Saturday, March 29 - Exhibition Practice
That's Mishin
I slept in until after noon today. I guess the sleep depravity of the past week that had flown by was starting to get to me. I had intended to make the exhibition practice in time for the pairs who were first up. Instead I opted to have a real breakfast and warm tea. So, I did cooking out of the coffee maker in my room to make a hot breakfast or actually brunch by this time. I was also trying to finish some of the fruits and items in the refrigerator.
After I arrived at the MCI Center, I sat at the end of the ice, opposite the cameramen wall, in the second row. I arrived for the entire Men practice or what I thought would be practice for all of the men. The announcement was made: This practice is for Evgeny Plushenko, Tim Goebel, Takeshi Honda, Chengjiang Li, and Michael Weiss. No one came out to take the ice. So, a few minutes later, the announcer returned and said, There is one minute remaining in this practice.. People in the audience laughed because the practice group was supposed to last 45 minutes, and no one had taken the ice yet. Then, out comes a mystery man in full get up covering the head, like a mascot. Now on the ice, Skater Number One, the announcer stated with a laugh in her voice. The 'mascot' wore a bright orange, yellow and red checkered jacket with bright solid purple pants. He sported large orange slippers. He had a puppet head with cartoonish distortions. 'This is Mishin,' someone behind me commented. So, the puppet head was indeed intended as a spoof of Evgeny Plushenko and likely the creation of Alexei Mishin, his coach. The fully donned character skated around tentatively on the ice, initially with no jumps or tricks. Then, music began to play over the loudspeaker, Only you, can make us close this way. The character waved his oversized hand and skated closer to the edge of the audience. He carried a plastic rose that matched the color scheme of his jacket. He held it out like he was about to give it to a woman in the audience. He had a way of making it wilt because right before it looked like he would give it to her, the flower folded. The second music selection came over the loudspeaker. It is the livelier of the two selections. The performer tears off the head and jacket to reveal an orange shirt with purple suspenders underneath the jacket. I couldn't figure out how Evgeny could see where he was going because the head sat on top of where his regular head would be, making him appear even taller. Plushenko did some dancing and shaking his tooshie. Towards the end of the practice session, Mishin came by the boards with a large red helium balloon, engaging the curiosity of what that prop would bring.
Ice dance exhibition practice followed. They announced several teams:
Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov
Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski
Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh
Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz
Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto
Shae-Lynn Bourne took the ice first and had the surface to herself for a few minutes. She skated a few laps to warm up, then nearly wiped out doing a besti squat with quite a lean. She did other stretch moves. Victor Kraatz joined her on the ice. Then Maxim Staviyski, followed by Albena Denkova. They were all in regular training clothes. The skaters took their CD's over to an area near the judges' section where they submitted their music choices.
Bourne and Kraatz skated to the Sadness by Enigma program. I remembered it from the Champions on Ice broadcast from the end of last season. I hadn't realized the score had heavy breathing in the middle of the techno tunes. They did a lot of hydroblading moves and even some moves that resemble pair skating in-betweens.
Denkova and Staviyski skated to what began like a tango. Albena started by touching the boards and Maxim standing with arms folded toward the middle of the ice. The music rapidly becomes fast. It is a popular Shakira song. They did besti squats at the same time with her back touching his back. Maxim did squiggling on hands and knees on the ice that reminded me of some Michael Weiss moves from his Can't Touch This and Backstreet Boys exhibition programs.
A man seated at the end of my row couldn't take his eyes off Shae-Lynn Bourne and might as well have been drooling. They replayed the Enigma song. After they finished another run-through, Victor pretended to be dancing like a ballerina as they waited for more music. A portion of their Adagio free dance music was played. They must have been practicing an encore.
Denkova and Staviyski seemed to be creating the choreography of their program and thinking it through as they went along. They looked very focused. The Shakira music piece was replayed for them also.
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