Ice Theatre of NY to honor Babilonia/Gardner, Zakarian; Plushenko to perform Oct. 28 & 30, 2017

Sylvia

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http://www.icetheatre.org/save-the-date-for-the-2017-gala.html

ITNY'S 2017 FALL BENEFIT GALA AND PERFORMANCE
honoring
US & World Champions Tai Babilonia & Randy Gardner
ITNY Alumnus Ari Zakarian
Ice Angel Award Marilyn Kasputys & Missy Vanburen

Monday, October 30, 2017 - 7:00 P.M.

Performance, Cocktails, Dinner, Dessert & Dancing, Silent Auction and Award Ceremony

2017 HOME SEASON
Friday, October 27 - 7:00 P.M.
Saturday, October 28 - 7:00 P.M. - Special Guest Evgeni Plushenko

*Please Note Evgeni Plushenko will only be performing on October 28 and 30.

Tickets: https://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?etid=10086
 

Spun Silver

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Same here. He better not do the (edited) Sex Bomb routine!

If anyone hears that he cancels, please post it here. Thanks.
 

Sylvia

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Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner were interviewed by Maura Sullivan Hill for FigureSkatersOnline.com earlier this month ahead of their ITNY appearance: Ice Theatre of New York to honor Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner on 50th anniversary of partnership
Excerpt:
“I’m looking forward to all the people that are going to be in the room [Monday, Oct. 30]: past honorees; people who I, or Tai and I together, have looked up to; mentors and people who have been an inspiration and support to us,” Gardner says. “The room is going to be full of those kinds of people, and it’s an honor to have them there as the Ice Theatre of New York is honoring us.”
Babilonia agrees: “It is going to be special, and I’m so honored. I’m starting to work on my speech, because there are a lot of people in our circle to thank.”
And though they aren’t performing on the ice any more, they do perform together in Gardner’s stage show, “Go Figure: The Randy Gardner Story.” Gardner says the show is a live autobiography, and 1976 Olympic Champion Dorothy Hamill is also part of the cast. After a successful debut in LA in 2015, the show will have a 10-day run at the Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington, Delaware, starting January 18, 2018. For details and tickets, visit the DTC’s website by clicking here.
 

wouldacoulda

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I'm going on Monday night. I may need to wire my jaw shut, so I don't embarrass myself when I see all the skating royalty.
 

lala

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BaxH1azgjBM/? - when I was growing up skating, everyone wanted to be elegant and graceful.... I just wanted lightning fast feet like Plushenko. This two-time Olympic champion had a huge influence on me and inspired me to reimagine what skating can be! Can't wait to see him perform with @icetheatreofny featuring @overthetops!! #olympicchampion #figureskating #legend #plushenko #hero #nyc
Also he has the sexiest ankles I've ever seen in my entire life. :D:biggrinbo

from Miami https://www.instagram.com/p/Bav88Y-hgij/?taken-by=arlyn.gonzalez - arlyn.gonzalezNew York here we go! ⛸❄️ #newyork #figureskating #плющенко #plushenko
https://www.instagram.com/p/BazdVORgNHq/?taken-by=arlyn.gonzalez -Skating at the Sky Rink where Plushenko will be this evening! So close...I can’t get those deep edges with my right leg! #figureskating #riedellskates #плющенко

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0C8BNAH7S/?taken-by=arlyn.gonzalez - Tonight a dream came true, I saw the king Evgeni Plushenko perform and even got a photo and an autograph (something I’ve never cared to get from anyone).

Plushy's program were: Storm and Carmina Burana - Im not happy with it.. I'm tired of those programs..

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0hSF7BQaz/?taken-by=yokotanpe
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0gNeYBSQl/?taken-by=yokotanpe
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0e1p-hrf1/?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0dplOB-4r/?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0dQXYhTNc/?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0cj3MhTbG/?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0bb54h7RP/?

 
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Spun Silver

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I saw Plushenko tonight. He was fabulous. What a presence - I’ve never seen a skater with such blazing confidence. He only skated for 6 minutes but it was worth every penny, neck ache (I was in a corner) and minute of my trek into the city. Two 3F right in front of me, 2 other triples in the other end, and a bit of a scratchy 2A that he carried off royally. Wonderful spins and basically just owning the ice. No one else should ever be allowed to skate to Carmina Burana as far as I’m concerned - he owns that too. :)
 

Vash01

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I saw Plushenko tonight. He was fabulous. What a presence - I’ve never seen a skater with such blazing confidence. He only skated for 6 minutes but it was worth every penny, neck ache (I was in a corner) and minute of my trek into the city. Two 3F right in front of me, 2 other triples in the other end, and a bit of a scratchy 2A that he carried off royally. Wonderful spins and basically just owning the ice. No one else should ever be allowed to skate to Carmina Burana as far as I’m concerned - he owns that too. :)

It was his regal presence on ice that made me his fan, when I first saw him skate live at the 2001 worlds in Vancouver. I lost count of how many times I saw him skate live after that. He totally owns the ice.
 

lala

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https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba19QRqFfb7/?taken-by=plushenkoofficial - Thank you NY for such a warm welcome!
See you tomorrow at the second show!

He was tired because of the jetlag I believe..
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba1wsOwBcmT/?taken-by=ewa4624 - "He looks like an angel. Truly. As I said before, it is completely wonderful how he manages to be so pleasant, charming and beautiful man, and at the same time so talented, fierce and fearless master.
He was a bit tired, though. But patiently signed all autographs and took all selfies with literally everybody. My dreams came true :)" - the talking next to the pics shows his fans's usual reaction :D

https://web.stagram.com/p/Baw-PbUhCJD - TODAY I MET GOD. #BLESSED #CRYING :saint:
 

Marge_Simpson

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The evening was as expected for Plushenko (ie he was superb) and Ice Theatre (ie they were pretentious)
So, snark alert! I present the following review for your edification. :lol::lol::lol:

Ice Theatre fancies themselves to be serious arteestes; they cannot do anything just to be entertaining. You need to read the program notes to figure out what they are up to, and even then I'm usually going "huh?"
1- The evening started with a bizarre combination of 3 ladies doing school figures with a voiceover of one of the ladies reading a deep, meaningful poem called "Serpentine Loop" This consisted mostly of random phrases such as "Time transcends the body", nobody paid much attention. I tried not to laugh.
2- 8 junior ladies performed a syncro-like routine to some tinkly music, which was fairly enjoyable. The program notes didn't specify the music or the hidden meaning, so I guess they were just meant to be crowd pleasing. They were.
3- Rhapsody in Blue. This was lively and fun, with some great lifts and spins. It got wild applause from the audience, which seemed a bit odd - I mean, they were good, but it's not like anyone performed the iron lotus or anything. There were no program notes with an explanation so I made up my own: The blue costumes represented the skaters in the grip of manic depression, but when they took their meds they broke free and gained balance and calm and nifty footwork.
4- Plushenko. Excellent! There to entertain us and not strain our brains.
5-Arctic Memory. Valerie Levine, skating to ominous-sounding music and dressed in a weird getup with huge wings; I had neglected to look at the title of the piece and thought she was supposed to be a creature in flight, probably a vulture. I was wrong, it was a commentary on climate change and was choreographed on a mission in the Arctic. I don't know why she needed to flap her arms in the Arctic and not her own living room, but I'm not a choreographer, so what do I know?
6-Malevolent landscape. Honestly, at this point reading the notes only increased my hilarity; they state: "The performer personifies the malevolence in our current ecological landscape"
Er, if you say so. :rolleyes: This was choreographed by Gary Beacom, would he really do a piece about malevolence??? I bet it was supposed to be a comedy routine and Ice Theatre just made it deep and significant.
Patrick O'Hearn, dressed as a cat burglar in a black unitard and an eye mask, did a fun routine with some really creative spins. I didn't see anything malevolent about it. Huh.
7- 11/11. Lots of tick-tocking like clocks, which are a common element for these guys. The notes state: "With the past and future trying to get our attention, we tend to forget the present"
What Ice Theatre should forget is trying to be profound and serious, and give us some upbeat numbers that are just meant to entertain. I have no clue what the 11/11 meant: November 11th? Eleven minutes past 11?
Hidden meaning aside, this was enjoyable and wouldn't have looked out of place at a Cirque du Soleil show.
8-In Passing. I loved this. Joel Dear and Christian Erwin did a pas de deux of sorts to Adele's "When we Were Young"
But the meaning couldn't just be "two guys meet and are attracted to each other", oh no, that would be too obvious. Instead, one man restored another man's memory about an unresolved relationship.
9- Plushenko. Wow!
10- Requiem. Skaated by Jessica Huot (in white) and Conor Wagar (in black). No notes. So they could have been an angel and a devil, Yin and Yang, or possibly it was meant to be a statement about the geopolitical situation in Tibet.
11- Tango Images. Tango music, and according to the program, was merely supposed to represent the passion of the dance, but I knew better. It was really "Giselle" set in Argentina, the ladies were meant to be wilis and wanted to make the 2 men dance to death. It started off ok but dragged on too long, I applauded madly when it was over.
All in all, aside from the bonus of seeing Plushenko, a typical, nicely skated, hilarity-provoking performance.
 

Spun Silver

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Not really into Ice Theatre either. Happily, I did not look at the program - I was just there for Plushenko. I did like the pre-show/opening. I found the three willowy women doing figures as the audience assembled beautiful and timeless, and liked the way their silent skating morphed into the show’s beginning. The narration or poem, what I could hear of it, seemed appropriate enough to me. The rest was just pretty, pretentious or both. I did like the goggle-man piece (Beacom’s) moderately - it seemed derivative of Paul Taylor’s Three Epitaphs - but I spent most of it trying to guess what the creature might be... frog, bug, alien, cat burglar, whatever.... It went on too long but Eliot Halvorsen was good.

Oh well. It was great of them to bring Plushy to NY. Thanks, Ice Theatre!
 

Marge_Simpson

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That seemed odd, if Tai and Randy were present, I didn't see them, and the announcer never mentioned them.
 

gkelly

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Thanks for the review, Marge_Simpson.

6-Malevolent landscape. Honestly, at this point reading the notes only increased my hilarity; they state: "The performer personifies the malevolence in our current ecological landscape"
Er, if you say so. :rolleyes: This was choreographed by Gary Beacom, would he really do a piece about malevolence??? I bet it was supposed to be a comedy routine and Ice Theatre just made it deep and significant.

Gary Beacom, Malevolent Landscape, 1992

Decide for yourself whether it was supposed to be a comedy routine or deep and significant (or both or neither).
 

Sylvia

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Sylvia

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Thanks for sharing your impressions of the entire show, @Marge_Simpson!
6-Malevolent landscape. ... Patrick O'Hearn, dressed as a cat burglar in a black unitard and an eye mask, did a fun routine with some really creative spins. I didn't see anything malevolent about it. Huh.
Eliot Halverson (2007 U.S. junior men's champion) skated "Malevolent Landscape" on Saturday night -- here's a photo he shared before the show: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba4DOoGFrhe/?taken-by=eliothalverson
8-In Passing. I loved this. Joel Dear and Christian Erwin did a pas de deux of sorts to Adele's "When we Were Young"
But the meaning couldn't just be "two guys meet and are attracted to each other", oh no, that would be too obvious. Instead, one man restored another man's memory about an unresolved relationship.
More about the Dear/Erwin duet, which I really enjoyed when saw it live this past June, from when they performed the number at Harvard's Jimmy Fund show in September and how the skaters themselves view the piece (article by Sarah Brannen):
A highlight of "An Evening with Champions" was a beautiful and romantic male duet performed by Joel Dear and Christian Erwin to Adele's "When We Were Young." Erwin, a member of Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY), competed as an ice dancer with partner Kenzie Reid, last appearing at the U.S. championships in 2013. He asked Dear to choreograph a program for him and Reid last spring.
Erwin lives in New York City and Reid lives in Wisconsin, so Dear skated her part as he worked on the program with Erwin. People noticed and were intrigued.
"I ended up performing the program with Kenzie in the first iteration, and then the director of ITNY really liked the piece as two men," Erwin said. "We had the opportunity to perform it in June at the Ice Theatre 'Unplugged' event. We're going to do it again with Ice Theatre in October."
"We really wanted it to just be about the connection between two people, and not necessarily matter whether it's male-female, two males, two females," Dear said. "It's just about the way we connect with people in passing and form relationships and have a really deep connection."
Erwin said the relationship between the two performers is deliberately ambiguous.
"It could be brothers, or friends, or lovers," he said. "We drew inspiration from the song: You're walking by someone on the street and they remind you of someone; you see this person and you get swept up in this memory, taken back to this moment you shared with a person, whoever they may be."
 

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