Candeloro Tour - The Show
in Lausanne, Tuesday October 15th, 2002
(Pass on the images with your mouse to read the comment. Click to enlarge. All photos here © Silvia Palotta)
Click on the links to go directly to the skater you want to read about, or read my whole report below!
Group Introduction - Swiss Guy - Philippe doing Kung Fu - Le Saout/Huet - Urmanov - Besedin/Polishuck - Drobiazko/Vanagas - Kazakova/Dmitriev - Surya - Philippe in the Wild Wild West
The
show started with a group number, as expected - with a speaker introducing
every athlete, everyone doing a nice little piece to a different music,
nice choices, lots of lights, too muck smoke, girls with the flags of
the countries represented by the cast... everything was right - nothing
too special but a good rythm and a fabulous cast. Of course Philippe had
to be the last one to get on the ice... and he surely did it in style!
His eight "Candelorettes" came in dressed in golden cloacks,
pushing in a metal structure - of course we expected Philippe to appear
on it, it's a popular magic trick - both my friends and I tried to guess
where he was hiding, but with little result... the structure really didn't
look like it could hide a man (even if, after all, it must have been like
this), and we even checked all the Candelorettes (under all that golden
fabric anyone could be hiding - you couldn't see their faces!) to see
if one of them had black skates instead of the feminine beige they all
wore but... no! Anyway, of course the pulled up the tents of the structure,
and they came down revealing Philippe standing there, dressed in black
pants (from the Wild Wild West costume), a golden shirt and his hair half
tied back (pretty weird, but when we saw what was the first number he
skated, we guessed it must have been getting half ready for that)... wow,
finally here he is!
He chatted a little to the audience from there, giving his welcome and calling for some applause... and of course the arena responded very well! I am happy to say that I can understand Philippe's French very well - I had trouble later with the clown who came in the breaks, but I captured every word Philippe said! Ok, I can no longer say it's years since I last saw him ( it is the third time this year, and the previous one was only a month ago!), but I was really happy and excited anyway - I mean, I was there COURTESY OF PHILIPPE!!
First on the ice was a young Swiss whose name I can't remember - he must be Junior skater, he looked like 16 or 17 years old. Did a nice number - nothing spectacular but had a very elegant, flowing style that attracted me, even if both technique and choreography were nothing special. Fell only once, right at the end - a pity! He was doing really well. Of course the arena cheered a lot for this athlete from Lausanne!
Next it was time for us to meet ERIC PERISSE - the very good looking comic actor that entertained the audience and introduced the numbers with his jokes. He was more difficult to understand - in the second part of the show I really couldn't get what he was saying, but he was also very funny to watch for how he moved, so it was nicer than I imagined when I first read about him on a review. I actually laughed a lot. This first scene was about him dressed as "Batman" and being dragged away by the security... don't ask me what this was related to - because my knowledge of French didn't tell me that too!
It was already time for PHILIPPE to skate
!!! In this first number he came out dressed as a karate master - all
in 
black
with red borders, with a dragon embroidered on his back, and his hair
tied back in a high little chignon with some left loose under this...
well, this was a bit weird. I found his feet particularly funny - he had
some white and black skate covers to make them look like he had white
socks and black little shoes on... but of course with a pair of skates
on the proportions wer a bit strange, his "ankles" looked funny.
The program was nice - him skating around doing martial arts moves with
the occasional jump in between (but hey, it's a show, not a competition
- jumps are not sooo much important - overall effect and fun 
count
more!). Of course our Philippe had to put in something extra... at first
he pretended he was having troubles with his instruments while using those
sticks united by a bit of chain ( I don't know what's their name, but
they always use them in martial arts movies!) - particularly when trying
to throw them between his legs... Ouch! Then he wanted to teach to the
public - so he got a microphone and got the arena practice with him correct
breathing and all those little shouts they do... But he needed the proper
attire, so he jumped above the little boards and went to a lady a few
places on my left (not sure if I would have wanted him to come to me,
or if I had more fun just watching---- I would have been quite embarassed!!)
untied his shirt and got a piece of fabric from his side, put in on his
forehead and asked the woman to tie it in the back while sitting on her
lap... and also managed to cry for "pain" as if she was pulling
all his hair... ^_^ Some more skating, and the number was already over!
Finally it was something I had never seen before, and it was really funny
- both my friends and I laughed A LOT!. And I can say that it was also
well skated - the guy seems to be in very very good shape.
More pics here:
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His "shoes" are too funny!
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Goofy pose...
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He he... my friend took this exactly when he passed in front of a light... he he he... ^_^
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Concentration
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Some martial arts secret?
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Candeloro Spin..
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Philippe leading the crowd in some breathing exercises, and then chatting a bit...
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^_^ |
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Has he taken lessons? |
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Wow. Good program! |
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It was comic's time again - this time he came in trying to imitate Philippe, coming into the audience to have his leather belt tied around his head like Philippe had done... it is difficult to explain how that was, but he was doing it so well we were laughing like mad!
Next was the turn of a French dance couple I had never seen/heard of before (being a big dance fan this was not a good premise...), NADINE LE SAOUT & EMMANUEL HUET... they did a number with some pretty boring, repetitive percussion music and with some incredibly awful costumes... so orrible I don't even have a photo of them! Okay, maybe my standards in Ice Dancing are a bit high, but they were quite a poor number. At least, they made no evident mistakes, and later on they changed style too (I've never thought percussions were a good base for ANY kind of skating program). The most noticeable feature was that already here Philippe had incorporated his "Candelorettes" in the various numbers - accompanying the skaters for the start of the number and then leaving. This was nice, it gave some kind of continuity to the show, and it was different from all the galas I've seen, which are just a list of numbers without any link. The Candelorettes and the comic actor instead did a brilliant job of making it feel like a whole, single show.
At this point my friend Silvia was really, really happy... ALEXEI URMANOV came on the ice to do his Prince of Egypt program... she swears that skated with a stick is more suggestive.... Well, I've never been a fan of him ( it is more accurate to say that I really hated his skating, not to mention his costumes) but seen live I admit it was good - he has a very clean, elegant style. The costume was horrid, too much flesh colored fabric (on a man? hm... bad idea) and an ornament on his chest that looked of the wrong proportions... hm... that was really bad, almost ridiculous. He must have been in a good mood, though - several times when he passed in front of my friend (and her big camera pointed at him) he made funny faces in our direction!
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He's serious
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A little less
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Look closely at his face... ^_^ He's showing his tongue to the camera! |
VLADIMIR BESEDIN & ALEXEI POLISHUCK the acrobats skated next, doing a funny number where Besedin (the big one) was dressed as a Russian wife (with a floral dress and a wig with two blond plaits sticking out) while Polishuck (the cute smaller one) was his/her drunk husband, accessorized with his big black mustaches and a giant bottle of vodka. The music was quite sad, and the whole number was melancholic... but really, really funny at the same time. They were doing lots of things incredibly slowly (very difficult!) - and were absolutely great. I generally don't like numbers were people don't really skate, but they are just fantastic. Polishuck looked like a doll in the hands of giant Besedin... it was a very good number!
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Dance again, this time with MARGARITA DROBIAZKO & POVILAS VANAGAS. Again, I can't say I was ecstatic - but at least this time they were higher ranked dancers than the previous ones - even though I can think of lots of lower ranked dancers I would have preferred to see instead of them, but that's just my personal feeling about /against them. The costumes where sad and the music, even if at the beginning was not too boring, changed soon in something very slow (they doing nice music? not in this life! I am still trying to remove from my memory the terrible one they had last season for the free...yuk). She has put on quite some weight - she has always been looking quite masculine to me with those large shoulders, but now her thighs were way too big. Poor Povilas who had to lift her. After a while, the music changed back with violence to being fast - and the passage was harsh, unpleasant. They made mistakes (pretty evident in some twizzles), but got a good reaction from the audience.
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The
Candelorettes came on the ice dressed in neon costumes, moving like 
little
mechanical dolls; they were introducing the pair of OKSANA
KAZAKOVA & ARTUR DMITRIEV, who were skating a number where she
played the part of a puppet and he was the puppet master... Nice idea, neon
costumes like Philippe's girls and lots of amazing passages. They began
with him holding a stick with two ropes on the sides, which she was holding
to.Then she set herself free of the ties and they skated a more classic
pairs program. They are technically fantastic, a real pleasure to see. Unfortunately
the music could have been a bit less repetitive, and I didn't get a lot
of emotion from their interpretation ( even if I was lost in admiration
for their ability). Even a little change of dress for her - looked more
sexy! The thing that absolutely was stuck in my mind was the ending - when
he got back to the stick he used at the beginning but held it from the ropes,
and she sat on the stick using it as a swing... I had never seen anything
like that before, it was truly amazing!
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Next on the ice I was happy to see SURYA BONALY, one of the very few ladies I've actually cheered for as a skating fan... basically my first love in skating, right next to Philippe. Then came my Ice Dancing days, but that's another story. She was wearing something that looked a lot like the costume she wore for the short program at Euros 98 in Milan (the only time I ever saw her live before this show)... Well, actually the photo here is from the intro and the costume I'm talking about is not this one - I haven't a pic of it but I had no space for this pic before, so I put it as a commentary even if it is not really the right one! She skated beautifully, with a lot more grace that when she was competing. She was definitely more feminine, I really liked her performance. Great jumps as usual - she's always been good at this, and with the added elegance and maturity she gained in the years she was a very pleasant surprise - I loved her! |
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The leading man was already on the ice again!! If at the beginning of the show he had been visiting the mysterious orient, now PHILIPPE moved to the Wild Wild West!! From the darkness a spotlight opened on the famous "Candel City" saloon door, and Philippe dressed all in black. He did the first part of the program as I had seen before on tape, but when he changed to the white outfit gradually things started looking different... A bare chested Philippe had a lot of fun with the audience, embarassing to death a girl whom he asked twice for a slap on his.. yup, rear? He danced around with the Candelorettes, looking really happy and relaxed - this man was born to do shows! The whole arena was clapping their hands enthusiastically to the rythm of the song... as soon as he started offering his most famous numbers (like the little jumps or the Candeloro Spin) the public went crazy! I was having lots of fun, and was almost a bit sad when he got to an ending pose! This program also marked the end of the first half of the show - Philippe got a microphone to tell this to the audience, also thanking his "Candelorettes" for their work... he was really nice. As he guided them out of the rink tried to spank them with his hat, and then said bye to the audience with a great backflip!
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It's the first time I see this number live... |
He's already coming towards the audience... |
Lucky girl...
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Coming out of his own door... a pity that light was there, obscuring Philippe with its silhouette
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Philippe dancing with his Candelorettes...
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^_^
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his famous jumps...
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focus on his butt, part two...
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W - O - W ! I love this photo.
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Looking happy and relaxed
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Nice dancing Philippe...
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what a showman!
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In this pic I can see the places my friends and I had been sitting in during Europeans in January... a little above Philippe's hat!
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Chatting to the crowd, announcing the break... |
the
Candelorette looks like she know what he will do with that hat...
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