"Emotion, Dance, Delicacy and Strength"
This tape captures a moment in time just after the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, when figure skating really caught the public's interest. Many renowned skaters are featured here, all of whom are medalists from either the Olympics or the World Championships.The grand opening contains a sequence of short 20-25 second clips of many of the featured performers. This is one of the few aspects of the tape that is amateurishly done, as there are a couple of mistakes. Surya Bonaly can't hold a two-footed landing on her triple toe loop, and Brian Boitano doubles what was intended to be a triple Salchow. In considering the merits of a full routine, not holding one of the jump landings isn't such a big deal overall. For instance, during her first number on this tape, Yekaterina Gordeyeva can't hold the landing on her double toe loop, but it doesn't mar the overall performance because she skates with such beauty. However, in creating the grand opening, there really is no excuse for the editor to have especially chosen these short clips containing obvious mistakes--unless the editor didn't know much about figure skating. Also, at the very end of the grand opening, there is a 2-3 second camera shot of Jenni Meno and Todd Sand doing a lift. Although the promotional copy on the VCR dust jacket states that Meno and Sand are among the featured performers, they do not actually skate their own routine elsewhere on the tape. Yekaterina Gordeyeva and Sergei Grinkov, the 1988 and 1994 Olympic pairs' gold medalists, take the ice next. The routine contains a very nice lift and a beautiful throw triple Salchow. Yekaterina skates with such lightness and grace--she floats! Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay come next, followed by Chen Lu. Surya Bonaly then skates a unique piece that includes her famous backflip; she is the only skater I have ever seen land it using only one foot. Elvis Stojko skates to a medley of Elvis Presley songs. This is a disappointment, as he seems so listless during "Can't Help Falling in Love," and there is a lot of crowd pandering during "Jailhouse Rock." Only the most zealous of his fans will be satisfied by this performance. Next comes a couple of dance pairs: Maya Usova and Aleksandr Zhulin, followed by Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko. Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev take the ice next. They were the 1992 Olympic pairs' gold medalists and the 1994 Olympic pairs' silver medalists. There is some very innovative artistry on display here. Natalia is extremely flexible, and the routine includes their signature spin. I have always enjoyed their passionate skating. Next comes Viktor Petrenko, followed by Gordeyeva and Grinkov performing a showy Broadway number. Nancy Kerrigan skates to a sappy patriotic number, followed by a perky country encore. I do not consider these numbers among her best works. 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano skates to Luciano Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" from the opera "Turandot" by Puccini. I am not an opera fan, but this is a serious routine that is quite well done. Boitano skates an encore to "Missing You" that includes my favorite jump of his, the triple Tonneau Lutz. Oksana Bayul takes the ice next. She won the 1994 Olympic gold medal in the ladies competition. The arena is dark, except for some follow spotlights that shine only on her. She is wearing her swan costume that is reminiscent of the famous Russian ballerina, Maya Plisetskaya. Oksana skates to "The Swan" from "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens. She performs a gorgeous routine that can only be described as ballet on ice. Out of all of the performances on the tape, I value this performance the most .Afterwards, she does a fun encore along with Victor Petrenko. Both of these routines were previously performed as exhibition pieces at the 1994 Olympic games. During her prime, Oksana was an exquisite skater! I think that there are a couple routines of historical value of this tape, including those by Gordeyeva and Grinkov, Botano's "Nessun Norma," and Bayul's "The Swan." Overall, this is a very high quality tape, except for the grand opening. The introduction on the tape really sums it up best: "Emotion, dance, delicacy and strength: these make up an ice skater's palette. Tonight, glimmering across a frozen canvas, the skaters create memorable works of art for us to appreciate and enjoy. Join us then, for an evening of artistry on ice."
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Great presentation values and great skating
With performances by Ekaterina Gordeeva and her late husband, Usova and her ex-husband wonderful routine and Klimova and her hubby (playing the part of Dracula), this is great for pairs and dance fanatics. For those who like single skating best, this video does feature Boitano's chair routine and Oskana Baiul's swan routine among other skaters. I would prefer seeing some different routines from the other skaters like Nancy Kerrigan's very corny routine, so on, but among the ice skating videos available, this really is one of the best. It really has a classy presentation of each skater.
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