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2007 STARS ON ICE DALLAS SHOW REVIEW

Welcome to my review of the 2007 Smucker's Stars On Ice tour stop at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. I'm Scott Myers, your tour guide, and for the next few pages, I'll give my impressions of this year's show and its theme:
DOUBLE EXPOSURE - The Many Lives Of Figure Skaters.
To tell the truth, I really didn't know if would get to attend the show what with the uncertainty of the wintry weather that showed up two weeks before the Dallas stop. But as the morning of January 28, 2007, dawned, it was clear outside BUT VERY COLD (32 degrees for an air temperature, around 26 or so for a wind chill). And the wind chill was definite if you stood outside the AAC waiting to get in like I did! But 3 p.m. came and the doors opened as scheduled (one hour prior to show time).
After finding this year's official program, a t-shirt with the cast members on it, and a nice color photo pre-autographed by Jamie and David (now my favorite skaters with the retirement of Rosalynn Sumners and Scott Hamilton from fulltime skating with the tour) -- I paid $65 for the whole items! -- it was off to find where my seat was.
How about AN ON-ICE SEAT WITHIN A FEW FEET OF THE ACTION?????

The cast was introduced as a group in Clark Kent costumes, glasses included. Nice opening number with the theme of the many lives and interests that figure skaters live while not performing. Got this nice closeup shot of Canadian skating champion Jennifer Robinson.

Ilia Kulik, our guest skater for the Dallas show, did a solo number to the Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate. The song was a contrast to the weather conditions outside the American Airlines Center,
TOO DARN HOT!
Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman have two solo numbers this year. Their first was to James Blunt's popular "You're Beautiful". And they made it their own song when it comes to describing their outstanding moves.
Here's an example of the battle I had the entire night with the lighting setup for the show. Katia Gordeeva's interpretation of Alacran was simply beautiful...and would have been great had I had some light to work with! Because of the lighting, I didn't get any good shots of Michael Weiss' tribute to his family, skating to Lonestar's I'm Already There.
Steven Cousins didn't disappoint the crowd with his two solos. The first was to Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl. Pretty sexy to say the least.
Jennifer Robinson, who has been posting a diary of this year's tour on the official fan club website, skated elegantly to Joni Mitchell's At Last. She skated with flair and precision!
Following Weiss' first solo, the trio of Ladies In Lavender came out. Jen, Katia, and Yuka Sato skated in unison to this Joshua Bell arrangement.
Having never skated to disco music before, the Canadian sweethearts of this tour, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, decided this would be the year to skate to the late Rick James' Superfreak. I did enjoy the risky moves Jamie and David did and that INCLUDED David doing The Worm on ice!
I loved the way they used this piece of music to show off the dance moves on the ice floor! And, ladies, David looked sexy with the fushia color he wore...which is something Todd won't do (had it written in his contract that he refused to wear silly looking colored outfits! LOL)
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One more thing: My photos aren't as good as the ones Erica Armstrong takes (I know that already...guess I can't match up to Erica's standards! *rolling my eyes while typing this*) BUT at least I got some good photos even with the lighting issues inside the arena.
Kristen Rielly, a Dallas resident who had an on-ice seat across the ice from where I was sitting, was the lucky person to have her questioned answered in the Ask The Cast segment presented by Syeven Cousins and Jennifer Robinson. Kristen's question was directed to Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman. Needless to say, Kristen was having an out-of-body experience during this segment. (Kristen, sorry about the lousy photo. That's what happens when one tries to shoot the photo of the meeting from a long distance!)
The gremlins with the lighting got to my camera for a short time. Henceforth, I got NO great shots of Todd Eldredge's Broken and Yuka Sato's Thank You, Stars, both heartfelt performances! And this shot of Alexei Yagudin's solo to Legenda wasn't great either, but it was passable to post here.
PEACE, LOVE, SKATING
With the "summer of love" happening 40 years ago this summer, the Stars On Ice cast had their own salute to the music of a hip generation. Nice start with John Zimmerman meditating at center ice.
Ah, yes! A sit-in underway at the American Airlines Center! Cool, man, cool!
Peace, man! (I believe this cast member was looking at deliberately while I took this photo! LOL)
From Jefferson Airplane to Sonny and Cher, from the Loving Spoonful to The Who, the cast members took a "trip" back into time to period where there was LBJ in the White House, man was on the way to the moon, and Vietnam was in session.
Wow, man! What a trip!
Scroll down to the links and click on the Part Two link for more photos of the Dallas show!

Check out these additional links...

Angelfire Home Pages
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier's Official Website
Stars On Ice Official Website
Part Two: 2007 SOI Dallas Show

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