Stars on Ice-Canada

After going to the Olympics back in February, I found a new love of ice skating. I always watched figure skating when I was younger and was always fascinated by it, but somewhere along the way, I lost interest and stopped watching. The 2010 Olympics is what jump started my love of it again. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the compulsory dance portion of the ice dancing competition and my friend and I had a blast!

When I found out that the Sears Stars on Ice show was going to be coming to Vancouver, and it had Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (gold medalists in ice dancing) and Joannie Rochette (bronze medal in figure skating), along with a handful of other really talented skaters, including Kurt Browning (who I remember watching when I was in elementary school!), I had to get tickets :-). Mr. V wasn't lucky enough to go to the Olympics with me. He had to work that day so he had passed his ticket along to a friend of mine. I had hoped that he would be able to come to the Stars on Ice show with me, but of course the Navy had other plans. He's in San Diego for an exercise right now, so his ticket again got passed along to my friend. I was a little disappointed that he couldn't go, but to be honest, I really don't think that he cared so it ended up working out perfectly. My friend who came to the Olympics also came with me to Stars on Ice, but she almost didn't. She was supposed to be gone over the weekend too, but her plans changed, so we got wrapped up in Olympics excitement again and headed off to Vancouver!

The day before the show, I found out that the skaters would be at the Sears in Vancouver signing autographs. I had nothing to do that day, so another friend of mine (Mrs. M) and I headed off to Vancouver for Day 1 of ice skating fun.

My mom used to take me to autograph signings when I was younger, and she's the one who always waited outside of Broadway theatre stage doors with me. Plus, working in my high school's television production program gave me the opportunity to meet and work with some pretty famous people - actors and athletes. So based on those past experiences, I can say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the way these skaters acted.

I have honestly never seen people who seemed so genuinely happy to meet and talk with their fans. Obviously, I didn't expect them to be mean, especially at a planned autograph signing. But I truly got the impression that they enjoyed being there, that they wanted to be there and that they actually appreciated their fans. I went there expecting nothing more than an autograph and hopefully a picture, so when it was obvious that they were really there to have fun with their fans it made the whole thing so much nicer. I feel like that kind of appreciation is really rare in most cases, especially by athletes who can be successful without even having any fans. I mean you may not be famous if no one comes to see your movies, but you can still win a gold medal even if the world hates you, you know?

I'm glad that I went to the autograph signing because I already really liked most of these people (I have to be honest and admit that I didn't know who they all were at first), but I like them even more and have so much more respect for them, now that I've had the chance to meet them and see how they interact with the people who support them. To me, it made the show the next night even better. I guess I'm just a person who has more respect for people who actually respect others and appreciate their fans.

So the autograph signing was great, and the show the next night was fantastic. I like watching competition skating, but the show was interesting because it wasn't a competition, and it definitely seemed more like entertainment rather than work. It was definitely full of energy and we definitely left the show full of energy. I'm already looking forward to going to the show again next year! (plus the American Stars on Ice is coming to Seattle in 2 weeks, so I'm hoping I can convince Mr. V to go with me to that show. A handful of the American medal winners will be in that show.)

Here are some pictures from the autograph signing. My friend has a great camera, so she has some amazing pictures from the show itself that I don't have at the moment to post here. So for now here are the autograph signing pictures, and when I get copies of the other pictures from my friend I'll post those too.

(with Cynthia Phaneuf and Kurt Browning)

(Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon)

(Shawn Sawyer and Jeffrey Buttle)

(Scott Moir - I love this picture)

(with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - gold medalists in ice dancing)

(with Joannie Rochette - bronze medalist in figure skating, and Adam Rippon)

(another one with Kurt Browning - he hung around for a while after the others left)

I'm in love...

Well maybe not in love. Its more like a new obsession. After being fortunate enough to go to the Olympics I am now obsessed (i.e. fascinated and impressed) with ice dancing and specifically Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the Canadian ice dancing pair who won the gold medal in the Vancouver Olympics.

I have always loved watching ice skating, but until this year, I never paid much attention to ice dancing. In fact, I was actually upset that I had to get tickets to the ice dancing because I really wanted to go see the normal pairs skating. However, I was in New Jersey when that was going on, so I settled for ice dancing tickets instead. I wanted to see some type of Olympic event. The ice dancing tickets were affordable, plus I like "normal" figure skating, so it was a good compromise.

The result is my new love of ice dancing. My friend and I had an AMAZING time at the Olympics. Just being there, being able to say we were there, seeing all the Canadians decked out in maple leaf hats, flags, Canada tattoos, etc was exciting in itself. But then we got to the actual event. It was a lot of fun, but I can honestly tell you that I had almost no idea who was skating. The only ice dancers I had ever heard of were the Russian couple (and I can't even tell you their names offhand) who won the bronze medal. They were pretty controversial in the weeks leading up to the Olympics so since I didn't know anything else about the sport, I was simply excited to see them. (If you have no idea who I'm talking about, just google "Russian Aboriginal Ice Dance" and you will find out exactly who they are!)

The very last couple to skate in the event were Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and the crowds went CRAZY for them. Canada has a lot of national pride which was very obvious, and there were a few other Canadian ice dancing pairs, but Virtue and Moir got the most insane, enthusiastic reception of them all. The stadium literally erupted into screams and cheers and all you could see was a sea of red as all of the Canadians in the place waved their flags for them. As soon as the insane cheers broke out, my friend and I just looked at each other and said "Wow...these guys must really be good." And they were. They finished second in the compulsory dance (right behind the first place controversial Russians), which was the event we were at, and after 2 more events on 2 other days, they finished with the gold medal (the Russians took the bronze).

So fast forward to a few days later. I was home. I was bored. So I googled these guys and looked them up on YouTube and spent a few hours watching their old performances. They are absolutely captivating on the ice and they have a chemistry that I've never seen another ice skating pair have. I'm not imagining that either. Just google them and you'll find pages and pages of fans obsessing over whether or not they are dating (they're not), if they should get married or if they should just remain friends. I mean there are full blown discussions about this topic all over the internet. The consensus seems to be that they have a chemistry together that no other couple has ever had, so aside from their amazing skating, that chemistry adds to their performance. They have also been skating together for 13 years, which is apparently unusual in the ice skating world. They were paired up when they were 7 and 9 (they are 20 and 22 now) and have never skated with another partner and have no intentions of ever skating with another partner. I'm sure that adds to their amazing chemistry and talent too.

So after watching hours of their videos, I declared myself a full blown fan and decided to see if they would be performing anywhere where I can see them again. It turns out they are doing a tour across Canada - Sears Stars on Ice - and I have every intention of going to see them when the show comes to Vancouver in May.

If you haven't seen their Olympic performances, you really should! The videos keep getting pulled from YouTube, but you can see them here.

In the meantime, enjoy their pictures. The pictures don't do their performances any justice, but I still think they are amazing to look at. And check out the videos on YouTube. The Olympics videos keep getting pulled, but there are pages and pages of their older performances. I can't figure out how to get a video on here, but I'm capable of posting a link. So here you go - this is my favorite non-Vancouver 2010 performance. Its just fun, and you don't really see a lot of that in figure skating. Granted its not a competition, its for a gala, but still, they're just different from what I am used to seeing. So trust me, its a fun, amazing performance :-).
Jack and Diane - World Expo 2009

I have to admit that now "normal" pairs skating is pretty boring in comparison to what these 2 can pull off in the ice dancing world.

And yes I am aware that I should be all for Team USA, but honestly, I'm thrilled that the Canadians won the gold medal because they are just THAT good. In my defense, the Americans took the silver medal and both the gold medal Canadian team and the silver medal American team actually train together in Michigan and they have the exact same coach. So based on the medals, their coach obviously knows what she is doing! But if they train together, in the United States, then that's kind of like cheering for the USA right? :-)