Christmas Eve Skating Show Part 2
2006 Hilton Family Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular Airs December 24, 3006
World class figure skaters and gymnasts will make the holidays warmer this Christmas Eve.
The Hilton Family Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular will be shown December 24, 2006 on NBC from 1:00-3:00pm Pacific Standard Time. The Style Network will also re-air the Spectacular on Friday, January 19,2007, from 5:00-7:00pm, & January 21, 2007 from 10:00am to 12:00 noon.
Figure skaters Rudy Galindo, Brian Orser, Michael Weiss, Rory Flack Burghart and Amber Corwin performed athletic and entertaining routines for the Portland crowd October 28, 2006. Read Part One of our coverage if you don’t want to wait until Christmas Eve to see how the athletes did.
Also performing that night were pairs skaters Valerya and Viktor Mytnik. Their lifts were amazing. The move of the night was a lift performed when Viktor pressed Valerya into a full hand stand with his arms completely extended above him. This transitioned into a one-armed hand stand, which they sustained as he skated.
When they performed this a second time, at the point the lift became a one-handed hand stand, he moved his free hand to her chest. They released their hands, so she balanced only with his single hand holding up her body as he glided around the ice.
Violetta Afanasieva and Peter Dack showed similar strength and ingenuity. Their Cirque du Soliel performance included a large wire square that made for interesting optical illusions. Their showed of an amazing full-split bounce spin. Visit their website for a great freeze-frame of this move. (You can also access their schedule for this season.)
She was absolutely the cutest performer there. Her huge and genuine smile reminded me of a young (and unaffected) Oksana Baiul. Even if she had tried, she could not have hidden the amount of fun she was having. They played with loads of hula hoops. During her spiral, he threw hoops to her, which she caught with each arm and then her leg. as she stayed in spiral position, she kept the hoops moving. I can’t even manage to keep one around my waist for more than a few seconds. She eventually twirled so many at once that I couldn’t count them all.
Oleksiy Polishuk & Vladamir Besedin gave many performances in one. They started off as speed skaters – which thrilled me to death. Their speed suits transformed immediately into scuba wetsuits when the guys attached swim fins to their skates. They did the back stroke across the rink. At last the skaters became pro basketball players. They twirled balls on their index fingers, completed amazing jumps and throws, and played one-on-one with audience members.
The gymnasts were no less impressive. Shenea Booth & Arthur Davis demonstrated pairs gymnastics moves that one-upped the skating pairs only by the addition of double back flips to catches out of lifts. They, too, did one-armed handstand lifts. He seems twice her height, and it is amazing that so much power and strength is in her little bitty body.
Shannon Miller is absolutely breathtaking. Her physique has matured into that of a seductress. That trait which added beautifully to the choreography of her lyrical floor routine as she pranced and tumbled to the jazzy words from: “Darlin’, save the last dance for me…” Sadly, this was her last dance. They announced this performance was Shannon’s last -- ever.
Later in the evening, Shannon hit the beam with Dominique Moceanu. They performed flips and tricks that we never tire of seeing. I saw a little more of Dominque than we wanted to, though. She’s an amazing athlete, but a less-revealing costume would have eliminated some “cottage cheesy” distractions.
The Hamm twins hip hopped their floor routine. Together, they had a blast showing off their Olympic flares and layouts. Later, they joined the other guys on the parallel bars. At one point, there were five gymnasts in handstands on the bars at the same time. Think: synchronized gymnastics.
Ivan Ivankov and Raj Bhavsar were hot!! In jeans and no shirt, they dominated the rings. I’d like to give you a report of their routines, but I couldn’t take my eyes off their muscles. A few iron crosses and double backs later, and the men gingerly tiptoed barefoot across the ice to their exit.
All the guys had a blast on the high bar. A couple of them flapped their gloves as they flew to their landing so that the powder caused a smoke-like trail behind them that was a cool effect.
Former elite gymnast Carly Patterson’s singing career is definitely on the upswing. She belted familiar hits as Amber Corwin skated in mirror to a gymnast who was in similar costume.
The two sports combined to make a very pleasurable show. Skating choreographer Lea Ann Miller, and Brian Orser as her assistant, fell short of putting together a “spectacular” show, merely on the basis that too many of the performances were old news to the audience. Nevertheless, the Hilton Family Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular was an exciting display of athleticism and fun.
