Omaha Nebraska SOI Review | Golden Skate

Omaha Nebraska SOI Review

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
You have to really love skating to have gone out last night in Omaha. Temperatures started out with 7 below zero and were only like 1 above for the show last night. On Monday 11 inches of snow had fallen. Our new convention center is a monstrosity and because it was the first time I had been there I didn’t know where to park close enough without freezing. All of this made me very nervous, so I asked myself a question. Is Alexei worth all of this? Need I answer the question? Here are some of the highlights of the show:

During the opening cast number, I noticed that Alexei had lots of smiles. He really seemed like he was enjoying the number. In my own mind, I thought, good, I bet this is going to be a very good night. The seats I had were off center ice but in the fifth row. Alexei is almost right in front of us and this little girl yells out Alexei, Alexei. She was so excited (kind of like me) and the skaters move and the little girl still very excited said to her mom, he saw me, he saw me. That was just so cute.

Scott Hamilton started off the show. It seemed the audience all knew who he was and there was lots of applause.

Kyoko & John’s routine, Look at Little Sister, was very upbeat and they seemed to really enjoy the number. There was lots of smiles and playfulness.

Yuka Sato was such a lovely addition to SOI. She is just beautiful as well as her performance. Her skating is so elegant and her number has such a calming effect.

Todd’s Flamenco routine was outstanding!! Of course that kind of music makes my blood boil, hot, hot. Todd has just the flair to do a number like that with his long, lean body, his dark hair, tight pants and all the right moves. His speed was incredibly fast and his jumps were high and brought a lot of oooh’s and ah‘s from the audience. Todd gave a 110% in this performance and I think overall Todd received the loudest applause from the audience up to this point.

Prior to their number, and at the beginning of the show, I didn’t know who the blonde women skater was until I looked through my binoculars and discovered it was Elena. Her hair is very long. As usual Elena & Anton were very graceful and the audience rewarded them with very loud applause.

And then there was Alexei. I love his memorial program. He does it with so much passion and his jumps were all good. At the end of the number, when he runs on the ice, I have seen when he falls on the ice and slides, but he didn’t do that last night. The sliding always gave the number such a wow effect and I guess I missed him not doing it but it was OK.

The broom number from the guys was excellent. The only thing I thought of was if one of them was out of synch someone could really get hurt. They did it though with very good precision.

Alexei’s Ain’t that a Shame is fast moving with lots of rock star moves. He interacts with the audience more or should I say with the ladies. It is a very different program for him but it was nonetheless exciting. The women all enjoyed it as did I.

Katerina Gordeeva was very much off. Her jumps were most singled and double footed. She just didn’t seem with it.

On one of Scott’s routines he got lots of applause but no standing ovation. So at the end, he just stood there until the audience stood up. I thought good for you Scott, now that’s the way to get a standing ovation. No one except for Scott got a standing ovation except at the very end and it was right before the final number was over, so the skaters seemed to appreciate that.

The people I went with had a discussion about last year versus this year. They thought this year show was filled with novelty things, such as introducing the skaters and lots of costume changes. They thought last year show featured more elegant numbers. I just wanted to share with you what the general public thought. I enjoyed both years.

One last thing, the arena was about 3/4 full, so the PR and marketing this year really worked. I was happy to see that.

Dee
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Dee -thanks for your review on SOI:)
1 degree above zero! You are brave to venture outside. I think it's freezing when it reaches the low 50's!
 

show 42

Arm Chair Skate Fan
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Great review, Dee. I am glad to hear that attendance was good. It was about 3/4 of the way full in Fresno too.........42
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Sounds about the same as Dallas. Ekaterina fell on her first jump and no others. I really liked Meno and Sand's Last Dance. I have a hard time remembering. The broom things were good but I sure didn't like those black and white dresses the three girls kept coming out for just a minute. They had a gillion petticoats under them.
Of course, I love Yuka. Just glides. They had many more standing ovations than they must have had in Omaha but having been raised in Nebraska, I think they're more reserved. Around here they stand for anything.
Todd's Flamenco was really great. He is one of those skaters that you just get more out of it in person.
Oksana B. wasn't there as advertised but Ekaterina evidently was there instead. I just hope O B isn't ill or you know what.
I enjoyed it just as much last year, if not more. Last year Scott wasn't there. But Kurt was! I miss Steven Cousins a lot. There was one part where the men were doing pair things. It was pretty funny.
There were a few other falls but not many. Pelletier fell once. As usual, Yagudin was great.
The arena was more full than OK City last year, maybe more than 3/4.
I just didn't feel I could afford to buy those expensive programs. It would help remember who did what. My daughter did buy me a t shirt
It is so far from Fort Worth to Dallas! We went to the t & p railroad station and took the train. It was a long ways just to the station but sure cheaper than paying for parking. Senior citizens are only $1 and is good all day. I think the others paid around $4. On top of that you don't have to walk nearly as far as you would if you had a car there.
It's pretty funny in Dallas & Fort W. If it gets to 33 they start to worry about things freezing. Signs all over saying to let your water trickle all night, etc. Weather was pretty good. It was drizzly and cloudy and cool the night of the show and I couldn't believe all the people with umbrellas. Weren't really needed as far as we were concerned. Of course, when we came home it had snowed, not much, but really turned cold and windy. Still ice on roads where the sun doesn't hit. It's turning cold again tonight but no moisture forecast for a few days anyway. Until a couple of weeks ago, hadn't had any moisture at all since November. Now we've had about 2 3/4 inches.
Daughter isn't much better.
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I wonder if it had been changed. I sure thought when I checked before we left that it was O B. I'll have to look for a flyer I had and see what it says.
 

Dee4707

Ice Is Slippery - Alexie Yagudin
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
I just didn't feel I could afford to buy those expensive programs. It would help remember who did what.
This was a quote from Granny and this is what you or anyone else could do. On the SOI site there is a folder called Music, I think. What I did was print that out and made copies for the people I went with. There was an elderly couple sitting next to us and asked the usher if they had programs, which the usher responded that they didn't. I gave them my sheet which outlines the music and who skates to it. It's better than nothing. The elderly couple was so appreciative of it.

Dee
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Thanks Dee. That's really good to know. What would we do without G S and all the wonderful people, (and a few obnoxious ones :laugh: )?
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I just found my flyer and it was supposed to be Oksana. Evidently they knew it enough ahead of time to replace her.
 
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