrugs her shoulder. Kurt said he had to take out his 3 Loop tonight in his program. Then Surya just reskates the 2 jumps that she missed and hit them both this time.
Renee and Gorsha comes out to do a reskate also. I don't know why, but during a skate (I don't remember who was skating at the time, maybe Renee and Gorsha?) when the camera guy in our corner was yelling at a couple of security guys for ruining a couple of his shots by walking into his camera's view. Kurt didn't announce why they had to do the reskate.
Then Kristi came out to do a reskate of her first program. Kurt asked Kristi what the reason for the reskate, the lights? It was the lighting's fault. Kurt said she tripped over the blue lights. Then Kurt said she was going to do a 3 flip without the music and a few elements after also. After Kristi finished, she and Kurt went to sit on the stairs of the stage for a few moments and then went backstage.
I loved both of Kristi's programs that she skated. Sorry that I don't remember all the details of her program, but I remember admiring her layback spins in both program. She is one of my favorite skaters, especially since she is from the Bay Area also. She was one of the reason why we decided to make the trip to Reno to see this show. I've always admired her ability to keep up with her triple jumps and to come up with new routines. She has always done many new routines for the different pro competitions early on that I can remember. I know after her program that she skated while Martina McBride sang, at the end, Kristi's ending pose had her pointing to Martina to acknowledge her. Kristi then skated to the stage where Martina was and from what I remember, gave her a hug or kiss on the cheek? They bowed to the crowd. The audience were very loud and clapped and screamed loudly after each skater or skaters finished their program. It seemed like the side the skater bowed to erupted with very loud applause. I just love to watch ice skating and whenever I can, I like to watch it live. There are so many things going on that you can't always see on television.
My sister commented that Surya seems to really improve her flow of skating now that she has turned pro. I really enjoyed seeing Kurt also. The songs he choose to skate to really brought out his best skating. Really great footwork in his 1st number. It was also fun to see him kidding around and keeping the audience entertained while waiting for the skaters to change to do their reskates.
The audience were that loud. They gave each skater or skaters loud applause during the skating and after they finished skating. We were clapping along on many of the songs. I'm not a country western fan, but I really enjoyed the songs that the skaters picked to skate to. It got your toes tapping along also. At the end of the show, you can hear the people stamping their feet, clapping and yelling. The audience also clapped whenever the skaters landed their jumps or did a neat move in their program.
You might have noticed the faces of some of the skaters as they stood there waiting for the music to start. Someone from the audience would shout their name or something else and that's why you see the looks or little smiles on their face. I'm glad that they only had two singers on this show so that we can enjoy seeing the person skate their entire program more instead of showing the singers. I just watched the Ice Jam show yesterday that I had taped and did not enjoy it as much because they had so many numbers with live singers and they kept cutting away to the singers.
I'm just glad to have seen this show live! I enjoyed seeing it again on television, especially Kristi's and Kurt's numbers!
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