Russian ice show „Ice Age“ in Germany

 

Ilia Averbukh brought his „Ice Age“ show again to Germany . This year, the show came to Mannheim (May 1), Hamburg (May 2) and Düsseldorf (May 3).

 

One again it was a spectacular show with flames on the ice, many stars and we got to see only new programs.

 

1. Opening

All figure skaters were on the ice and were introduced

 

2. Ksenia Alfiorova (actress) and Povilas Vanagas

Ilia explained that they were finalists of the Russian TV project “Ice Age”. They skated to a program called “The Fair of Colours” and were dressed in colourful costumes.

 

3. Margarita Drobiazko and Dmitri Miller (actor)

This guy was quite popular with the audience. He played a soldier and she was apparently the girl he had to leave behind.

 

4. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski

“I’ll stay” by Gorod 312, romantic song. It’s always a treat to watch Albena and Maxim skating!

 

5. Jekaterina Stirzhenova (TV hostess) and Alexei Tikhonov

“My sweet and tender beast”, the famous waltz by Jevgeni Doga. From all the non-skating stars, she probably was the weakest skater, but Alexei did some nice lifts with her.

 

6. Valeria Lanskaia (singer, actress) and Alexei Jagudin

They finished 3 rd in the TV show and skated to Russian gypsy music. She fell early into the program, but overall she skated quite well. She was a figure skater as a child and is the daughter of choreographer Elena Maslennikova.

 

7. Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin

They interpreted a song by Lazarev. Even though they didn’t do any throws and jumps because of her pregnancy, they were still stunning. I really hope that this wasn’t the last time that we saw them performing.

 

8. Irina Slutskaja and Gediminas Taranda (former ballet dancer, now choreographer)

They did a fun program to “ Swan Lake ” dressed up as swans. Obviously he wasn’t so secure on skates.

 

9. Tatjana Navka and Vadim Kolganov (actor)

They were second in the TV show. They skated to the romantic and very popular (in Russia ) movie soundtrack from “17 moments in spring”

 

10. Jekaterina Gordeeva and Jegor Beroev

“The slow star”. They were the winners of the TV project and you could easily see that he was a strong non-skating partner. They even did a throw double toe and some good lifts!

 

11. Margarita Drobiazko/Povilas Vanagas

“The white horse” by Alexander Malinin. Again, a wonderful program for them. They are always lovely to watch.

 

12. The Tenors

A fun group number with Ilia Averbukh, Alexei Tikhonov and Mikhail Galustian (comedian). Tikhonov even lifts Galustian – which worked better in practice than in the actual show.

 

Break

 

1. Margarita Drobiazko and Dmitri Miller

“The Matrix”. I preferred this program to the first one. They looked cool in their black costumes.

 

2. Jekaterina Gordeeva

“Love Story” with French lyrics. It’s been a long time since I saw her skating, so I enjoyed her program. She landed a double Salchow, went for a double Axel as well, but missed it.

 

3. Maria Petrova and Mikhail Galustian

“Prekrasnoe Daleko” (Beautiful Far), a popular children’s song and they both dressed up as kids from Soviet times. Since they are both small, they could sell it well. Maria wore a school girl dress complete with a huge bow in her hair and he had a pioneer’s outfit with the red scarf. I remember that this partner was a weak skater when he first came to the project about two years ago but he was actually quite decent now.

 

4.  Irina Slutskaia and Gediminas Taranda

Again, not much skating in this number. They performed to a Georgian song with him drinking and her dancing on the table and later handing him a sword.

 

5. Valeria Lanskaia and Alexei Jagudin

“The Count of Monte Christo”, a musical in which she apparently stars as a singer and she performed the song they were skating to. She even sung live a little bit, and she has a good voice.

 

6. Ksenia Alfiorova and Povilas Vanagas

“The Candle” a slow and romantic song.

 

7. Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov

“Gothica” by Sarah Brightman. Great program and great performance. They were very dynamic, she landed the throw triple Salchow like nothing and the audience was very excited about this program. This was our favourite program of the show.

 

8. Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski

Justin Timberlake medley. This comes a close second to Petrova/Tikhonov’s number. Very dancey.

 

9. Jekaterina Gordeeva and Jegor Beroev

“Vocalise” by Sergei Rakhmaninov.

 

10. Tatiana Navka and Vadim Kolganov

“The Wedding”, an upbeat Russian song with her dressed as the bride and he obviously as the groom. Ilia tries to “stop” him from marrying her before the program starts.

 

11. Jekaterina Stirzhenova and Alexei Tikhonov

Another rather slow Russian song.

 

12. Ilia Averbukh and Marat Basharov

“Ne me quitte pas”. That was another original and fun program. Ilia is on the ice and Marat is supposed to direct the spotlight, but constantly misses him and Ilia is running after the spot on the ice. It’s hard to describe, but it was really funny. In the end, Ilia “shoots” the renegade illuminator and a doll, exactly dressed like Marat Basharov, falls off the roof. Shocking! The real Marat then runs back on to the ice once they had carried off the doll.

 

13. Irina Slutskaia

“The Fortuneteller” an upbeat song, which suits her well. She landed two double loops and a double Axel.

 

14. Alexei Jagudin

“Bumbarash” He is a soldier that comes back from war. I think this program is hard to understand if you don’t know the context. Alexei hit three triple toes.

 

15. Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov

“The horses” (the famous song by Vladimir Vysocki, but I’m not sure if it was him singing).  I really liked this expressive and fast program. I always preferred their exhibition programs to their competitive programs so I’ve enjoyed them more ever since they turned pro.

 

16. Finale

All skaters and non-skating stars are introduced one more time

 

It was an enjoyable show, and I think that 90 percent of the spectators were Russian or Russian speaking. So there was hardly anything said in German and the jokes were lost to the German audience. Also, Marat Basharov walked through the arena with a microphone to give spectators a chance to say a few words (they were supposed to make up a short poem). Again, there was no German translation whatsoever (but the poems of the spectators were just praise for Ilia Averbukh and the show). For our taste there were too many numbers with the non-skating stars, and we would have preferred more real skating programs, but the show obviously also draws a lot of spectators thanks to the actors etc, so it’s understandable that they follow this concept.