Ice Symphony (Russian „Stars on Ice“ Tour) in Riga
April 12 and 13

We arrived in Riga one day before the first show for some sightseeing. Riga didn’t disappoint us. It is a beautiful and interesting city. There is good shopping, too. We were lucky with the weather, it was sunny most of the time, but the wind was still very cold.
We stayed in a basic but adequate hotel right across from the rink which is about 20 minutes from the city centre (first 10 minutes walk to the bus stop, then 10 min bus drive if there are no traffic jams).
Both shows took place in a sold out arena in front of ca 10,000 spectators, and the atmosphere was great.

Here comes a review (in the order of skating). The order was the same on both days, only Guseva/Kostomarov switched their numbers from the first and second half on Friday. It was a great show, a very supportive audience and overall one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

1. Opening
Ekaterina Guseva and Ilia Averbukh get on to the ice together and she sings a song called “ice”. All skaters appear on the ice.

2. A group of local skaters, “Kaskad”, performs in traditional Russian costumes to the famous folk song “Kalinka”.

3. Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski. “Dark Eyes” (Otchi Tchernye) in a sort of pop arrangement, dynamic. They are wearing gypsy costumes. First she is sitting on the ice on her scarf, laying out cards, then he arrives. It was a new program for me. He fell towards the end, unfortunately, on the first day, but not on the second day.

4. Valeria Tishler/Viktor Mytnik. “No smoking”. The program with her smoking and then undressing him. I have seen this number a few times. Their tricks are very good, like when she does a one-armed handstand on his head. They got a strong response and gave an encore.

5. Elena Leonova/Andrei Khvalko. “Allegria” from “Cirque du Soleil”. They were dressed in white, she had a sort of harlequin costume with big black buttons. They were powerful and of course she hit the big throw double Axel. I think I never saw her missing it in any show. Crowd loved them and they showed some elements as an encore.

6. Ilia Klimkin “Like in a Fairy Tale” (Russian song). He wore a Russian folk costume. The program was lively and fun. He did two triple toes. Encore. He told me during practice that he retired from competition as he can earn no real money by competing. He wants to skate in shows and start coaching. I fully understand his decision, but it’s sad that he never fulfilled his huge potential. He was either held back by injuries or by his nerves.

7. Anna Semenovitch/Viatcheslav Razbegaev (actor). “Pink Panther”. She was dressed in a pink suit with a hat, he wore a dark suit. So this was the “comeback” of Anna. The partner is already a little bit older. I’ve never heard of him but the audience seemed to know him very well. He stumbled but they repeated the element successfully as an encore.

8. Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas “Hey You” by Pink Floyd. I think this was my favourite program of the evening. I thought it was breathtaking, so intense. They wear black leather-like costumes, there is also the sound of motorcycles in the background to underline the hard rock image. The flames at the boards made it even more powerful. They were fast. Encore.

9. Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov “Christina Aguilera” (unfortunately, I didn’t recognize the title of the song). They were greeted by huge applause. They were probably the most popular skaters. This was a new exhibition program for me. She wears an apricot coloured, sparkling dress, he is dressed in black. They include some new lifts in this program. Big throw triple Salchow (also in the encore). The program looked very smooth. Maria said that they had prepared it actually for Worlds, hoping that they can skate it there, but as we know it never happened.

10. Alexander Abt “I do it for you” by Bryan Adams (from the Robin Hood soundtrack). He wore a ragged jeans costume. He did at least one triple toe. Lyrical program, choreography reminded me of his other programs in this style. He was the first one to choose a winner for one of the sponsor prizes. The sponsor (“Vitek”) gives out hair dryers, sandwich toasters, water cookers etc. The skaters that award the prize first choose a sector, then a row and finally a seat. But sometimes they just gave it to whoever caught their attention by jumping up etc.  BTW, Irene had brought her huge banner for him and Ilia Averbukh pointed it out to the audience when he presented Abt saying that his fans travelled all the way from Germany to see him and even hung up this marvellous banner.

11. Anna Bolshova/Alexei Tikhonov. She is an actress. First they skated to a song called “Tenderness” (from a Russian movie, I suppose) with her coming on to the ice with a little suitcase and hoping for a ride. He picks her up. The second program was cute, there were sounds from a farm in the morning, he is the farmer that gets up, she is the farm girl washing clothes and he dances with her to “Besame Mucho”. She was a bit slow and careful.

12. Alexei Yagudin “Blues for Klook”. Great program, choreographed by Alexander Zhulin. He wears grey pants, a sweater and a bonnet. This program brings really out his musicality. He hit 3F, 2S, 3T.

13. Instead of an encore, this number followed. Yagudin plays himself and Marat Basharov (actor) comes on to the ice as Tatiana Tarasova. It was really funny. “Tarasova” scolds her student, and shows her “motherly” love, teaches him the “Winter” program. They use some original soundbits with Tarasova’s voice. This program was originally done for Tarasova’s birthday show on February 13.

14. Ekaterina Guseva/Roman Kostomarov. “Bi 2” and “Brigada”. She's an actress and singer. I don’t really remember this number.

15. Tatiana Navka/Marat Basharov. “Tango”. He is an officer of the Red Army, she is a waitress who takes his order and serves him a drink, but he gets up to dance with her. A romantic program with a nostalgic touch (the music was made to sound like from an old gramophone). He definitely is the best skater of the celebrities.
For the encore, they quickly changed. Music “But I like him” (Russian song). They sit on a small bench as if they were at a public outdoor skating rink and there is an announcement that the rink will close in 15 minutes. She gets up and starts to skate, wants him to skate with her, but he first doesn’t want and then he stumbles as if he can’t skate. It’s a really cute number.

Zamboni break

Almost everybody did an encore in the second half.

1. Ksenia Smirnova/Alexander Yakushin. A new junior ice dancing couple from Latvia. They skated an Oriental show dance. On the second day she was totally off, stumbled and fell like three times. Poor girl!

2. Ilia Klimkin. “Confessi” by Adriano Celentano, which he has been using in other exhibitions this year. He gives presents to some kids from the local club. I hope Ilia will come up with some cool exhibition programs in the future. I still remember programs like “Dr. Diesel” (and that was even a competition program)!

3. Valeria Tishler/Viktor Mytnik. “Barbie Girl” by Aqua. A new number. First they come on the ice with her standing on his shoulders but wearing a long cape so that you can’t see him and she looks like a giant on skates. She wears a blond wig and a costume that makes her look “fat” (on purpose). Entertaining.

4. Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin. “Polovetsian Dances”. I was hoping to see their “Another Brick in the Wall” program by Pink Floyd that they did at Worlds, but Ilia for some reason wanted them to skate part of their Free Dance. They skated well and the flames at the boards made a good addition to the program! They will be on the tour until the break (end of April), and want to work on new programs in May, maybe they’ll join the tour again afterwards.

5. Andrei Griazev. “You can leave your hat on” from “91/2 weeks” (soundtrack). Well. I must say that I personally didn't like this striptease program for Andrei. I think it doesn't suit him. But I liked him spinning with the chair. He had some trouble with his jumps, doubling the toe in two attempts, but he was sick and had high temperature. IThe jumps went better the second day.

6. Anna Semenovitch/Viatcheslav Razbegaev. He was “Ostap Bender”, a famous Russian character out of a novel (and then movie). It was a short number.

7. Petrova/Tikhonov and Leonova/Khvalko. They did the “Fours” number from last year to a song by Eros Ramazotti. The did lifts deaths spirals parallel and a throw jump and then a death spiral together. Very good. They are working already on another “Fours” program. On the second day their “Fours” was one of the most popular numbers.

8. Alexander Abt “Gasolina” by Daddy Yankee. Very exciting and cool rap number. He got the crowd going. I preferred this one over the lyrical number from the first half, but he can do both styles. Anyway, he always looks good, no matter what he skates to!

9. Ekaterina Guseva/Roman Kostomarov “Evgeni Onegin” by Peter Tchaikovksi. A parody on the opera. She wears a costume that makes her look like she weights 100 kilograms. Funny.

10. Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas “Paso Doble”. A characteristic Spanish dance. They use a big red cape as a prop. This was a brandnew dance that they debuted in Riga. It needs more mileage, but then it should be really good.

11. Ilia Averbukh. Flamenco footwork (but not the one from the famous OD), but with “fireworks” on his skates. Irina Lobacheva wasn’t there. He told me that she has to go to some competitions with her students.

12. Anna Bolshova/Alexei Tikhonov “Junona and Avos”. Romantica, soft, a bit slow. As an encore, she sings, then they skate again.

13. Navka/Basharov. Russian Folk songs. Hilarious. She is the farm girl working on the field when he comes riding on his “horse” (a hobbyhorse), she offers him water, he rides on, then they dance to a second song. It was Tatiana’s birthday on April 13 and he changed the program, presenting her with a bottle of champagne and opened it. Then he pretended to be drunk before they continued with the second part of the number. The crowd went crazy when he opened the bottle of champagne.

14. Alexei Yagudin. “Flamenco” by Didulja. He effectively uses a hat. Again, he showed great musicality. Three triple jumps. Great footwork. Crowd is ecstatic.

15. Navka/Kostomarov “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson (not entirely sure if that title is correct). A new program. Both wear suits with hats, she in white and he in black. It opens with gunfire and ends with gunfire and he is “dead” in the end. I really liked that program, it was aggressive and interesting. I always preferred their exhibition programs to their competitive programs anyway. As an encore, they skate part of the “Ne otrekajutsja ljubja” program, one of my favourite programs of them.

16. Finale. All are on the ice. The same Russian song Navka/Basharov used in the first part of their number, and all the girls are wearing dresses and headscarfs, the men come “riding” on hobbyhorses. Fun to watch. On the second day, they roll a cake for Tatiana out on the ice with burning candles and she blows out the candles (I didn’t count them). :-)

We had a great time in Riga! They told us that Riga wants to have the show again, probably as soon as in four weeks.