Holiday Festival on Ice

[Teenes]

Holiday Festival on Ice is visiting three cities this year in Canada.

Nov. 6 - Mile One Centre - St. John's, NL
Dec. 1 - Langley Events Centre - Langley, BC
Dec. 4 - Canada Games Arena - Grand Prairie, AB

The currently announced cast is:
Kurt Browning
Elvis Stojko
Jeff Buttle
Shawn Sawyer
Joannie Rochette
Sinead & John Kerr

The St. John's show will feature live performances by Measha Brueggergosman, and be recorded for a holiday special to air on CBC in Canada, and in syndication in the US.

Tickets are on sale now for the St. John's NL show (they went on sale a couple hours ago).
Mile One Centre Tickets

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday Sep. 21) at 10AM for the Grand Prairie show.
https://crystalcentretickets.com

Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10AM for the Langley show.
Ticketmaster.ca

Announcement on the Stars on Ice site: http://www.starsonice.com/?content=skating&id=4746
Event info from the Kurt Files: http://www.kurtfiles.com/events/hfoi12.php

[Sylvia]

Article about the show at the Langley Events Centre this Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. (Kaetlyn Osmond has replaced Nicole Bobek in the lineup): http://www.langleyadvance.com/sports...557/story.html

THE CONFIRMED CAST INCLUDES:

. Kurt Browning, four-time world champion

. Elvis Stojko, two-time Olympic silver medalist, three-time world champion;

. Joannie Rochette, 2010 Olympic medalist, world silver medalist;

. Jeffrey Buttle, Olympic medalist, world champion;

. Kimmie Meissner, 2006 world champion; 2007 US champion;

. Sinead and John Kerr, seven-time British dance champions; European medalists;

. Shawn Sawyer, Canadian silver medalist; and

. Kaetlyn Osmond, Skate Canada International competitor.

[Colleen]

I'm going! My friend and I have ice level tickets - can't wait! Shawn Sawyer and Jeffrey Buttle are two of my favorite skaters ever.

[Mevrouw]

CBC tv:

Stars On Ice - airs December 3, 2012 8:00 PM
Stars on Ice is choreographed by Four-Time World Champion Kurt Browning with renowned figure skaters Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, Joannie Rochette, Jeffrey Buttle, Shawn Sawyer, Cynthia Phaneuf and others.


Holiday Festival on Ice 2012 - airs December 12, 2012 8:00 PM
Coming this fall to Mile One Centre in St. John's, NL, Holiday Festival On Ice! The show will feature none other than Elvis Sojko, Kurt Browning, Joannie Rochette, Jeffrey Buttle, Sinead & John Kerr and Shawn Sawyer, with music by Measha Brueggergosman

[Colleen]

Does anybody have a list of songs from the show? I'd love to know the name/artist of the song Shawn Sawyer skated to.

[hohoho]

Hey Collen, wasn't at the show. Would love to hear your comments on the show.

[YVRSTAR]

Does anybody have a list of songs from the show? I'd love to know the name/artist of the song Shawn Sawyer skated to.

I think Shawn skated with 1st one = Don't worry be Happy/Bob Marley
2nd one = Alegria from Cirque du Soleil

[Colleen]

The show was great - definitely lower budget and lower key than Stars on Ice with a much smaller cast. But I really enjoyed it. We had great seats, ice level right outside the tunnel. There was a good mix of Christmas music and fun music. I am so impressed at what great shape all of the skaters are in. Joannie Rochette looks like she hasn't lost any of her skills and she has really grown into a great performer. Shawn Sawyer was amazing - loved the Cirque program - thanks for the title Yvrstar! Jeff Buttle was sublime, as always. His skating is so smooth. John and Sinead Kerr were a lot of fun. I am amazed that she can lift him. My friend said he looks like a Gap model... and he does. Elvis Stojko is in great shape as well, and thankfully did not do a martial arts program. He skated to 'My Sharona' for one program and had a lot of fun with the audience. He is looking great. Kurt Browning was fabulous as always. He did a cute Christmas number about wanting toe picks for Christmas (in hockey skates) and his Singing in the Rain program. That's one of my all time favorites and I loved it!!

Was great to see Kaetlyn Osmond - she's a great performer. Guess training at West Ed mall is good practice for skating in front of a crowd. I wished her luck at Canadians when they did the circuit of the crowd.

It was a fun show - great way to start the Christmas season. Totally cool to see Kurt, Jeff and Elvis on the ice together - a great reminder of the depth of talent of the Canadian men.

[star_gazer11]

Colleen, thanks for the report. Jealous that you got to see Kurt skate Singing in the Rain live.

[lulu]

Thanks for the report, sounds like it was a fantastic show! Hopefully the CBC version will at least end up on youtube as well.

[Teenes]

I finally got my review of the Langley show up:
http://www.kurtfiles.com/reviews/hfoi12.php

Also got my photos up:
http://www.kurtfiles.com/pics/event....on+Ice&search=
Unfortunately, I was restricted to shooting only warmups, the first three numbers and Kurt. I got as many photos of the other skaters as I could in through the warmups and opening/closing number shots. Got a lot of good Singing in the Rain shots, though!

I quite enjoyed the show! Seeing Kurt do three programs was a real bonus. The CBC version airing this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 8-9PM, will be a bit different since they had Measha Brueggergosman as a musical guest at the recorded St. John's show, so a lot of skaters did programs to her music. In Langley, the only Measha that remained was the opening, act II opener, and finale.

[Scrufflet]

Teenes, I have a question re Kurt and if anyone can answer, it's you! I've heard that Kurt is doing his last SOI in the U.S. in 2013. What about Canada? Is he going to stay on an extra year? And will he do a farewell tour? Any details? I need to prepare myself. Get the black armbands out! We have been SOOOO spoiled in having him for this length of time but I'm going to find it really hard when he packs it in. Do you know what will happen with SOIC after that? He is the heart and soul of it for me.
Thanks for all your reports and info.!

[Teenes]

This is what I know (and Kurt's not one for definitive answers or definitive plans). This is the last year for Kurt on the US and Japan Stars on Ice tours. This is not the last year for him in the Canadian tour. His current plan, as far as he has one, seems to be to do everything this year (he's doing SOI US/Japan/Canada, Celebration on Ice, Holiday Festival on Ice, All That Skate, Artistry on Ice, a bunch of one-off shows) and then cut back to pretty much just the Canadian Stars on Ice tour next year.

As for how long he'll keep doing the Canadian tour, and whether there will actually be a "farewell" tour - that is more uncertain. Depends somewhat on how long his knees hold up, I suspect, on the former. And the latter depends on when he makes the decision that that's it for him, and if they let him get away with just stopping vs getting to advertise it as his last tour.

Given that the US tour lived on after Scott Hamilton left (though admittedly it's shrunk rapidly since then), I suspect the Canadian tour will live on after Kurt leaves. But that's a few years down the line - who knows what will be happening by then in terms of skating interest in North America/Canada, the economy, tour financials, etc. At least the Canadian tour still has sponsors.

[Scrufflet]

Thanks for the info.! We'll just hope for healthy knees!