Event Coverage – 2004 Salem Spectacular

Report by Lindsay Higgins

Lindsay Higgins attended the Salem Ice Spectacular Show in Salem, NH on February 22. The show was previously scheduled for December 6, but was postponed due to inclement weather (aka the first big New England blizzard of winter).

The Salem Ice Spectacular finally took place on February 22, after being postponed from its original December 6 date due to snow. The show, featuring most of the elite skaters training in New England, was worth waiting for. Ice dance fans in particular were in for a treat; it’s not often that five senior teams are included in one performance! Loren Galler-Rabinowitz and David Mitchell of the Skating Club of Boston were there, as well as Shae-Lynn Bourne and Nikolai Morozov’s group from Newington, CT.

The show was opened with local skaters Ashley Salois, 16, and Dianne Balut, 17, and seven-year-old Taylor Rocco from Newington. The first elite skaters to perform were making their debut together- Jennifer Wester and Daniil Barantsev, training in Newington. Together just since April, they put together an amazingly cohesive performance to “I Put A Spell On You”. Because Daniil competed internationally for Russia last season they had to sit this year out, but it will be interesting to see how they fare both in Lake Placid this summer and at Nationals next year. Their speed, flow, and transitions were certainly comparable to most of the senior teams at Lake Placid last year.

2002 U.S. Junior Pair Champions Colette Appel and Lee Harris skated their short program to the group Bond, with nice lifts and a throw double Axel. Two years after winning Juniors, they continue to develop and improve.

Loren Galler-Rabinowitz and David Mitchell performed their crowd-pleasing OD to “Flood Down in Texas” and “If The House Is A-Rockin”. As usual, the lift toward the end of the program where Loren slides toward the ice headfirst impressed the crowd. The only thing that took away from all the OD performances was that there was a curtain across one end of the ice; the teams all had to hold back on the straight-line footwork to avoid running into it.

2003 New England Senior Ladies’ Champion Tiffany St. Bernard performed her Spanish/Latin long program. She missed both the triple Salchow and triple flip, but landed a good triple Lutz and had nice spins. Her footwork and extension are far superior to most single skaters at the Regional level.

National Silver Medalists Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov skated next, performing their OD to “Rock Around The Clock”, “Hollywood Nocturne” and “Great Balls of Fire”. The skaters are certainly getting a lot of mileage out of their OD’s this season, since the jive/rock and roll rhythms lend themselves well to the show atmosphere. Like Galler-Rabinowitz and Mitchell, they looked cautious in the straight-line footwork, mainly because they didn’t have the full length of the ice. Otherwise their speed and flow continue to improve, and they really “sell” the program.

Going for the title of crowd favorite was nine-time Belgian Champion Kevin Van Der Perren, who trains part of the year in Newington. Despite a slip in the rankings last season, Van Der Perren has developed a large group of pre-teen and teenage fans. He has also come back with a vengeance this year, finishing second at Trophee Lalique and fourth at the Grand Prix Final. Skating his long program to “Robin Hood”, Van Der Perren landed several huge triples, including his trademark triple Salchow-triple loop-triple toe combination.

Rivaling Kevin for the title of crowd favorite was Shae-Lynn Bourne. By now everyone knows the story: the heartbreaking last-second fall and second consecutive fourth-place finish at the Olympics, the fairytale win at the World Championships in Washington last spring, and the subsequent breakup as Victor Kraatz announced he didn’t want to skate anymore. Chances are few people in the Salem audience thought a year ago that they would now be cheering for World Champion Shae-Lynn Bourne, and certainly no one thought they’d be cheering for her all by herself. But cheer they did- her first U.S. performance of her new solo program was well-received, despite containing no jumps. The program consisted of footwork, edges, a few spins, and of course hydroblading, along with twizzles that are probably still the best in the world.

“He jumps like a god”: this was Brian Boitano’s impression of a little-known seventeen-year-old at the 1996 World Championships. Eight years and an Olympic Gold Medal later, Ilia Kulik still has the jumps that make the crowd gasp. His first program contained a popped triple toe, but the triple flip and triple Lutz are as enormous and solid as they were six years ago in Nagano. His power, posture, and extension hold up favorably even next to some of the country’s top ice dancers.

2004 European Bronze medallists Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov did their show program to a vocal version of “Adagio”. To their credit, the program truly showcases their own style and is not a rip-off of Bourne and Kraatz’ “Adagio” free dance from season. Like Bourne and Kraatz, Grushina and Goncharov have beautiful knee action and deep edges and have also come up with some innovative highlight moves.

Kicking off the second half were two more local skaters, 17-year-old Jillian Sansoucy and 18-year-old Devon Dillon, followed again by Appel and Harris skating their show program to Josh Groban’s “Where You Are”. The program shows off their strengths nicely- they have very well-matched lines, and nice unison and expression.

Daria Grinkova- daughter, of course, of two-time Olympic Champions Ekaterina Gordeeva and the late Sergei Grinkov- is now eleven years old, and quite a skater in her own right. Skating to Middle-Eastern music, she landed all doubles up to double flip. Some landings were iffy, but she hung on to all of them. Jumps, however, don’t tell the whole story: her extension, posture, spins, and general presentation were truly impressive for a skater who just recently took her Juvenile moves-in-the-field test.

Following Daria was another new team, Chantal LeFebvre and Arseni Markov . Chantal previously competed for Canada with Michel Brunet and Justin Lanning; Arseni competed last season for Russia with Svetlana Kulikova, meaning that they can’t compete internationally yet despite placing third at the Canadian Championships in January. Considering the short amount of time they’ve been together, they skate their OD, set to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, impressively close together even through changes of hold.

What happened next was interesting. 2003 Mexican Junior Ladies Champion Michele Cantu was about two minutes into her program when her music stopped. The music had been erratic all evening; Taylor Rocco’s music skipped for the first twenty or thirty seconds of her program (amazingly, at seven years old, she had the presence of mind to start right where the music started up, and ended right on time) and Michele’s sister Ana had some audible clicks in the background of her music that aren’t usually there. But, in an incident reminiscent of what happened to Rodnina and Zaitsev at Worlds in the 1970’s, Michele’s music just stopped- and, like Rodnina and Zaitsev, Michele- a charming and personable skater to begin with- simply continued the program to the end as if nothing were wrong. Needless to say, she got a huge round of applause at the end.

Michele’s older sister Ana Cantu, out from this year’s Mexican Nationals with an injury, skated as well. While Michele has a bubbly on-ice personality, Ana, the 2003 Mexican Senior Ladies Champion, is a very smooth, lyrical skater who, like her sister, can generally land the necessary jumps as well.

Gregory and Petukhov skated their “God Bless America” show program in the second half. The program shows off their strengths- secure highlights and a general sense of ease on the ice- as well as their improvements, namely posture and extension.

To the delight of many teenage girls in the audience, Kevin Van Der Perren skated again as well, performing his short program to Astor Piazzolla’s “Tango Tanguera”. He captures the Tango rhythm as well as any senior ice dancer- which, given who his coaches are, comes as no surprise. The footwork sequences are both fast and precise, and the jumps were on too. He opened with a triple Lutz-triple toe loop and went on to land both a swingy triple flip and a beautiful triple Salchow.

Grushina and Goncharov’s OD continues to improve throughout the season. They express the program well, with good speed in the “Sing Sing Sing” section and a very relaxed feel to the bluesy “Summertime” section in the middle.

Katia Gordeeva skated her “Sunday Kind of Love” program. The jumps weren’t there, but she’s still a beautiful skater to watch, with extension, posture, and flow over the ice to rival many of today’s top eligible skaters. She’s still a favorite with audiences, too.

Ilia Kulik was the last skater of the evening. He landed one unbelievable double Axel- “huge” doesn’t do it justice. What got the biggest crowd reaction was probably his cantilever- the inside spread eagle where he bends his knees and leans his upper body back out of the circle. It’s impressive-looking, both because it looks difficult and because few skaters do it.

The music problems continued in the closing number. Five or six skaters did their highlights with no problem, but Shae-Lynn was only about half finished when the music stopped. She improvised, dancing to imaginary music, and just as she got ready to curtsy it came back on. The highlight of the closing number was Kevin Van Der Perren tossing off a beautiful quad toe-triple toe-double toe.

All in all, a wonderful show and really a bargain for $35.00. A note to anyone who attends a future show at the Icenter- it’s a very cold rink, so dress for it!