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Post by reut on Jan 31, 2019 10:56:02 GMT 1
"The two-time World Champion and 2006 Olympic silver medalist, he will most certainly be presenting never-before seen choreography at the 2019 Art on Ice show." Dates: 7.2 - 10.2.2019, Zurich, Hallenstadion 12.2 - 13.2.2019, Lausanne, (new) Patinoire de Malley 15.2 - 16.2.2019, Davos, Vaillant Arena 17.2.2019, Basel, St. Jakobshalle Cast: Stéphane Lambiel Misha Ge Elladj Baldé Ivan Righini Kaetlyn Osmond Emmi Peltonen Elena Radionova Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov Aljona Savchenko & Bruno Massot Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin Other acts: Emmanuelle Balmori (skates + bungy cord), Cirque Éloize Music: James Blunt, Stefanie Heinzmann Trailer based on images from AOI 2017: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihZYjQWKRjEJames Blunt - Art on Ice Interview (English): www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FIEDc2KcdIVideo promotion with Stéphane: www.facebook.com/ArtOnIce/videos/466944547046387/Stéphane's programs: "Goodbye my lover" by James Blunt, "Down the Road" by C2C The visual theme for this year is steampunk: "The 2019 Art on Ice show is entitled “Time to Time”. Using a steampunk genre, it draws spectators in to a fantastical and adventurous voyage back to the future." AOI already started putting photos, videos, "stories" on their social media accounts: www.instagram.com/artonicemagic/www.facebook.com/ArtOnIce/?ref=br_rsFull program and more details in this digital show guide: www.showguide.artonice.com/
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Post by reut on Jan 31, 2019 11:08:30 GMT 1
Stéphane about his AOI programs during the fan meeting:
About new programs: I made two new programs for AOI. One was choreographed to the music of the band C2C - I did a choreography for Tatsuki Machida a couple of years ago to their music - so it won’t be the same song, a different one from the same composer. It will be played live by the band [invited by AOI]. It’s a very dynamic song, full of energy, I hope I have the cardio and the heart that goes with that program. It’s much fun. And then the second is to “Goodbye my lover” by James Blunt. I don’t know if you remember but at the beginning of my “Art on Ice” story I was skating to “Take the long way home”. I had a backpack and I had a bench. Now, with “Goodbye my lover” we look back at that program. In a way “Art on Ice” is my home, also, and there was a long way with them, this year it will be 17 years. So we wanted to look back to the big love with this show. And there will be a bench, and there will be a bag, and in this program I will be looking at all those great years.
About “You’re beautiful”: No, there was never this thought (to recreate “You’re beautiful”). “You’re beautiful” was a very spontaneous program, at that point this music was in my playlist and I really loved to listen to it. I was at the competition and I needed a music, and it was a very spontaneous feeling of going out and skating to that. Now I wanted to have something more interesting and structured.
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Post by reut on Jan 31, 2019 12:19:49 GMT 1
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Post by reut on Jan 31, 2019 15:59:55 GMT 1
Yes, it is definitely for "Goodbye my lover" as this is a hashtag he is using. I just can't really see how it goes with the "bag and bench" he mentioned. Based on their preparations I hope it's going to be a beautiful show. But then, the only thing I care is for Stephane to have two new interesting programs, if he does the rest doesn't matter
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Post by pianomaya on Feb 1, 2019 21:38:04 GMT 1
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Post by reut on Feb 2, 2019 17:12:22 GMT 1
Oh. Then I don't know. Looks like Emmi was added to the cast:
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Post by reut on Feb 2, 2019 18:44:17 GMT 1
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Post by jomeku on Feb 9, 2019 21:49:12 GMT 1
For those interested to see what happens backstage it might be interesting to watch yesterdays live-video on Art on Ice FB. Even though it's mainly in Swiss german: www.facebook.com/ArtOnIce/videos/386113165279123/They show the backstage, but also talk to artists and skaters. From 1:25:45 we can see Stéphane taking the ice for "Goodbye my Lover". Reto Caviezel, CEO of AOI, says he does not want to disturb Stéphane cause he's in his 'tunnel' short before taking the ice. But he talks to Salome Brunner saying that she might be the person who knows Stéphane better than anyone. He asks her what she thinks is happening inside Stéphane in the last three minutes before his performance. Salome answers that he tries to control and stimulate his nerves in a way that nervousness becomes helpful in the end. Then he would let himself be carried away by the music. R.Caviezel wonders if it can be that Stéphane - two times world champion who has achieved everything possible -'comes to a show and is nervous'? Salome says Yes, he is. Always. R. Caviezel then says he knows that Salome is very nervous too, when Stéphane performs. So he does not want to disturb her longer and lets her watch Stéphane, adding that she's moving simultaneously with Stéphane to each of his movements. He adds that Salome is Stéphane's choreographer and companion who also takes care that Stéphane is ok and feels well after leaving the ice. Then R. Caviezel and the woman moderator stand in silence a moment, watching Stéphane and 'let the pictures speak'. After a short while the moderator says she wonders if Stéphane still can accept a choreographer's advices or if he wanted to do everything by himself. R.Caviezel answers that Stéphane is a person who 'very much wants a team around him'. That he often has his physiotherapist with him and Caviezel sees him as 'an absolute team player' who'd discuss a lot in the team. Moderator thinks Stéphane gives everything, everything for figure skating. She's recently read a short article saying that Stéphane only relaxes from time to time on the sofa wearing compression stockings. Otherwise he'd be on his skates. R.Caviezel adds that this is the way he perceives Stéphane. When he arrives for AOI one could feel that he 'has his adrenalin on the highest level' during two weeks and there's the impression he's all the time 'under high voltage'. (Sorry, I know i should work on my English grammar ... but hopefully it's understandable ... (in case anyone reads it at all ))
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Post by tisha on Feb 9, 2019 22:48:16 GMT 1
Thank you to reut for all the pictures and reports on AoI. Thank you to jomeku for all the videos and the translation (your English is fine - I'm a native English speaker - so please don't worry about that! I'm so grateful that you are always willing to take the time and effort to translate for us). The comments about Stephane always having someone from his team around him are interesting - I've noticed that over the years that I've followed him and always kind of off-handedly wondered if they were accompanying him to help with all the luggage and other stresses of travel or to try to ward off overly eager fans, or if perhaps he just dislikes being alone on the road. Now we know!
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Post by jomeku on Feb 11, 2019 15:19:47 GMT 1
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Post by reut on Feb 11, 2019 17:13:50 GMT 1
I'm back home, at work already, but still completely under the influence of this year's show, overwhelmed and WANT MORE. It was my fifth time at "Art on Ice", and I usually know already what to expect, what I probably will love (Stephane), what I'll bear with (non skating stuff), I know it will be impressive and beautiful and maybe half of the music played I'll even like. This year I looooooved everything! There was not even one number I had to bear with, not even one musical piece. I absolutely loved all the invited musicians, very different from each other, but so amazing, so professional, with such great energy. Well, I knew who James Blunt was (also a nice change, usually I hear their names for the first time when AOI announce them ), but I knew maybe 2-3 of his songs. And live he is MUCH better. Stefanie Heinzmann blew my mind, she was so energetic and strong, the end of the first half with her last song felt like finale, the energy was so high. And "Momento" were so great and I really loved their covers, very unique approach and interesting combination of violins and electronic sounds. All musical pieces were so, so good. So good that now when I'm work and can't really catch up on videos, I'm working with this playlist I created: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWeqeQkjLto&list=PLsqonZ6lBW-1oYz0-sE3sjHiC2OA1wVSF"Art on Ice" skaters is more or less the same group, they also work together on other shows in Russia and Japan, and you can really see that they know how to work together, they feel like one good group. And they have some very nice "tricks" which impress the audience. I really, really loved "Cirque Éloize" (usually off ice action is the last thing I notice). And I'm glad they had numbers which were completely theirs, especially the number to "High" (with the girl in red dress "walking on hands") was very artful and touching. The whole steampunk design was super cool and those flying and driving machines were unbelievable. In general the stage was even more impressive than usual, with not only stage moving on the ice, but also stage going up, machines flying and going up and down, the graphics on the background - all was on an absolutely different level of anything I've ever seen, including on previous AOI shows. Skaters... Stephane had two new, full, "all to himself" programs and already this fact only made me happy. I loved the mood of both, loved that they are very different. I watched the show a few times, from different points and from some impression for the first number was stronger (impression from the second, lyrical one was strong everywhere . I wonder which program he'll leave (I guess "Goodbye My Lover"?) and I'm looking forward to see how it grows. He looked well prepared and strong, and really happy and in a great mood, a few times it was only triple instead of 3-3 and one time there was less nice fall on 3F. Two finales he didn't do quad but in the rest he did and it was amazing. I liked less that it was basically the same costume for both programs, but that was the only thing I liked less. Tania and Max looked very polished, they are a great pair but it looks like they almost don't do some of pairs' elements now, go more in direction of adagio skating. The throw was successful twice I think? No side-by-side jumps, there was one twist lift? They had amazingly beautiful lifts though, a lot of variations and beautiful combinations and creative entrances. Aljona and Bruno were more of "usual pair skating", with their crazy twist lifts and throws. I was really happy to see Misha Ge, this is so his place to be part of such show. He had one solo number and one number with other skaters and dancers and a ballerina, very beautifully choreographed one. I absolutely loved "Havana" number where Elladj Baldé had solo but it was a very nicely done group number. I was less impressed by girls in this show to tell the truth. I have a lot of work to do, but I will have a report (which will include an interview with Salome where we talked a lot about Stephane, of course), an album and some videos to share soon.
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Post by reut on Feb 11, 2019 17:19:03 GMT 1
For those interested to see what happens backstage it might be interesting to watch yesterdays live-video on Art on Ice FB. Even though it's mainly in Swiss german: www.facebook.com/ArtOnIce/videos/386113165279123/They show the backstage, but also talk to artists and skaters. From 1:25:45 we can see Stéphane taking the ice for "Goodbye my Lover". Reto Caviezel, CEO of AOI, says he does not want to disturb Stéphane cause he's in his 'tunnel' short before taking the ice. But he talks to Salome Brunner saying that she might be the person who knows Stéphane better than anyone. He asks her what she thinks is happening inside Stéphane in the last three minutes before his performance. Salome answers that he tries to control and stimulate his nerves in a way that nervousness becomes helpful in the end. Then he would let himself be carried away by the music. R.Caviezel wonders if it can be that Stéphane - two times world champion who has achieved everything possible -'comes to a show and is nervous'? Salome says Yes, he is. Always. R. Caviezel then says he knows that Salome is very nervous too, when Stéphane performs. So he does not want to disturb her longer and lets her watch Stéphane, adding that she's moving simultaneously with Stéphane to each of his movements. He adds that Salome is Stéphane's choreographer and companion who also takes care that Stéphane is ok and feels well after leaving the ice. Then R. Caviezel and the woman moderator stand in silence a moment, watching Stéphane and 'let the pictures speak'. After a short while the moderator says she wonders if Stéphane still can accept a choreographer's advices or if he wanted to do everything by himself. R.Caviezel answers that Stéphane is a person who 'very much wants a team around him'. That he often has his physiotherapist with him and Caviezel sees him as 'an absolute team player' who'd discuss a lot in the team. Moderator thinks Stéphane gives everything, everything for figure skating. She's recently read a short article saying that Stéphane only relaxes from time to time on the sofa wearing compression stockings. Otherwise he'd be on his skates. R.Caviezel adds that this is the way he perceives Stéphane. When he arrives for AOI one could feel that he 'has his adrenalin on the highest level' during two weeks and there's the impression he's all the time 'under high voltage'. (Sorry, I know i should work on my English grammar ... but hopefully it's understandable ... (in case anyone reads it at all )) Thank you so much for translation! And it's amazing how wise Reto is and how well he understands Stephane, 'under high voltage' is a very interesting description and I might even see what he means. Moderator mentions the interview-not-to-be-mentioned , but it's nice what she took from it. Btw there was maybe only one time with actual standing ovation for Stephane, which is a bit upsetting, although applause was huge each time. With big production numbers with many people involved I think it's not easy to make the audience stand with "pure skating". But the audience definitely loves him the most, still, and during the finale he was the the highlight, so overall I was OK with "no standing ovation" thing.
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Post by jomeku on Feb 11, 2019 23:31:52 GMT 1
Thank you, Reut, for your long report! I'm very glad you were under the spell of this show and do not regret to have come all the way . I was at the opening night when all those flying machines were actually not flying , seems they had technical problems. Does not matter. What you do not know, you can't miss. But I missed most of the acrobatics as they were mostly on or near the stage and my place was at the opposite end of the rink. Also, my focus was on the skaters and it's impossible to focus on two or three different sites of action simultaneously. Art on Ice is an expensive show ... but actually it should be watched more than only once in order to see 'everything'. I am also glad Stéphane had two programs "all to himself". Many of the programs of other skaters were kind of an artistic synthesis of the individual skaters together with musicians, group-skaters and dancers and acrobats. Interesting and beautiful to watch, but the individual skaters 'vanish' somehow. For Stéphane, I do hope he will keep at least "Goodbye my Lover" which is such a touching program. Well, the first one, too, which is a very demanding program with, I think, five jumps (have to watch again and count) . He seemed, by the way, happy with the audience's reaction, even though there was no big standing ovations (just once, you say). In an interview in one of the short TV reports after the opening night he said that he was very happy with how his performances went ... and with the audience reaction (and his eyes sparkled when saying it. It was not just being polite, obviously). Also, in the live broadcast (from which I translated the Stéphane part above) Reto Caviezel and the woman moderator say that Stéphane left the ice after his performance with tears in his eyes. Also earlier in this live broadcast Elladj Balde quite enthusiastically talks about the wonderful response from the audience. I'm glad the artists perceive it this way, they deserve it! I mention this because, for my taste, I would wish them more 'standing ovations' and even louder cheering. But they seem happy, so it's ok.
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Post by fourthdimension on Feb 11, 2019 23:35:52 GMT 1
Thank you, Jomeko and Reut, for the reports! I’m so glad you enjoyed the show.
Neither of Stéphane’s songs are to my taste, personally, but it doesn’t really matter. I am still so happy to see two new interesting programs, and looking forward to seeing how they develop.
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Post by reut on Feb 12, 2019 12:17:32 GMT 1
All my videos from AOI, a few short ones from the finale, I had a really good place but my camera didn't want to cooperate. And also some bonus videos I'm sure some people were really looking forward to see. (Sorry for the quality, taken by phone) www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsqonZ6lBW-2u4oMfVBj34mB4AGriFC_Rupdate: If someone can maybe translate what they are saying here, I'd really appreciate. Thanks! www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1CT3YeePBMAbout standing ovation: the reception of the public was really good, I don't want to complain. And I doubt Stéphane himself "expects" standing ovations, it's me who thinks he ALWAYS has to get one. Catching up on news' reports now. James Blunt is such a humble person, he mentions everywhere what an honour it is for him that such amazing skaters perform to his music and he doesn't mind at all that he is not t the center of attention (although, of course, he is). And, by the way, when I was making that "soundtrack playlist" I noticed that he had many songs in this show, usually "invited star" does maybe 4-5 at max, he did the full second half. P.S. Great videos start to appear on this channel: www.youtube.com/user/dogfight0424/videos
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