Gala? | Golden Skate

Gala?

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
The gala will be shown on NBC this afternoon (2/5/11), 2;30 PM to 4:30 PM EST. As always, check your local listings.
 
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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
One thing that strikes me about Rachael is that she is really very pretty. I think she's thought of as not very glamorous, but she has such an expressive face, and her smile just sparkles. Whenever they do a closeup, I'm strongly aware of it. I've said before that she reminds me of Jayne Torvill, and I was conscious of that with this program. Interesting rendition of a song I like a lot, Elton John's "Your Song." As usual, her spreadeagle is splendid, and her Ina Bauer is very good. One thing I think she could improve is arm positions.

Edit: And here's Mirai. Glory be, does she have a mindboggling Ina Bauer! Practically in Shizuka territory. Watching her exhibition performance brings home the fact that we're leaving just about our best skater home when we go to Worlds. Of course I am proud of the other two, but it's a crying shame that Mirai won't be representing us in Japan.
 
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krenseby

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Edit: And here's Mirai. Glory be, does she have a mindboggling Ina Bauer! Practically in Shizuka territory. Watching her exhibition performance brings home the fact that we're leaving just about our best skater home when we go to Worlds. Of course I am proud of the other two, but it's a crying shame that Mirai won't be representing us in Japan.

I so agree with you. Mirai's skating is wondrous and graceful, lithe and vigorous, florid yet firm. In my mind, there's no doubt that she would electrify the audience at Worlds.
 

Serious Business

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Jeremy's exhibition was cuter than a barrel full of puppies vomiting up hairballs that turn out to be kittens (the kittens are alive and well and licking themselves).
 

ivy

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Jeremy's number was super cute - as well as being well constructed and skated. Nice to see a prop that stayed integral to the the skate all the way through!

2 songs with Ewan McGregor singing (I think?) - who'd have guessed?
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Alissa, Alissa, Alissa. You are so pretty. Now stop falling down all the time.

Say what you want about Lysacek, but he is way better than any of the guys we've got now.

Shibutanis rule. But how could they miss with Louis Armstrong's La Vie en Rose?
 
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Serious Business

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
What did Mirai skate to?

She skated to Owl City's Fireflies, her regular gala skate this season.

Plain White Tee's getting a disturbing amount of love at this nationals.

Evan hasn't lost any of his skills, and improved his sensitivity towards the tango style with his stint on Dancing with the Stars. But Tango de Roxanne is so painfully overused. And Daisuke Takahashi's exhibition to the same song a few years back was masterful. I can't help but compare and Evan comes up way short despite his height.
 

emma

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Alissa, Alissa, Alissa. You are so pretty. Now stop falling down all the time.

Say what you want about Lysacek, but he is way better than any of the guys we've got now.

Shibutanis rule. But how could they miss with Louis Armstrong's La Vie en Rose?

darn....I thought the gala was tomorrow and missed it!!! So, does this mean Alissa fell - or are just saying, stop falling in general. And, what did she skate to?

I hear you re: Lysacek, although I am so excited about some of the newer or younger "crop"; it will be interesting to see how they develop.

ETA - wow, I'm a little slow: does this mean Evan skated in the Ex???

And, I'm totally bummed to miss the Shibutanis exhibition - I finally, finally saw them skate with US nationals, and would love to see this exhibition too.
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Alissa fell on a double axel and a triple jump and I think she was exhausted!
 
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museksk8r

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Country
United-States
Say what you want about Lysacek, but he is way better than any of the guys we've got now.

As a competitor maybe, but as a skater, HELL NO! As skaters, Jeremy Abbott and Jason Brown are definitely way better than him.
 

badknees

Medalist
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Why did Evan skate?

He didn't compete, so why did he skate in the gala? It kind of said to me that the guys in the competition were fine but Evan is really the champion, so you guys don't really matter. Isn't it a gala for the competition that Evan did not compete in? I'm thinking it's just wrong.
 

Serious Business

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
I'm no fan of Lysacek. In fact, I don't like him at all but...

Evan competed because gala organizers can invite whomever they want, and they invited him. And they invited him because he's the reigning Olympic champion and the first US men's champion in the Olympics since Brian Boitano back in the stone ages.

Lysacek is a worse skater than Jeremy Abbott and Jason Brown? What? They're all skaters competing in skating. Lysacek has won a hell of a lot more. Unless you think there is corruption, unfair judging or rules (in which case I'm going to need a lot of proof), Lysacek is the better skater. Jason Brown isn't even in the same hemisphere as Evan in terms of achievement.

What's more accurate to say would be: Jeremy Abbott and Jason Brown have better basic skating skills than Evan Lysacek. Jason Brown can potentially have a better skating career than Evan.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
The USFS was trying to get people to go to their Rise movie: Evan was part of that promotion.

Also they didn't think the remaining US skaters were enough to sell out the Gala, is my guess. That's what's sad. However, the ladies sold out, and the men's LP was quite full. All good for a place (Greensboro) where they had to get a company that sets up portable ice rinks to do the ice in the Coliseum and to set up the practice rink over a floor, too.

However, the Greensboro people seemed to LOVE the whole thing. They were a very generous audience, yelling, clapping, OOOHing and giving standing ovations. No golf clappers in Greensboro. And the temp ice must have been good, as well as the audience, because I saw no signs of skaters having problems either with the rink or the ice.

As to the Gala, I just watched it on TV; here's who skated to what:
Ladies shown:
Alissa Czisny skated to "You'll Never Walk Alone," doing her usual fabulous spins and spirals, and falling on a 2A and a triple jump. She also did her Truth Booth stint, acting as ventriloquist to large stuffed bear, who was being interviewed by Andrea Joyce. The bear said he admired Alissa for her perseverance.

Rachael Flatt skated very well in a pink dress that really didn't suit her to a cover version of Elton John's "Your Song". She showed some really fabulous spread eagles, and a huge Ina Bauer, carrying good speed, and some good jumps.

Mirai Nagasu skated to the exhibition program to "Fireflies" that she has been using all year. She was quite as animated as she usually is in an exhibition (her spins were a hair slower than they usually are), but she skated it very well.

Agnes Zawadzki came out to skate in a quite flattering costume without as many dingle dongles as her competition costumes. I heard a couple of bars of a rock song and we lost power for a couple minutes, so I didn't see the rest of her program. It looked promising as a start, though.

Novice champion Hannah Miller skated to a cover version of "Singin' in the Rain". She came out carrying a yellow umbrella, and wore what I can only describe as a yellow middie dress (collar and all), but with a peculair open back that didn't fit with the front. Like Chen, she is another adorable little moppet.

Men Shown:

Nathan Chen, the 11 year old 2 time novice champion, performed in a cowboy suit to among other things, the theme from the TV show "Rawhide." He is a very cute little moppet, only 4'7".

Jeremy Abbott skated a really nice, light number using a hat as a prop to "The Rhythm of Love" by the Plain White Tees.
He did a layout camel spin with his hat balanced on the spot on his body where the axis of rotation was, so the hat stayed still. Very cool. He also balanced the hat on his foot while doing a back spiral. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt and spandex jeans.

Ross Miner skated to Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run" in jeans and a Tar Heels shirt (he had not brought or did not have an exhibition costume.) He opened by doing a hockey stop right into the camera, showering ice chips all over the lens. We got to watch them drip down. Then he did a really good cantilever, spread eagles, 2A, I think 3T? He did a long line of barrel rolls into his final spin. He had good energy considering that the men's long was just a few hours before. I think all the medallists were still sailing on adrenaline and emotion.

Richard Dornbush skated in an unfortunately 70's reminiscent (but appropriate for the music) large print leisure suit Larry shirt and black? pants to "I'm the Boogie Man". It was well skated, but Ryan already won the "boogie woogie" title IMO. I can't remember much about it.


Ryan Bradley, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack, in the character of Willy Wonka, hat, blue/purple velvet coat & all (the old version; not Johnny Depp) He skated to "Come With Me" song that's Willy's and then was very cute to the Oompah Loompahs' song. He did a quad (under show lighting :eek: !) and did a back flip that looked like he was going to do a toe jump, but turned, did a back flip off one foot and landed on one foot. Scott (as a long time back flipper) was way impressed and said that's just Twisted & sick.

Pairs Shown:

Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin skated to Brickhouse. They did some interviews with John and Ryan, who have been good friends for a long time. Ryan went back with John when John's mother was dying. Tracey, John's mom, urged both guys to continue skating. Ryan and John also did some weird bowling thing where John pushed Ryan (wearing a helmet) on some sort of set of rollers into a garbage can? other can? Quite odd.

Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig skated to "Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocohontas movie. They did the biggest and best throw triple loop I've ever seen them do, out of a spread eagle, he pulled her in, and they did the throw. Excellent! Their lifts were of course great. Scott commented that they had a great future in pro skating when they hang up the skates. Well, he's the guy that could make that happen.

Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett skated to the Great Divide by Creed.

Dance couples:

Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein skated a very emotional version of Romeo & Juliet, in contrast to their free dance, which was comedic.

Maia and Alex Shibutani skated another old Smoothies type number to La Vie en Rose (they have gorgeous timing). Maia had on a lovely rose pink dress, in much the same style as her free dance dress.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White skated to the The Way I am by Michaelsen and The Rhythm of Love by the Plain White Tees. Charlie skated the whole routine in Buddy Holly style glasses. He had a loud turquoise bow tie, a checked shirt, and black suspenders. Meryl had a nice dress, pink top and a floral skirt. They seemed to be having a lovely time with this nerd and pretty girl routine. They did a number of lifts from their Phantom of the Opera and Tango programs, and some cute steps in between.

That's all I remember, other than that Evan skated to Tango de Roxane, and it looked like Dancing With the Stars had definitely improved his tango expression.
 
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emma

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Well, I'm very sorry I missed it. Thanks for the detailed recap, Dorispulaski, it was great!
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I have to give huge props to Alissa's choreographer. She does "You'll Never Walk Alone" and both of the two jumps come on "though your dreams be toss'd and blown." In fact, they had to cut the music rather strangely to make the second one come out that way.

This is pure genius. That way, if she falls -- well, that's her dreams being tossed and blown. But still she spring ups with a determined smile and she ne-ver-walks-a-lone....no, she NE-E-VER Walks A-lone!"

That's 'cause the whole audience is waltzing, Matilda, with her. :love:

PS. The teddy bear interviews are great. :rock: Andrea Joyce: "What do you think of Alissa Czisny?" Teddy Bear: "I admire her perseverance. :rofl:

As do we all, Teddy, as do we all. :love:
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
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