Shall We Dance on Ice

[alilou]

WildRose posted up thread that it's being taped for both Cdn and US TV.

I'm not excited It's a f**king Disson show. At least half the skating performances will be broken up by the camera panning to the musicians. I wonder how the musicians would feel if their performance was cut off every time the camera panned to the skaters? Guess it's obvious it makes me mad. Can't comprehend how Disson has gotten away with it all these years. It's so disrespectful to the skaters. And the skating fans

Expect that at least half the performances will be unwatchable on TV.

[shan]

All ice dancing!!!!


But I hate it when they cut to the performer too.

[shirley]

are the current skaters debuting their new programs?

hopefully it'll be televised soon thereafter.

[The Accordion]

I don't know what thread said it - but I have it written down that Shall We Dance is going to be on Nov 7 on NBC at 4pm EST.

ETA - okay that's embarrrassing - apparently it was in this thread! :

[OlieRow]

are the current skaters debuting their new programs?

hopefully it'll be televised soon thereafter.

V/M are skating a modified version of their new SD + something else to live music. Not sure about the other teams.

[Twilight1]

SO LOOKING FORWARD TO TONIGHT!! I just hope the rain let's up! It is really rainy here right now.

Looking forward to seeing V&M, D&W and the Kerr's!!

[pani]

SO LOOKING FORWARD TO TONIGHT!! I just hope the rain let's up! It is really rainy here right now.

Looking forward to seeing V&M, D&W and the Kerr's!!

Have a greate time!!!! We will waite your reports

[Teenes]

alilou - it is irritating, but I suspect it is also how Disson has been able to keep putting these shows on for almost 10 years now. I'm guessing he's more able to attract enough sponsors to keep putting on the shows, and keep being able to buy the airtime on NBC due to attracting the musical acts and promising them facetime and the ability to promote their own projects. You could see it as disrespectful to skaters and skating fans, or you could see it as him being the only one who's been able to keep non-competitive skating on US TV as the ratings have plummeted, in some form or the other. If you think about it, he could just be producing concerts on TV for these musical artists, and not bothering with the skating aspect at all.

Though, given this show has at least 7 off-ice dancers in it, it's probably going to be even more broken up...though on the other hand, there is a more justifiable reason to cut to dancers on stage doing something than singers who are just singing into a microphone.

Anyway, wish I could be at this show live tonight since it's undoubtedly the best way to see it, and it does look like a great lineup - of skaters, dancers AND singers (and hosts). Looking forward to reading reports.

[sap5]

alilou - it is irritating, but I suspect it is also how Disson has been able to keep putting these shows on for almost 10 years now. I'm guessing he's more able to attract enough sponsors to keep putting on the shows, and keep being able to buy the airtime on NBC due to attracting the musical acts and promising them facetime and the ability to promote their own projects. You could see it as disrespectful to skaters and skating fans, or you could see it as him being the only one who's been able to keep non-competitive skating on US TV as the ratings have plummeted, in some form or the other. If you think about it, he could just be producing concerts on TV for these musical artists, and not bothering with the skating aspect at all.

Do a lot of people tune into these shows to watch the musical artists? I suppose if it's an act that attracts the tween crowd, then yes, but otherwise? Don't know about the size of the Canadian Tenors fanbase, and I haven't heard who the non-ice dancers are....

[*Kim*]

some other videos of backstahe were posted on the dission facebbok page

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/...1882236?ref=ts

[Carmen Ovsiannikov]

WildRose posted up thread that it's being taped for both Cdn and US TV.

I'm not excited It's a f**king Disson show. At least half the skating performances will be broken up by the camera panning to the musicians. I wonder how the musicians would feel if their performance was cut off every time the camera panned to the skaters? Guess it's obvious it makes me mad. Can't comprehend how Disson has gotten away with it all these years. It's so disrespectful to the skaters. And the skating fans

Expect that at least half the performances will be unwatchable on TV.

V/M are skating a modified version of their new SD + something else to live music. Not sure about the other teams.

alilou, I feel the same as you about the majority of the Disson Shows. In the last few years I've only bothered to watch a couple of them. This show does have me excited if only because of the excellent cast. How often do those of us in NA get to see L&T these days except on youtube?

In some of the Disson shows I have noticed that while most of the performances are to the live musicians, some of the numbers are to pre-recorded music as OlieRow described. Hopefully other dance teams (some teams will probably do two live numbers) will also do one live and one new program as Tessa and Scott are doing. I can't wait to see that program.

If possible hopefully some kind person(s) will give a review of the show for those of us who couldn't be there. I can't wait to hear what everyone skated to.

[Teenes]

I don't know how the numbers break down, it's pretty much speculation on my part. Maybe Disson just likes creating multi-discipline shows. One of his first skating shows was an early Skating and Gymnastics show, I think. But at least for a number of the recent shows I've gone to (Backstreet Boys at Kristi's show last year, Goo Goo Dolls at Improv-Ice), a significant portion of the in-arena crowd were there for the band and knew little about skating. Whether the TV numbers reflect the in-house numbers, I have no idea. But my guess is they're counting on a significant portion of skating fans to tune in (a few may stay away due to the cuts to the band, but probably not the majority), and at least some portion of the band's fans which adds up to more people than just skating alone would likely draw. Though I don't know if the added fans/viewers balances out the appearance fees of the band (given that Disson shows don't really get high ratings). I don't know, I'm just doing pure speculation at this point.

Disson on their FB page said that Shall We Dance on Ice will air on Global in Canada Nov. 6 (ie, the day before the NBC broadcast), but didn't say what times.

ETA: I know Kurt and Shae are skating to "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" by Beck, though I suspect they're not the ones everyone's interested in. (They're the ones *I'm* interested in, though - I loved Proud Mary)

[Theatregirl1122]

Plenty of Goo Goo Dolls fans only watched Improve Ice for the Goo Goo Dolls.

[jayta]

I would love a Tessa/Scott show, along the lines of 'Singin' in the Rain' as it was for Kurt.

I mean Kurt has a lot more versatility with jumps and such, but how much fun if we had a show like that with dancing?

I would watch it. In fact I still have a copy of Kurt's specials...

[Twilight1]

Sorry this is a quick rundown. I didn't make notes, just going by memory.

The Kerr's rocked. So good!! Loved both their numbers a bunch. The first one was with 13 yr old dancer and it had a great modern dance feel. So perfect for them. Their 2nd number was fab!!

D&W- very cool to see their Oly OD live. Loved their Bollywood number on the TV but must say it is much better in person. Their second number was to Lambert's Whataya Want From Me. It was good but I definitely enjoyed the OD more.

B&A's 2nd number was really beautiful. Soft and lyrical and I thought they showed great smoothness.

Cool to see B&S's OD from this last season. I loved the Dixie Chicks and I think they are a shoe in for silver at National's JMHO.

N&B were good too. She is actually quite beautiful up close (I was 7th row)

Zar's- LOVED their country number. They are just cute. Their 1st program was not as good as their cowboy number IMHO.

Lang & Tchnershev- Finally got to see them live!! Yay! Thought their first number was cute/ funny and nice to see them make reference to their 15 yr partnership but their number with the 13 yr old kid (name is escaping me) was just so good. Porny Peter is well...still porny!!

Now for V&M- Saw part of their new FD? Not a fan... not to say it won't grow into something great, but it just didn't do anything for me. I didn't like the music cuts.

Their 2nd number to the Canadian Tenors took a lot of choreo from Mahler and it seemed to fit so it was a lovely way to end the show.

They had some technical difficulty on the opening number so they did it 2 times. Also Kurt and Shae did their dance number 2x because Kurt fell bad on his triple toe. Second go round Shae fell on a balance lift, but Kurt landed 2 triple toes. It was a cute fun number.

[marikat]

V/M's SD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LGYoYG4QLM

[piano18]

That's the new SD? Please, it's going to undergo changes, will it?
It looks as I feared

[Capella]

It can't be the real SD -- I didn't see the Golden Waltz during it.

[alilou]

alilou - it is irritating, but I suspect it is also how Disson has been able to keep putting these shows on for almost 10 years now. I'm guessing he's more able to attract enough sponsors to keep putting on the shows, and keep being able to buy the airtime on NBC due to attracting the musical acts and promising them facetime and the ability to promote their own projects. You could see it as disrespectful to skaters and skating fans, or you could see it as him being the only one who's been able to keep non-competitive skating on US TV as the ratings have plummeted, in some form or the other. If you think about it, he could just be producing concerts on TV for these musical artists, and not bothering with the skating aspect at all.

I'm sure the musicians attract an audience. Which is great. It still leaves us with the same problem - the skating basically gets shafted. It's not possible to watch a skating performance (or indeed any kind of dance performance) when you are unable to see it for big chunks of time - you can never get the flow and feel of it, not to mention you just don't actually even see half of it.

It's not rocket science - a split screen, or putting the musical performers in a box (even biggish box) in the upper left corner would take care of it.

Frankly I'm astonished that these shows have been going on for 10 yrs and no-one associated with the productions has thought of that. I read somewhere on this board a couple of years ago where a poster actually contacted Disson about it and he said they're his shows and that how he likes to do it. End of story. Rather than wondering how many new viewers in the television audience he's attracted because of the musicians, I'd love to know how many skating fans he's lost. I know of several comments on this board over the yrs of posters saying they don't bother to watch any more.

I went to a Disson show last year, with the Canadian Tenors. It was absolutely fabulous. The televised version (which was the same one I attended) was crap - as usual half the performances were chopped up by panning to the singers.

I never watch Disson shows when they're on TV. I record them and watch them later. That way I can fast-forward thru all the performances that are ruined by the camera panning to the musicians.

Sorry. End of rant. Guess I just needed to vent! And you're right, at least with Disson shows we do get to see some professional skating on TV

[skatingfan26]

I wonder if Disson's behavior has anything to do with attracting a show audience?
Because that sort of TV cut makes people attend the live show to get to see the musicians/skaters full time.