Champions On Ice

I took a road trip yesterday to see Champions On Ice in El Paso, Texas. For those of you not up on your geography, that's about 320 miles from Tucson. I had two tickets for the show but wound up going by myself. That was unfortunate since it was a very long drive for me considering the state my wrist is in. It was really hurting by the time I got home.

I left at 9 a.m. and, by the time I got to the venue and parked it was almost showtime (El Paso is on MDT and Tucson MST so it was an hour later, which didn't help). The traffic was horrible. Fortunately there were so many people still trying to get in and park that they delayed the start of the show. I managed to sell my extra ticket, and went in and had a seat. I had a great seat for the show, front row on ice toward the corner of the ice. The show was at the El Paso County Coliseum, a WWII-vintage building that is a bit decrepit, unfortunately.

The show was terrific. This is the "Tour II" cast, so the only current competitors were Michelle Kwan and Timothy Goebel. MK's performances were awesome as always. In the first half she skater her exhibition number ("Fallin'") which was terrific. She wore a slinky black outfit that fit the sensual aspect of the piece well. Her second half skate was to Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up". It was very nice and very moving.

The special treat of this tour was to see two skaters who rarely perform anymore, namely Dorothy Hamill and Nancy Kerrigan. Hamill was awesome! She is not so athletic anymore, unsurprisingly, but did do some double jumps and an Axel. Her flow on the ice is truly amazing -- graceful, fluid and easy. She had some awesome footwork as well. Skating is obviously good for you; Hamill is in her 40s and she could pass for 30, I suspect. Kerrigan's first skate was to a song she'd recorded herself -- she was singing along while she skated. She did a number of jumps and fell a few times.

Timothy Goebel was quite impressive, very athletic and smooth.

The other performers -- Victor Petrenko, Dan Hollander, Elvis Stoiko, the acrobatic team of Besedin and Polishchuk, Irina Grigorian, and Rudy Galindo -- were quite good. Galindo was very enthusiastically received, presumably because he's Hispanic and El Paso is, of course, heavily Hispanic as well. His skating was quite impressive and gave no hint that he'd had hip surgery.

All in all it was a really good experience. Being in the front row really gives you an incredible vantage point and is well worth it. To see Dorothy Hamill do an Axel 10 feet away from you -- priceless.