Rock the Rink 2019 (Virtue/Moir, Chan, Stojko, Osmond, Kostner, Abbott)

overedge

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I'm glad they're going to be in Vancouver this year - much less hassle to get to and much better wheelchair seating (although it's good for people in the Fraser Valley that Abbotsford is still on).
Also good to see more touring in NA, so I hope it goes well again this year.

Ditto, although Abbotsford-Penticton-Vancouver is a weird tour routing :lol:
 

skatfan

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I wouldn’t be surprised if they have additional guest skaters for the American dates.

I suppose a rapprochement with Meryl and Charlie is too much to hope for.;) Wouldn’t be surprised to see Maia and Alex, though.

Meryl lives in LA now and Charlie has other projects. They’re in SOI but my sense is their skating partnership will be winding down over the next couple of years.
 

aftershocks

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That's cool. I also enjoyed hearing what Elladj Balde is doing:

Baldé: I’m going to do shows for the next few years, but I’ve started a company called Skate Global and, as of right now, we do seminars in Canada and in Europe. We’ve customized a seminar that not only focuses on technical stuff, but also on artistry — everything that’s a part of interpretation of music, musicality, improv classes, stuff like that. Things that will help skaters develop their artistry and their uniqueness.

At the end of June I’ll be hosting a seminar in Montréal and anyone can come. I’ve teamed up with Patrick Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond, Liam Firus, dance teachers and off-ice dancers. It’s a team of professionals who want to give back to the sport. I’m super excited about it because this is what I want to do long term. I want to have this become a travelling seminar. I did a camp in Spain last summer and I’m going back again this summer. I want to expand in Europe and in South America. These are my goals in terms of a long-term project.
 

honey

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Duhamel will be skating on the SOI tour next month so I don't think that is the case. But, who knows.

Not speculating on whether Meagan is pregnant or not, but she wouldn’t be the first pair girl to do SOI while pregnant if she is. IIRC, both Katia Gordeeva and Jamie Sale finished the tour at around 4 months along.

Or maybe she has other plans that will keep her from Rock The Rink. I’m sure we’ll find out soon :)
 

sap5

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I'm more surprised by the lack of Weaver/Poje, though I'm thrilled to see Anna & Luca!
 

MacMadame

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I'm surprised by how few people are listed as being there. I guess I'm used to the old COI where there was a cast of thousands. :D (Okay not thousands but about 2x this amount.)

Or are these the people who will be at every stop and there are a handful more that will be at a subset of stops?
 

lauravvv

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I'm surprised by how few people are listed as being there. I guess I'm used to the old COI where there was a cast of thousands. :D (Okay not thousands but about 2x this amount.)
Well, this is not Stars on Ice (if you meant that by COI). This is Tessa and Scott's tour, just like the Thank You Canada Tour last year. Canadian Stars on Ice is still happening with a much bigger cast, as always.
 

Alilou

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Perhaps @MacMadame means Champions on Ice which did indeed have a much larger cast. TTYCT had only 9 people last year and it was excellent so I imaging RTR will also work with only 9.
 

MacMadame

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Well, this is not Stars on Ice (if you meant that by COI).
No, I meant COI (short for Champions on Ice). This tour is now defunct but was very popular even before 'the whack.' It mostly featured eligible skaters with some who had been recently eligible but were now Pros. It was put on by Tom Collins and USFS (and maybe the ISU?) got some money from it, not just the skaters. Emphasis was on seeing the people you just saw at the Olympics/Worlds. Everyone did one number, a few did two numbers, and for most of its life, there were no group numbers.

(They started doing group numbers near the end probably as a way to compete with SOI but since the exactly line up changed from stop to stop, they were pretty basis numbers and not many of them. But I digress.)

Anyway, I was just wondering if there will be other people there who aren't listed or if that's not how this tour works.
 

kalamalka

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In the TYCT last year, everybody did two individual numbers, and there were several group numbers with differing size groups. It's much more like the old SOI than it's like COI or even current SOI. It's a long tour with longer pre-tour rehearsals than other tours these days. There may be the odd guest, but I wouldn't expect it to be a significant part of the plan.
I do wonder, though, since you've got me thinking about it - in last year's tour, each of the skaters did an iconic program or one of their 2018 Olympic programs (which fit well with the TYC theme). I wonder if this year there will be two new programs with one being "rock", or one new for the tour plus one other.
 
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WildRose

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With them being in Moncton the day before, I think realistically the only options are Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and I guess Maine.

PEI's leg of the TYCT ended up getting cancelled because of the weather, so I hope this is a belated makeup for that.
 

aml78

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There was no way Weaver and Poje could skip the Grand Prix again if they wanted to keep competing seriously.

I’m sure they are gunning for a world medal at home next year. While touring/training worked this year I have to imagine they want to really buckle down next season to give it all they’ve got.
 

sap5

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I’m sure they are gunning for a world medal at home next year. While touring/training worked this year I have to imagine they want to really buckle down next season to give it all they’ve got.

How realistic is a W/P medal at Worlds next year though?
 

Sylvia

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Back on topic... excerpt from this article: https://www.todayville.com/tessa-vi...chan-announce-first-annual-rock-the-rink-tou/
The production will tour from coast-to-coast across Canada, and will include a few select U.S. cities as well. The cast will again feature Canadian greats, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Patrick Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond and Elvis Stojko. The show will also be bringing some world-renowned skating talent from Europe and the U.S.. Italian Olympic Medalist and World Champion, Carolina Kostner, and Italian World Champions, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, will each tour in North America for the first time, while Olympic Medalist and four time U.S. National Champion, Jeremy Abbott, will return to Canadian touring for the first time in seven years.
 

overedge

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I'm wondering what the ticket prices will be like. There are always complaints that tickets to Stars on Ice are too expensive, although there seems to be fewer complaints over the past few years since the show itself has been improved. Nevertheless, this tour could capitalize on "SOI is too expensive" by pricing its tickets lower than SOI, although I suspect with the talent that is involved, that might be difficult to do even though the tour is playing "smaller" markets. It will be interesting to see how this plays out - if this tour does well even with lower ticket costs, SOI tickets might have to become cheaper too.
 

mollymgr

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I'm wondering what the ticket prices will be like. There are always complaints that tickets to Stars on Ice are too expensive, although there seems to be fewer complaints over the past few years since the show itself has been improved. Nevertheless, this tour could capitalize on "SOI is too expensive" by pricing its tickets lower than SOI, although I suspect with the talent that is involved, that might be difficult to do even though the tour is playing "smaller" markets. It will be interesting to see how this plays out - if this tour does well even with lower ticket costs, SOI tickets might have to become cheaper too.
I'm impressed that they have a tour other than SOI happening in North America for a second year. They are also covering quite a few cities. This is good for the popularity of skating.
 

Japanfan

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I'm impressed that they have a tour other than SOI happening in North America for a second year. They are also covering quite a few cities. This is good for the popularity of skating.

Only if ticket sales are good. Over-saturation of the market should be avoided. OTOH, perhaps the supply of people interested in seeing skating shows exceeds demand.
 

angi

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Only if ticket sales are good. Over-saturation of the market should be avoided. OTOH, perhaps the supply of people interested in seeing skating shows exceeds demand.
The Thank You Tour did great if I remember correctly, they sold at least 80% of the tickets, sold-out multiple venues, sold out M&G passes and also had great sells on the merchandise they offered.
Their business model is to go to smaller venues (for the most part) but in more cities compared to SOI. It's great for skating popularity and it also makes sense that in smaller cities the audience will want to enjoy shows they don't usually get since a lot of them can't attend the SOI shows in the bigger cities. All in all, I think their business model is both successful and good for making skating more reachable for the broader audience.
 

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