When I found out about Worlds being held in Los Angeles this year I decided to try to get tickets. Unfortunately for me, most of the competition is held during the week, and the weekend package included the competition on Friday, which is when my class is held. So I got tickets for Sunday afternoon's Exhibition of Champions.
We took the train up to the Staples Center, which beat paying lots for parking and fighting traffic before and after the event.
Here are some of my favorites who performed (in no particular order, with videos if I could find them):
Mao Asada - For some reason I thought she was an Olympian, but I guess I'll have to wait until next year for that to be true! She has all of the grace and charisma required! Her exhibition to Por una Cabeza was flawless and the highlight for me of all the ladies who skated yesterday.
Evan Lysacek - Los Angeles' own! Lysacek took 1st this year and his exhibition to Daft Punk really higlighted his talents. The crowd went really wild when he stepped onto the ice.
Brian Joubert - My sweetheart thought Joubert's exhibition to Rufus Wainwright's Hallelujah was boring, but I thought it was well choreographed and well performed. I found this more exciting performance to Darude's Sandstorm that highlights some fantastic footwork. I'm always impressed with skaters who have great footwork and can really show their mastery of figure skating.
Joannie Rochette - My sweetheart liked her exhibition a lot more than I did, but it was skated well. I guess I prefer female skaters to wear skirts or dresses over pants. Call me sexist.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - These ice dancers had a cute themed exhibition to Mellencamp's Jack & Diane. Watch for the excellent lift sequence just over midway through this.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White - Another ice dancing pair, you can't fault anyone for picking Queen to skate to.
Tomas Verner - He had a great exhibition choreographed to a mix of Michael Jackson songs.
Qing Pang and Jian Tong - This Chinese pair had a great exhibition.
Oskana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin - This ice dancing pair had a very memorable Matrix-themed exhibition.
The pairs champions had some good exhibitions, but I just can't remember them! So I guess they weren't as memorable for me as the rest. Also performing was a synchronized skating group out of Culver City, and that was really neat to watch.
I had a great time seeing figure skating live for the first time, and I think my boyfriend had a better time than he expected.
Leaving the Staples Center, it wasn't demarcated very well where it was "OK" for fans to walk and where was strictly for skaters and VIPs. So that was frustrating getting yelled at by security guards every three steps. We were just trying to leave!
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3 comments:
Cool! I enjoyed watching figure skating more than I thought I would too. It's not really a typical guy sport. It's pretty impressive live.
That's too bad about getting yelled at.
You are right that it's not a typical guy sport! I'm surprised how many male figure skaters got into the sport to play hockey, but decided to stay in figure skating. Maybe they get more chicks that way? ;)
I'm not too worried about getting yelled at, but it was annoying because the security guards' assumption is that we were trying to be in their way, when it was pretty clear (to us) that we were not. If they had put tape up or some other sign of where we were allowed to go it would have saved us and them a lot of hassle.
Yes they should have put tape up or at least something so you'd know where to go.
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