Friends on Ice

My friend and I fully enjoyed this ice show produced by Shizuka Arakawa. Thank you, Shi-chan! We went to see the final one but all the skaters, including the choreographer Kenji Miyamoto, didn’t show any fatigue but instead gave us passionate, sincere and gorgeous performances.

Before the first and the second part of the gala each, we heard recorded announcements of basic instructions such as not using mobile phones or taking photos during their performances. We realised that the announcements were in Shizuka’s voice!

My personal MVP award goes to Yamato Tamura! Can’t believe that he hadn’t skated for a gala for one year, as he has recently concentrated on helping with his students. I wonder if he chose ‘Nessun Dorma’ for his first performance with clear implications for Shizuka’s achievement at the Turin Olympics, but his version of ‘Nessun Dorma’ was as impressive. He didn’t make any mistakes in triple jumps! I also loved his ‘Rocky’. He was so entertaining that he started to shake hands with the audience, do a jumping rope and press-up as well as jabbing. He concluded his funny and marvellous performance by running up into the audience and punching the air. The narrator introduced his real name after his boxing-conscious show but he insisted he wasn’t Yamato but Rocky himself.

Daisuke, although he was sadly the only one who missed a jump in the opening, was the most popular. We couldn’t hear his recorded message, which was played before he started to skate, because of shrill shouts of girls calling his name from every side of the rink. Pity that his solo performance was only once in the second half (seems like the amateur skaters in this show decided to perform once each). I still believe that his ‘Bachelorette’ is a magnificent programme, and no other skaters would be able to express this dark, sensual and mysterious song better than him.

The atmosphere was really ‘friendly’ as well, with some drawings for little presents to the audience, unique interference by the choreographer maestro Kenji during Takeshi’s ‘God Father’, Shizuka’s ‘little daughter’ Tiramisu (a doggy) performing ‘on the ice’, two little girls who were luckily chosen to participate in this show. Among these things the most heart-warming moment for me was when Shizuka, after her first solo performance of ‘If I Had May Way’, introduced Yuka Sato as her favourite and most respected figure skater. Yuka choreographed this song for Shizuka for the season when she won the gold for the World in 2004. Yuka was treated as the star who deserved to conclude the first half of the show. Nice to see that Shizuka is always humble about her status. My friend found Yuka’s skating skills outstood. Funny that she, a big Daisuke-fan, only knew less than half of the skaters and I had to explain who they were, their achievements, their current jobs and so on. But I was glad that she could acknowledge Yuka’s skating skills.

Akiko Suzuki’s femininity and elegance reminded me of Shizuka in her youth, Rena and John were as delightful as always, Yoshie Onda was cute and unique, Yukari Nakano showed us her exquisite Asian beauty, Takeshi Honda, who just announced his marriage, proved that he was still keen to learn new things and remained as a challenger (he always tries 3A whether or not he succeeds), Yamato Tamura was as sexy and entertaining as he had always been, Evan Lysacek dedicated his ‘last’ performance of ‘Carmen’ to us in Japan, Pang and Tong were sophisticated and skilful, Yuka Sato was atmospheric and refined, Daisuke Takahashi was distinctive and passionate, and Kenji Miyamoto kept entertaining us throughout the show.

Shizuka was perfect not only in the sense that she didn’t make any mistakes. She was beautiful, enchanting and the highest quality. Her second and last solo performance for this special show was the famous jazz music ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. Her dancing was sweet and expressive. I suppose Kenji is an inspiring choreographer for many Japanese skaters. She tends to choose slow songs but this new programme proved that she can do danceable numbers too.

For the ending, we cheered for Daisuke and Evan’s jumping competitions, Kenji and Yukari’s death spiral, Shizuka and Yukari’s ‘mirrored' Ina Bauer, Kenji (or was it Takeshi?) and his friend's 'the other way round' Ina Bauer, and Yamato’s trying at a quad! (I think that was what he tried…)

After the show was all over, Shizuka remained on the rink for a long time until she finished receiving all the presents from the audience and shaking hands with them. Pity that we couldn’t get the best seats and weren’t allowed to come closer to the rink, but we asked a receptionist to give our presents to Shi-chan and Dai-chan. Shizuka was so pretty and beautiful even off the show. Thank you again, Shi-chan, and please continue this show for a long time!