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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Champions on Ice, Arrowhead Pond - Anaheim (2006)

Cast: Michelle Kwan, Sacha Cohen, Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, Shizuka Arakawa, Surya Bonaly, Evgeni Plushenko, and many more.
For complete info, see the Champions on Ice site.

As usual, it was wonderful to see the world champions of ice skating live. I'd been to the Smucker's Stars on Ice tour before, but hadn't seen the Champions on Ice tour sponsored by John Hancock. The stars included in the Champions on Ice tour made it easy to pick it over any other tour of ice skaters. I always love seeing Michelle Kwan and Surya Bonaly live and it was great to see Sacha Cohen, Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, and all the others I'd never seen in person before.

I was a bit surprised that they all did routines that they compete with and that Michelle Kwan didn't do any major jumps, but I know Michelle Kwan has been injured and I'm sure that was a factor in her choice of skills. The Smucker's Stars on Ice tour had almost all fun pieces with no performances I'd previously seen on TV in competition. Unfortunately, this was not the case with the Champions on Ice tour. Almost everything we saw today was the same routine I'd seen a few times in competition from watching national, world, and Olympic competitions in skating. It was nice to see these live, but I would have enjoyed pieces where they let themselves go a bit more.

I was glad that Johnny Weir chose to do My Way instead of his other routine. All the stars did a great job. Evgeni Plushenko was a lot more interesting (and seemed a lot more involved and actually showed emotions) in person. I never found his routines that entertaining - they always seem just precise with no feeling, but in person he was very fun to watch.

The one group number near the end could have used some work in the design department. Parts of it were cute, but I think that there are many things they could have done with most of the skaters that would have been better (and Stars on Ice did a few of them).

I definitely recommend this tour next year, since this year's tour ends in Las Vegas on August 16th. But, with any ice skating tour, it's all about who they get to sign up for the tour, so check out their site.

Grade: B+

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Reviewed by Kat at the 3:00 PM show | 0 screams

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