Saturday, April 12, 2008

Stars on Ice Manchester, New Hampshire

So last night I found myself in the Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester, New Hampshire for the Stars on Ice Show and what a show it was. I knew when I saw the televised version I wanted to see a live show and I wasn't disappointed!

First off, the busy cast member for that show is Jennifer Robinson (aka Sylvie Salchow). I mean that girl was everywhere! She was on the ice in almost all the group numbers, she was in the crowd talking to people, she was on the ice introducing skaters, she was doing her own number, what a whirlwind! But she's fabulous so I didn't care!

Shen and Zhao don't look as if they've lost any training due to touring, they looked great. They were hitting triple twists and throw triples left and right, it was unbelievable.

It has been so long since I have seen Ilia Kulick skate. He was great, of all the guys out their performing he was the best. He looks so well trained, he was hitting triple, after triple, after triple like it was easy! And his "Inspiration" number, brilliant!

It was great to see Todd Eldridge, love his "Brightside" number which unfortunately ends with his pants around his ankles. Being as Manchester is very close to the Boston area (where I'm in fact writing this from!) Todd had a whole bunch of fans in the crowd...I mean a whole bunch. Yuka Sato was also brilliant. One of my favorite place in the show she and Michael Weiss are out on the ice and she calls him the sexiest man in the show and the crowd goes crazy! He then doesn't disappoint with a number to "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy."

Evan Lysacek and Belbin & Agosto guest starred. Evan looked surprisingly healthy given he just withdrew from worlds 3 weeks...hmmmmm? Tanith and Ben were breathtaking as usual.

The show stopper, however, was of course Sasha Cohen. She is an even better performer now than when she was competing regularly, and she was already fantastic. And her jumps were very solid. She was very fit and trained and it appeared to me that if she wanted to resume competing it wouldn't be very tough...her jumps looked as good as I've ever seen them. I love the number where she is a ballerina on the trampoline and John Zimmerman, Michael Weiss, and Patrice Lauzon all take turns moving her around. Her John Lennon number to "Imagine," memorable!

Best group number had to be the Glam Rock piece. Something about Hongbo Zhao with 80s hairband hair that made me smile! :-)

Stars on Ice, Live and in Color lived up to its hype, I was extremely impressed!

2 comments:

Ice Mom said...

Thank you for letting me see the show vicariously through your words and photos. I love the photo of Sasha Cohen; nice job!

Aaron said...

No problem, it was a blast! I was very impressed by all the skaters, their talent, and their performance level. A lot of time with ice shows the skaters downgrade their technical merit a lot but these guys were going for everything and I find that exciting. Ilia and Michael were doing triples like they were getting ready for the Olympics!

And Sasha was wonderful! I cannot say enough good things about her.