Saturday, March 22 - Ice Dance Free Dance Practice
The Fun of John Hancocks
Well, I didn't get up for the 6 a.m. practice as planned. Right outside the MCI Center, and connected to it with its own entrance, was a McDonalds. I thought I would go in for breakfast on my way to the practice. So, as I pull the door open, this loud and furious fan starts going. And, it is a fan system that is above the only entrance/exit door of the McDonalds restaurant that is activated when the door opens and closes. So, I'm ticked if this thing messed my hair up, and I'm checking to make sure my pamphlets aren't blown out of my hands. What a weird contraption. So, I sat down to a quick breakfast and some orange juice as I felt extremely parched with no opportunity yet to purchase bottled water and an aversion to the tap water. It was hilarious when everyone that came through the door reacted to the overhead fan the same way I did. They would make confused and alarmed faces and stare up at the crazy fan. And, no one understood why it was there or what it was for. Maybe it would have worked for a hot summer day, but it was still chilly outside. The fact that I was still a bit sleep deprived just made their reactions funnier. I passed quickly through the door to leave in order to avert its affects.
As I was leaving the McDonalds for the MCI Center main entrance, I saw the ice dance team from Great Britain, Pamela O'Connor and Jonathon O'Dougherty walking down a side street and pulling their tote bag on wheels on the way to practice. The skaters' hotel must have been walking distance and nearby.
I thought I'd try a different seat this time. I chose a seat that was on the wall of the warm up entrance and exit area to the ice. The seat was the furthest over from the aisle, so that if any skaters happened to pass by I could just reach over the wall to have them sign my autograph book. I was in the second row back from the front, so any skater of any height could still reach me. Plus, if I wanted to take any pictures I could capture the skaters backstage as they waited to take the ice. I knew that pictures with the least motion were the most likely to come out clearly so someone standing fairly still would make a better picture than skaters in movement across the ice.
The first dancers I saw on the ice were from Group 4, so it must have been after 7:30 a.m. I had missed the first two groups that had practiced that morning. Still the spectators hadn't filled in much, and I was able to get the seat I had which I thought was good.
The dancers don't do full run-throughs either. Most of the skaters skate the beginning and the end of their program, and some portion in between. They may do the other elements of the program during someone else's music or during the general warm-up, but not in the sequence of how the program will look at competition.
Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov were on the ice dressed in their full free dance costumes that they wear in competition. Elena steals the show. She has good steps and footwork, and I like the sequence where she lunges to the ice while holding onto his waist and repeats the action. They were doing the unison stroking as well, like the pairs, during the practice.
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder were stationed very near where we were sitting, under the guidance of Muriel Boucher-Zazoui. Muriel stood in the feet of space between the barricade in front of the first row and the boards. The space also provided room for skaters and others with backstage passes to walk through to talk to friends in the stands. Isabelle is very beautiful in person. She looks almost dainty. Her hair was in an upsweep ponytail. She and Olivier were dressed in purple and hot pink costumes with a lot of hanging things - not their regular free dance costumes. They stopped about ten seconds into the run-through and picked up later.
Julia Golovina and Oleg Voiko of Ukraine were present as well. They were in black and silver costumes, and he had on a pair of black leather pants.
I noticed the ice dancers are in full make-up with jewelry and accessories. And, instead of wearing leotards, training pants, and shirts, they are in costumes. If it is not their free dance costumes, it is other dressy costumes. At times, the music is played for the competitors who are no shows to practice, and other times they revert back to the popular and rock music selections for the music time slot of the missing skaters.
After this practice group, I learned some more of the ropes with the skaters. As the group was leaving the ice, I noticed the actions of a young lady sitting in the front row. Hikari hailed from Kobe, Japan and had also attended Skate Canada and Trophee Lalique earlier this season. She began calling Grushina and Goncharov over to sign an autograph. 'Excuse me, excuse me,' Hikari said, and they looked up and immediately obliged. Elena made it over to the area first and signed an autograph to be closely followed by Ruslan. I was juggling my camera and autograph book and trying to decide if I should take a picture or get an autograph. So, I went for the autograph first, and Ruslan came over with a smile. He gave my autograph book directly to Elena after he was finished to make sure she could sign it, too. Then, they posed together for pictures for us. While they were posing for me, I made some comment about 'I'm not sure I'm getting this right' as I was adjusting the zoom on my camera. After I had taken a shot and lowered the camera, Ruslan asked me, 'Did you get the one you wanted?' just to make sure. I thought that was very nice of him, and they both seemed very sweet and accommodating to the fans.
Next to leave the ice were Isabelle and Olivier. They were just as gracious, but possibly a little shy. I unconsciously held the notebook over the wall for Olivier while he signed instead of handing it to him to sign and hand back to me. Wow, if they're all as accommodating as this, it will be fun, I thought.
U.S. ice dancer Justin Pekarek had a backstage pass and was hanging around in the skater warm up area watching. He came over to Hikari and asked her from which other skaters did she need to get autographs. I didn't recognize him at first, but I realized that was him when someone called him Justin, and I looked at the name card that is on the backstage pass worn around the neck.
The sight of the ice rink made an interesting picture. The tops of the boards were lined every few feet with a kleenex box and a bottle of water. Some of the ice dance and pair teams share the same water bottle and others don't. Most skaters blow their nose every so often during the practice session. It is either due to the coldness of the ice area or the nose running from the activity. Similar to how sometimes jogging or running distances makes the nose run. When there is a trashcan nearby, the skaters will use it. Otherwise, the coaches will collect the crumpled kleenex at the end of the session.
Group 5 included Weina Zhang and Xianming Cao of China, Marina Timofeieva and Evgeni Striganov of Estonia, Pamela O'Connor and Jonathon O'Dougherty of Great Britain, and Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali of Italy.
Muriel stayed planted in her spot from the previous group to coach the Great Britain team. I did not realize she coached yet another non-French team. Pamela and Jonathon were in royal blue costumes with sparkles on the bodice for her. They did a good upside down lift in the opening. The music is haunting, sounded like pipe organ music. It became a little less somber toward the middle and maintains a heavy beat.
Zhang and Cao skated to a familiar tune. It is Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Their costumes were black and gray. Weina smiled big all during their practice session and run-through. They practiced the dance spin, which had interesting positions for her. They also did the circular step sequence.
So, I was waiting to see Faiella and Scali that I had read a lot about. I recall her with a previous partner, Luciano Milo, at 2000 Worlds where they faced injury. Back to present, Scali was wearing an all black, sleek fitting pants costume with stylish top, and Faiella had donned a dress of psychedelic color prints. They skated to music with Spanish lyrics. It's Gloria Estefan. I didn't recognize her voice. Federica and Massimo are fairly close in size and height to each other. He has Italian passion and fervor in the expression. The dance has good energy.
Timofeieva and Striganov wore orange and blue costumes. Cool dance moves from them in the beginning of the program. This part sounded like Enya music. Wow, it is. I score for music identification on that one.
Lean On Me
I divided my attention between the happenings on the ice and looking over to my right to see any skaters milling around in the warm up area to watch the other skaters or waiting to go on the ice themselves. So, if some of my notes are sketchy it's because I'm trying to multitask with the teams all on the ice together plus observe anybody that comes from the backstage area. I spotted Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia. I knew them totally from pictures, but it was an easy identification. She is tall and very slim, and he is even taller than she is. They have distinguishing features. Maxim was dancing backstage to the music playing during the run-through of Faiella and Scali. Albena Denkova, partner of another Maxim, came also from the backstage area and was motioning to some friends in the stands. Her hair was in a braid down her back, but she was very recognizable.
So, I was watching some skating and turned my head to the warm up area and saw my favorite ice dance couple sneak up out of nowhere. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, there they are!' and trying to contain my enthusiasm. They were standing about five feet from my seat in the stands. Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon started leaning on each other as they stood and watched. Then later, they both happened to look over in the stands while I was trying to take a picture of them. They saw me with the camera and both continued looking over that way long enough for me to get a snapshot. They had matching glossy red suitcases on wheels beside them and were wearing the red and black Team Canada jackets. It seemed as if they had recently arrived from travelling to the event because they went over to kiss and greet their coach Muriel after watching for a few minutes. Patrice walked up closer to the boards and smiled with Albena who was standing nearby. Marie-France and Patrice left to go get ready for their group.
Nora Hoffmann of Hungary was quite an ice dance personality. She was upbeat and always moving to music played on the sound system. I caught her dancing backstage to Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity.
And, that concludes practice for Group 5. So as the skaters were leaving the ice, everyone in the stands would gear up with their papers/books/programs to be autographed and shift toward the railing where the skaters would pass. Federica and Massimo came off the ice with huge smiles. They were very happy to sign autographs and would look and nod at people like they knew them. Massimo said, 'Thank you very much' to me after he signed my autograph notebook and handed it back to me. 'Thank you,' I said. Here he was thanking people, and he was the one signing the autographs for us.
I spotted Patrice Lauzon coming out to check things out and get loose. He was jogging around and stretching his neck by rolling his head around. He soon disappeared again.
Practice Group 6 was announced. Russia was missing their top two teams. Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov's The Feeling Begins music was played, but Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh's music was pre-empted with the general pop and rock selections in their absence. So, I'm not sure how they determined the playing of absentee's music.
So, after seeing Nora bounce around backstage, I'm curious to see what she and partner Attila Elek have in store for their practice. She was wearing a catsuit with a thick black and gray stripe. On second review, the stripe is a print of a slithering snake. He was wearing simple all black in contrast. They have a good low lift where their legs are entangled. The music is a little bit snake-y, too. It sounds Egyptian. I can still see her danceability skills on ice. They did the most practicing in this group and stayed until the very end of the session.
Agnieszka Dulej and Slawomir Janicki of Poland appeared in very telling outfits. She wore a flapper hat and dress with strategically placed tassels hanging from the bodice. He was in a tuxedo. It is 1920's music, of course. Selections of note were Money Makes the World Go Round and Life Is a Cabaret.
Domnina and Shabalin are another team skating to a Latin mix. She wore a brown top with an orange skirt. He wore an orange shirt with brown pants and a brown unbuttoned jacket. Another very lively dance.
After practice, we managed to get Oksana Domnina to come over for autographs. The other couples slipped by us without being noticed somehow. Maxim Shabalin declined to sign autographs and walked towards the back, but Oksana stayed until they were all signed. She is a very happy girl. I never saw her without a smile on her face. An AP Photographer came up at this point and started taking pictures of Oksana signing. This was the first time autograph signing had been photographed professionally for the day.
It so happened that in Group 1 Dubreuil and Lauzon were the only skaters in attendance. When the announcer said their names introducing the group, she said Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, representing France. So for a moment there, someone might have wondered if they had done like the Duchesnays. A lady standing backstage made a joke to Muriel, 'They switched countries on us.' Patrice was in black pants and a loose button up blue shirt with sheer arms. Marie-France was in a two toned black and blue dress with one leg covered in black netting. They have a good lean and deep knee bend to their skating.
During the run-through to their music, they left out some of the lifts in the middle. They resumed at the section where he rocks her back and forth to the pulsating beats of the music. They did the lift where they are back to back and she is extended in a splits position, butterfly lift and the ending pose lift that makes Dick Button nervous that they won't be able to hold it. I've never seen them miss it yet. Later in the practice, they did the lifts that were left out from the middle section - Marie-France standing up then leaning forward with their legs intertwined and Patrice on one leg. And, the rotational lift with the surprise entrance in which Marie-France holds onto Patrice's waist facing downward and he holds onto her leg. They also did a move in the opening sequence where she rolls and turns behind his back and their eyes are closed.
As they stopped to confer with Muriel, Marie-France reached over to run her hand over Patrice's hair and smooth his shirt. Later as they still talked to their coach, Patrice, while slowly turning boardside, unconsciously knocked over Muriel's open purse that was planted on a low section of the boards that is about two feet high. He felt bad. It was okay. Muriel quickly restored the contents.
Dubreuil and Lauzon also took time during the free dance practice to rehearse part of their original dance. They did the opening sequence where he holds onto her ankle while they face each other doing pirouettes. They practiced the lead in movements into the dance spin. They did the straight line step sequence during the polka section from the long end of the ice to the other. They also did the ending sequence of their OD that results in the ending pose.
After this practice group, us autograph groupies called them over to engage us. Marie-France exited the ice first, and she came over and wound up signing my notebook first. 'You guys looked good out there,' I told her. 'Thank you,' she said. Marie-France is such a delightful lady. She is quite pretty and even prettier in person than on television. She smiled at and made eye contact with each person after signing an autograph. She is a caring and feeling person. Very genuine. She also would make conversation with people as she made her way along the autograph wall. 'Is that from Skate Canada?' she asked Hikari. Hikari had a photo of Dubreuil and Lauzon in OD costumes taken at this season's Skate Canada that she wanted signed. Marie-France made her way up the rows of the people who were sitting behind me and said, 'I'm not sure I'm tall enough' with a chuckle as she stood on tiptoes and stretched to reach the paper and pens held over the rail for her to sign. Patrice was very diligent also with autograph signing, and I got his as well.
So, that concludes my first dance practice, which was very fun. The only downside was I had run out of film at the end of this group's practice. Now, that I'm getting the hang of this autograph thing, I wondered if I would need more pages in my book. Imagine that! When I first arrived, I hadn't pictured getting any at all. I am having the ice dancers and pair teams sign on the same page as their partner, so that should save some space. Even if I find Weina Zhang's partner Cao, I'll have him sign on the same page as Weina, my first autograph.
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