Barbara and
Maurizio:
GOLDEN
ANGELS
Part
five: Sunday Afternoon's Gala and it's all over
All the pics that appear on this page are © of my friend Melania
Resnigo
my camera was still lost and I was just trying to enjoy the show
while she took again some very nice pictures.
Some
more sleep was desperately needed - this time we even managed to
get up a little earlier than "in-a-minute-we-have-to-be-in-a-taxi"
and we prepared in advance our suitcases, as we were not so sure
of having enough time the next morning, as we had to get on a train
leaving Bratislava at 5am!! This time we didn't even try to find
a bus for the arena - we knew it was a waste of time: a taxi was
the only option! Thankfully the prices were extremely low.. back
home it would have cost us more than ten times those bills to get
a taxi!
We got comfortably at the arena with not too much to wait for the
show - but enough to chat a little with the others who were arriving,
and with my always-seated-in-a-different-place friend Patrick (would
you believe if I told you that we were staying at the same hotel
but we never met there?? We were always staying out too late and
getting up at the last minute, while he probably was having a more
reasonable behaviour!)
The Gala started quite on time, and was definitely pleasant... the
first part is usually the less interesting because the lower-ranked
skaters are on the ice, but of course here we're talking about the
top five skaters or couples in each category - so anything is worth
to be seen!
Of course the first on the ice after the group number were the local
skaters, so we started with Zuzana Durkovska and Marian Mesaros
from SLK - on my paper there was actually Robert Kazimir listed,
but he did not appear...
Then we had the fifth placed skaters: Sarah Meier from Switzerland,
Sabrina Lefrancois and Jerome Blanchard from France (Pairs);
I really liked this guy I had never heard of that placed fifth in
the men's event (I was on the train while the Men's final was on),
whose name was Sergei Davydov from BLR... I loved some of his step
sequences!
The main problem with these first numbers was that they appeared
to be skated facing the other side of the rink (where the authorities
were seated), so we often had a poor view of some passages; the
first ones to skate facing us were Chait and Sakhnovski - the seventh
number on the ice.
Fourth places were the next; the ladies were always going first,
so it was Elena Liashenko's turn;
Petrova and Tikhonov had a very difficult time, with their music
stopping in the same point not once but three times!!! Finally they
had to give up performing their full number, because there was no
way of having the music playing till the end!!
I liked a lot Alexander Abt's "Zorro" number, and I made my first
attempt at "throwing something on the ice from my very far away
places" - thankfully it ended up in the rink, not on someone's head!
I liked even more Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas' exhibition
- much more than their free program!!! The costumes were brilliant
and the number was great - I would have probably loved to switch
places with the Tango their did in the final!
The first two medals were closing the first half of the show: Victoria
Volchkova and the French duo of Sarah Abitbol and Stéphane Bernadis.
After a good resurfacing the ice was ready to welcome the second
part of the gala: some Slovak skaters again (including Kazimir..??!!
), and then we were back to the medallists.
Stanick Jeannette did a number I already knew, nothing exceptional
but definitely entertaining - the French fans were going WILD!
The last bronze medals on the ice were Irina Lobacheva and Ilia
Avrbukh; now we were up for the silver!
Maria
Butyrskaya did a very elegant number that I liked a lot, then
it was up to Tatian Totmianina and Maxim Marinin; next on
the list was Alexei Yagudin. I've always liked his style of
skating, and he did a quite nice number - not dramatic and
emotional as his competition programs but surely enjoyable.
The
last silver medallists on the ice were as usual the Dancers:
so it was finally the turn of Marina Anissina and Gwendal
Peizerat!
They of course did this season's exhibition number - "Susanna"...
finally Gwendal is doing something where he gets to show
off his physique!!
Look at this pic!!! (or click on it: these of the dancers
- so FP&M's too - are the only one that I've also got
in a bigger version)
What
is this guy made of??? Rubber?? How can he get in such a pose???
OUCH! They then used some of last year's original dance - the latin
combination - as their encore.
Again, I managed to throw quite efficiently the little stuffed heart
I made after failing to find some already-made stuffed animal suiting
my taste...
In a moment they were gone, and we had just the golden medals to
wait for!!
I
was not particularly touched by Irina Slutskaya's number, but
I liked a lot Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze's... and
I love their free pr so much this year!!!
I have to admit the on tv I had never liked a lot Plushenko's
style in the exhibitions... I usually hate particularly silly
numbers, but I have to admit that this time I quite enjoyed
it - apart from the ABSURD costume he was wearing... Oh my!!!
Has he recently been training immersed in such a deep fog that
Mishin had to dress him this way to follow him around the rink???
Has a crazy three-years-old designed this thing??? AAAARGH!!!
Barbara
and Maurizio were next (and last) on the ice (we just couldn't help
but notice how the speaker was adjusting the female skaters' names
to the local language... Barbara has become Mrs. FUSAROVA-POLIOVA...
as if "Poli" was her husband's name... thankfully the above-mentioned
speaker didn't know about Diego's surname!!!)
They
did a wonderful tango number - and look at Barbara's dress: isn't
it stunning??? She looks gorgeous in it, and red looks fantastic
on her... And she made this amazing costume herself!! How many things
can this woman do???
They were out of the ice for a moment, while the speaker said something
we couldn't figure out in Slovakian... but we were staring at the
place were they had disappeared, and we caught a glimpse of a bare-chested
Maurizio putting on a black jacket: we immediately understood what
was going to come as their encore!
This
number is really great!
It's funny, and sexy and entertaining... Everyone in the
crowd loved it! We just got a bit of a shock, as we were
not expecting Maurizio to completely take-off his jacket
- both my roommate and I had only previously seen the number
on tape from some competition where he had just unbuttoned
it!
And this is it! The show was coming to its end!
There was some kind of closing number with all the skaters, and girls
with all the flags, and lots of lights and lasers and fog, but at
this point we were just sadly thinking that our little trip was soon
ending... sigh!
We met with some of the others and we got back to the hotel as usual,
just to decide after a while that we could go and have something to
eat before meeting again with Barbara and Maurizio in the hotel's
lobby - they had promised to spend some time with us!
Barbara and Maurizio: GOLDEN
ANGELS
|
|
Maria
Butyrskaya did a very elegant number that I liked a lot, then
it was up to Tatian Totmianina and Maxim Marinin; next on
the list was Alexei Yagudin. I've always liked his style of
skating, and he did a quite nice number - not dramatic and
emotional as his competition programs but surely enjoyable.
|
|
|
The
last silver medallists on the ice were as usual the Dancers:
so it was finally the turn of Marina Anissina and Gwendal
Peizerat!
|
Again, I managed to throw quite efficiently the little stuffed heart I made after failing to find some already-made stuffed animal suiting my taste...
In a moment they were gone, and we had just the golden medals to wait for!!
|
|
I
was not particularly touched by Irina Slutskaya's number, but
I liked a lot Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze's... and
I love their free pr so much this year!!! I have to admit the on tv I had never liked a lot Plushenko's style in the exhibitions... I usually hate particularly silly numbers, but I have to admit that this time I quite enjoyed it - apart from the ABSURD costume he was wearing... Oh my!!! Has he recently been training immersed in such a deep fog that Mishin had to dress him this way to follow him around the rink??? Has a crazy three-years-old designed this thing??? AAAARGH!!! |
Barbara
and Maurizio were next (and last) on the ice (we just couldn't help
but notice how the speaker was adjusting the female skaters' names
to the local language... Barbara has become Mrs. FUSAROVA-POLIOVA...
as if "Poli" was her husband's name... thankfully the above-mentioned
speaker didn't know about Diego's surname!!!)
They
did a wonderful tango number - and look at Barbara's dress: isn't
it stunning??? She looks gorgeous in it, and red looks fantastic
on her... And she made this amazing costume herself!! How many things
can this woman do???
 |
 |
 |
They were out of the ice for a moment, while the speaker said something
we couldn't figure out in Slovakian... but we were staring at the
place were they had disappeared, and we caught a glimpse of a bare-chested
Maurizio putting on a black jacket: we immediately understood what
was going to come as their encore!
|
This
number is really great!
|
And this is it! The show was coming to its end!
We met with some of the others and we got back to the hotel as usual, just to decide after a while that we could go and have something to eat before meeting again with Barbara and Maurizio in the hotel's lobby - they had promised to spend some time with us!