Post by Céline on Dec 14, 2004 17:46:21 GMT 1
OK, so there was the ARD gala in Frankfurt this week-end, and I was there with Jacqueline and Kathrin... I'm not going to write a whole report, but here are a few things.
First, I already posted a little review of what Stéphane did yesterday. You can read it ***here***.
All I saw on Friday evening - and basically the whole Saturday too - was the rehearsals of the opening and closing numbers. Both were to some (slooooow) Christmas songs and the choreographer (Daniel Weiss's wife) was VERY picky. She did one very smart thing though, and that was to put Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin in the first line - those 2 are amazing! You show them the choreography once and you can be sure they'll do it right, well, with the music, and synchronized on top of that! (but since they're even synchro when they blow their noses, that's no surprise! LOL) Anyway, on Saturday night it all still didn't look too good, the skaters didn't seem to care much, but then, wow, on Sunday "morning", it was all fixed!! It made us wonder if they had spent the night rehearsing in the hotel lobby...
Since I already mentionned them, it was SO GOOD to see Tatiana & Maxim on the ice again!!
They looked awesome, and even if you could see that they were being very careful, they landed some thrown and side-by-side triples and did some lifts. During the lifts I kept looking at Maxim and I have to admit that I got scared a couple of times, but hey, he's a strong boy after all! They skated their SP to Ave Maria, it's all so smooth and each move is 100% under control, it's really beautiful! Their 2nd program was to "Your song" by Elton John and that's also a beautiful program.
The 2 other pairs were Sarah Abitbol & Stéphane Bernadis, and Aljona Sawchenko & Robin Szolkowy. Abitbol & Bernadis skated a beautiful program to "Je suis malade" (Lara Fabian's version) and their Matrix program with ribbons and sunglasses.
Sawchenko & Szolkowy were a great surprise and I really hope to see those two compete internationally soon (Robin said they're now allowed to). They skated to "Belle" of Notre-Dame de Paris (the French version sung by a Russian guy!!) and to "Heya" or whatever it's called. She really has a lot of presence on the ice and they fit well together. Good luck to the 2 of them!!
Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat were there (Gwendal finally made it to Frankfurt on Saturday after his flight was cancelled on Friday - Air France on strike again!!) and skated their flamenco and a program to Star Wars, with hoods and light swords. I loved the flamenco, and Star Wars was quite original. It looked a bit messy in practice, but when they did it "fully" at the exhibition, it looked fun!
Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov skated their OD and FD (or part of it at least). I enjoyed their programs, but don't have much to say.
Christina & William Beier did their FD and an exhibition program to "DREEEEEEEAMS ON ICE, I FEEL THAT I CAN FLYYYYYY" - wohoo, it was so good to hear that song in a rink again that I basically didn't watch the program at all!! LOL I kept "seeing" the closing number of the 2004 Worlds exhibition...
Surya Bonaly, apart from going silly with Stéphane (Lambiel), did her programs to "One day I fly away" and the Lion King. Of course the highlights were her backwards salto (or however it's called), which she did 4 times in total during the gala on Sunday.
Constanze Paulinus, a German lady, skated to... no clue anymore... 2 slow songs. I wasn't too impressed to say the least.
There was also a 12 or so-year-old German girl who skated her SP to Titanic, she was nice to watch and probably never got so much applause applause applause as that afternoon.
Stefan Lindemann was the other guy there (that makes it to 3 Stefan/Stéphane out of 8 guys!). He skated some jazzy exhibition program and his LP "as a practice for Nationals". He sure jumps high...
The synchronized team Berlin 1 did their SP (to some Russian-like music) and LP (to the Phantom of the Opera), it looked good!!
And Matthias Bleyer (who just split with Nicole Noennig) did a program with some hobby-skater who had won some kind of "casting" through a TV station. She could skate a bit better than I do, but ehm, it was... well, I hope she enjoyed.
I think that's all. And yeah, that's much longer that I had planned...
First, I already posted a little review of what Stéphane did yesterday. You can read it ***here***.
All I saw on Friday evening - and basically the whole Saturday too - was the rehearsals of the opening and closing numbers. Both were to some (slooooow) Christmas songs and the choreographer (Daniel Weiss's wife) was VERY picky. She did one very smart thing though, and that was to put Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin in the first line - those 2 are amazing! You show them the choreography once and you can be sure they'll do it right, well, with the music, and synchronized on top of that! (but since they're even synchro when they blow their noses, that's no surprise! LOL) Anyway, on Saturday night it all still didn't look too good, the skaters didn't seem to care much, but then, wow, on Sunday "morning", it was all fixed!! It made us wonder if they had spent the night rehearsing in the hotel lobby...
Since I already mentionned them, it was SO GOOD to see Tatiana & Maxim on the ice again!!
They looked awesome, and even if you could see that they were being very careful, they landed some thrown and side-by-side triples and did some lifts. During the lifts I kept looking at Maxim and I have to admit that I got scared a couple of times, but hey, he's a strong boy after all! They skated their SP to Ave Maria, it's all so smooth and each move is 100% under control, it's really beautiful! Their 2nd program was to "Your song" by Elton John and that's also a beautiful program.The 2 other pairs were Sarah Abitbol & Stéphane Bernadis, and Aljona Sawchenko & Robin Szolkowy. Abitbol & Bernadis skated a beautiful program to "Je suis malade" (Lara Fabian's version) and their Matrix program with ribbons and sunglasses.
Sawchenko & Szolkowy were a great surprise and I really hope to see those two compete internationally soon (Robin said they're now allowed to). They skated to "Belle" of Notre-Dame de Paris (the French version sung by a Russian guy!!) and to "Heya" or whatever it's called. She really has a lot of presence on the ice and they fit well together. Good luck to the 2 of them!!
Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat were there (Gwendal finally made it to Frankfurt on Saturday after his flight was cancelled on Friday - Air France on strike again!!) and skated their flamenco and a program to Star Wars, with hoods and light swords. I loved the flamenco, and Star Wars was quite original. It looked a bit messy in practice, but when they did it "fully" at the exhibition, it looked fun!
Elena Grushina & Ruslan Goncharov skated their OD and FD (or part of it at least). I enjoyed their programs, but don't have much to say.
Christina & William Beier did their FD and an exhibition program to "DREEEEEEEAMS ON ICE, I FEEL THAT I CAN FLYYYYYY" - wohoo, it was so good to hear that song in a rink again that I basically didn't watch the program at all!! LOL I kept "seeing" the closing number of the 2004 Worlds exhibition...
Surya Bonaly, apart from going silly with Stéphane (Lambiel), did her programs to "One day I fly away" and the Lion King. Of course the highlights were her backwards salto (or however it's called), which she did 4 times in total during the gala on Sunday.
Constanze Paulinus, a German lady, skated to... no clue anymore... 2 slow songs. I wasn't too impressed to say the least.
There was also a 12 or so-year-old German girl who skated her SP to Titanic, she was nice to watch and probably never got so much applause applause applause as that afternoon.
Stefan Lindemann was the other guy there (that makes it to 3 Stefan/Stéphane out of 8 guys!). He skated some jazzy exhibition program and his LP "as a practice for Nationals". He sure jumps high...
The synchronized team Berlin 1 did their SP (to some Russian-like music) and LP (to the Phantom of the Opera), it looked good!!
And Matthias Bleyer (who just split with Nicole Noennig) did a program with some hobby-skater who had won some kind of "casting" through a TV station. She could skate a bit better than I do, but ehm, it was... well, I hope she enjoyed.
I think that's all. And yeah, that's much longer that I had planned...
Cel!! 
). This casting thing sounds a bit silly. Was it at the least a little bit ok to watch?
What was Surya doing to Stephane? 
