INTRODUCTION AND PRACTICES

On September 14th, 2002, I had the almost unexpected chance to see Philippe skate in Italy again: he was invited to perform at the opening of a new rink in Lecco, a nice little lakeside town an hour north of Milan. I had already planned to go there because Barbara and Maurizio were skating in the show - but when Babi announced us that Philippe was invited too, it was just clear that I had to get to Lecco.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, but instead of having a nice walk along the lake, my friends and I immediately took the direction of the ice rink! It was quite early, around 6 pm, but we wanted to see if we could watch the practices, after knowing from Barbara that they were supposed to be there at that time (we are pretty used at this - it's a very nice privilege, to be able to watch all the athletes train). Of course I managed to make someone laugh right from the start(and not only my friends... sigh!): as we walked in a group through the entrance of the building, I was happily chatting with a friend, who instantly stopped me pointing on my right: there he was, Philippe, talking to one of the organizers. He turned to look at the crowd coming in (a bit alarmed?), just as I turned and saw him, realized who he was and practically gasped jumping a little backwards... I was not expecting to see him so soon! He smiled but soon went away. I had no time to try to stop him because we faced our first problem: they wouldn't let us in to watch the practices! But soon the Italian skaters started to pass, and they were all stopping with us, expecting us to come in... Babi had even sent Maurizio's parents to look for us, because she waited to see us come in and we were not arriving... in the end we managed to get the permission to sneak in, so even in this new ice rink where we knew nobody we managed to get in for this session not open to the public...*big smile* We had to wait a little to see anyone come on the ice, but I saw Philippe again pretty soon, passing right in front of me, along the side of the rink - he even looked up to see all the people standing there, and he looked straight at me and smiled, probably thinking about my startled reaction before (if he burst out laughing I would have been a little emabarassed)... In the practice they first did the introduction/final together, then singles and couples divided. The singles trained first, and Philippe worked a lot, but I have to figure out why he used music for programs he didn't skate later in the night... ???? for sure I recognized the tune from Mission impossible, but he did not skate that in the show!! Anyway, there's nothing in particular to be reported, he just worked a lot, and then disappeared to get ready for the show. After this we all sat there watching the practice for the ice dancers & pairs (ice dance is stilll our first passion), and then had to leave the arena to get out and have our tickets checked for the show... In fact we just passed through the doors and stopped there, to be the first in line and get back to the good seats we had chosen (it was a little show, so seats weren't numbered and there weren't even a lot of them!).

THE SHOW - PART I: BRAVEHEART (again!)

Finally, around 9.15 pm the show started. Thankfully even here my friend Silvia had managed to get the permisson to stay at the borders and take pics. The skaters took place on one side of the rink, waiting for the presenter to stop speaking. In the dark, like most of my friends, at first noticed a someone in a white suit/black shirt and thought: is it possible? Then we all rememberred that Mauri was skating with this version of the "I will survive" costume, and immediately found "our" skater dresses in all black, as he had done in Courmayeur in January.(Hm - better if Mauri doesn't read this. We know him so well we should recognize him even in the dark... And he's a lot taller than Philippe!) Our Frenchman skated second to last - being in Italy it was Babi and Mauri's turn to be the last number - in both parts of the show. As I said, I still have to figure out why in practice he rehearsed programs he didn't skate in the show... as in January, he did Braveheart & the spanish medley/matador program... Braveheart was very well skated, though in Courmayeur, with the Celts on the ice, the sword, the bagpipe etc it had been more intense. I have never seen a photo of him lifting his kilt as high as he did yesterday - we had a perfect, unobstructed view of the tartan boxers he was wearing (unluckily my friend missed the exact photo. She shoot hers a little too early...). As he did this I looked at my side to see how my mum reacted, and she was laughing like crazy. I would have loved to see him skate something else, but I figure that for these two programs he has to carry too much material, so they are a good pick for a one day only trip to a foreign country.Probably I ddin't appreciate Braveheart enough, because I still remember too well the amazing performance he gave of that in Courmayeur - now I really missed the other men. But he skated very well, I was pleased with that.

Bye Bye till part II

 

Part II: Spanish medley & After the Show