Gala report ;D
With Michelle gone, it was just the three of us : Zee, Nena and I. We met up around 08:30 and headed to the rink to watch the practice. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised because the whole rink was filled with lights of different colors. It was beautiful. We got there about 45 minutes early so we found our seats and got comfortable.
The skaters were divided into 2 groups. In the first group were the skaters who placed fifth, fourth and third I think plus Croatian representative Mirna Libric (she didn't compete). The second group was all the rest.
The first group came out and started warming up, and after that they did their practice, all the while fooling and joking around. Poor Natalie got knocked over twice. First time by Stanislav Morozov, while him and Tatiana were practicing, but they managed to stay up. Still can't figure that out. He is huge lol. The other time I'm not sure who ran into her, but it wasn't pretty. Oh, an amazing thing happened during the warm-up: Morozov actually SMILED! TWICE!! We almost fell off our chairs from shock.
Kevin was in that group too, and he just skated around, like he was in a public rink, just chillin.
Everybody else just tried to avoid each other. lol
After the first group was finished, all the skaters came out on the ice and were being instructed on the choreography for the finale.
During that time, Isa was teaching Stephan how to ice dance. It was a few simple moves, and eventually he got it, and they skated those few moves. It was quite good. And they were rewarded from the people with a big applause.
Meanwhile, Tomas was chatting up Carolina. Was fun to watch.
When they all got instructions, they rehearsed the finale and we got a good laugh, because the choreographer kept telling them different things really fast, so they would get into one position, and even before they managed to stop, she would call them back and give them different instructions. We got a pretty big laugh when they all lined up to take the final bow, and they barely managed to get the line before she called them back again. Very funny.
After that, the second group came on, and did their practice. Maksim didn't show up so Oksana danced by herself with a little help of Tomas. He remembered the ending of their FD, so he helped her get through it. What a great guy!
During the warm-ups Brian and Stephan (maybe I'm not sure, maybe he was just spinning too fast for me to count) managed to pull off very nice quads. Its wonderful seeing them skate with no pressure. The quad Brian did was flawless.
When the practice ended, we went to coffee and lunch, and then came back for the real thing. By the time we got there, there was a lot of people, but still not a full house. Sadly. But the rink looked incredible with all those lights.
At exactly 15:00 the bittersweet moment finally started. It was time for the gala, and the last time we would see them all live for a while.
(hopefully it will not be too long till we can see them skating live again)
First up were Mirna Libric and our imported pairs couple Amy and Michael. Mirna skated ok, and Amy/Michael skated to Don't wanna miss a thing which I thought was a beautiful song to start us off in the gala.
Nathalie/Fabian had a great exhibition playing mummies. They did some great moves and it was great to watch.
Tatiana/Stanislav skated to Total eclipse of the heart and he managed to throw her really high into the spin, and the poor girl didn't manage to land properly, and she fell. But she was ok. (I'm thinking she's used to it by now lol)
Stephan had a beautiful exhibition with a white rose and he impressed the audience with his final spin. Boy that man can spin! He got an almost standing ovation for that.
Brian looked a bit sicklish, all pale, so its no wonder that he fell. But his exhibition was also nice.
Khokhlova/Novitski had a beautiful dance as well. I enjoyed it very much.
Finally, Tomas came on with his up-beat Volare number. Kept the audience clapping the whole way through. He had a small slip, but he didn't fall and was very entertaining.
When Tomas was done, all the other skaters came out, did the finale wonderfully, and then skated around to say goodbye to the audience. And then they were gone.
All in all, this was by far the best week I've had in the recent past, and I will never forget it. The experience of watching all those great skaters live was unbelievable. And it looked so much better than on TV. Even the CD-s were fun. And the company was even better! Love you hons!
I will never forget it!