Courmayeur, August 12th, 2002
I had been missing seeing figure skating quite a lot this summer, so I just couldn't wait to get to Courmayeur when the time finally came for the gala we had planned to see for months. Okay, we had seen Baby and Mauri skate just a few weeks ago in Piazzatorre with Rakhamo/Kokko, but seeing them in a show was a whole other thing! We were extremely lucky that the weather had finally turned good again, because we dreaded spending a whole day freezing both inside and outside the ice rink... Instead we found a beautiful sunshine all the way till Courmayeur, and a wonderful temperature as soon as we stepped out of our cars! The first thing we did as soon as we got to our destination was to run to the ice rink, where we immediately arranged to hang all our banners, old and new... I had brought a big (sinlge bed sheet) drawing of the same pose I had used on the second welcome page of the official website, Melly and Manu had a BIG one with "Baby and Mauri, your bronze is platinum for us" written on which we hung WAY high on a little terrace above the rink, plus Silvia had all hers. Basically we then spent a nice day at the mountains, waiting for the skaters to arrive and the show to start - and very important Silvia and I got to choose when we are foing to see the Candeloro show this fall. It was only when we were coming back to the ice rink in the afternoon, after a nice walk in town, that we heard a car behind us going be-be-beeep! and generally our first reaction would have been to yell something at the annoying driver, but of course we just smiled and went towards the car to say hello - it was Mauri calling our attention. (Lidia had foretold that: as soon as we started walking back to the rink she announced: "now that we go back, they will arrive" - exactly what happened). We went to welcome them immediately, but then waited for them to get into the building to collect all the things we had prepared for the show, in particular the pillow I had made with a funny photo collage that I can describe just as " a comment on Skategate", but I won't post the real picture here - those who were there know what that was and know the spirit it was born with, for the others... this is our little private joke, sorry! We went immediately in because we had the permission to stay and watch their practices, so we could enjoy some more skating fom Baby and Mauri... they had a good, long session, worked really hard (so we definitely enjoyed ourselved) to check the last details for the evening...
We had some troubles with the seats, because even if we had "reserved" some of them for us, some very rude spectators insisted in throwing our (and other people's) things away to get those places ( mind: the arena was not empty at the time, so they had perfectly the chance to sit nearby, but they were to rude and egocentric to do that). Anyway, we didn't let this spoil the evening for us: we had a lot of fun, watched all the numbers and made LOTS of noise for the skaters we preferred - a.k.a we just went crazy for Baby and Mauri screaming and jumping up, plus we did a lot of cheering for the other dancers too! "coincidentally" this meant annoying a lot those rude spectators...whooooops! *_* revenge!
Baby and Mauri closed the first half of the show with their famous "I will survive" free dance, showing unexpectedly the version of the costumes that we have so far seen only in the practice session at the Sparkassen Cup - which was good because I have always remembered it, I find Barbara's dress lovely and Mauri's rendition of Tony Manero very amusing. They did not skate a perfect program (been on holiday, anyone?), but it was still very entertaining and gave us so many emotions... I hadn't been able to watch it anymore since the Olympics, and I confess still not breathing properly in the diagonal sequence, but it was really a good show and I remembered the comment Baby made on this program for the website, that she loves it because she can stop thinking about the technique and just gets carried away by this nusic, she can just Dance... wonderful! The public appreciated, and this was the first encore called for the night! The only one in the first part of the show!
In the second half of the show Barbara and Maurizio unveiled to the public (we had seen that in practice with the costumes at Piazzatorre, but we're the only one crazy enough to climb till there just to see them train!) their new exhibition number to the music of "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" - which is absulutely gorgeous. The music is fantastic, a much better version that the one used by many skaters; the costumes are wonderful, and combine corgeously with their skin and hair colours; the passages, the steps are marvelous, very suggestive: it is a very very good piece. As a little treat, the encore was not a repetition of part of the number, but it was the first part of their 1999/2000 free dance, "Lord of the Dance" - surprisingly the costumes worked to perfection with that program too!! Just a pity that probably most of the public didn't appreciate to its full extent this extraordinary performance - we had been asking for ages to them to dance to that piece again, to make us happy... ^_^ In fact when they had rehearsed that in the afternoon Baby had turned to us and said "Now don't tell me I don't love you" because having the music played... thank you for this present, we loved it!
On ice pics by Betty & Cri Ceretti.
After the "Lord" encore, as decided, we threw (actually, Silvia did that because she was at the border taking pic - we were blocked by the crowd) the famous pillow on the ice, but even if she had been told about it, Baby forgot to check it - it had landed upside down, so the pic was not on clear view; it was funny because we wanted to see her face when she saw the picture, so we kept pointing at her trying to signal "turn it and have a look" but we were not that successful because Baby started looking around to see what she had missed on the ice... in the end we surrendered, and saw that she turned it only when back in the tunnel - and all we could see of her was her back!
After coming back in for the finale she got hold of the microphone and to say her thank yous - of course we were instantly moved when she gave a special thank you to us (even if we always laugh at being defined "the fan club" because it is the simplest way to point at us, but we are not an organization...), even mentioning our banners - by coincidence I was taking back mine from where it was hanging exactly in that moment. By the time Marianna and I got back to our places Baby and Mauri had dashed out of the ice and back again, bringin the pillow with them - Baby did a funny happy dance with it in front of us, clearly showing her appreciation ^_^.
After the end of the show we immediately went downstairs to wait for them at the dressing rooms, but as usual we let the occasional fans go before us - we were sure of being able to chat with them, so preferred letting the crowd get their photos, autographs and leave. I managed to sneak in before both of them got in the changing rooms, to deliver my usual packet of home made cookies (now I get introduced as "the one who makes cookies"... Baby did that in Piazzatorre when talking with another coach... good or bad?)... Mauri weighed them appreciatively in one hand, while Baby looked at me and exclaimed "Cookies? Good!! I'll eat them!! Then if Mauri gets a backache trying to lift me..." ^_^ p.s. men's and ladies' changing rooms were far away, so he was not next to her to hear... I would have loved to hear his comment!). While they changed back in their clothes, we started taking pics of the pillow (I would have never imagined it would be such a success), chatting - I even got to chat with the hungarian manager or whatever he is of Baby and Mauri, talking about the pillow, and from it on to Skategate, etc... Then of course came our turn to chat with them, taking pics and enjoying a nice relaxed moment together, still in the exciting athmosphere after a good night of skating...
these are my few pics from those moments:
since in the first two pics we are all smiling I gave a little homage to Melly and Manu's banner (see the first paragraph) and changed the color of their medal and added a little writing, placing it over the real photo on the pillow...
in the next two pics their poses and expressions are not suitable to this improvised new image, so... imagine what you want (or e-mail me to ask!) - I'll leave a big question mark!
A pity I didn't manage to take a solo pic of both, but doens't she look lovely here?
Now, since for once I came out as a human being in a couple of photos, I just cut out the part regarding THE pillow, and this is what remains... we are all having fun, aren't we?
Too soon it was time to come home (we were asked to keep them company at their late dinner, but it was half past midnight and Melly had to leave for her holidays in a few hours... it was really, really time to go back home! We said goodbye to everyone, sure that in a few weeks' time we'll be all back together in Milan!