Ice, Ice, OH Baby!

As an early birthday present, my mom took me to see the Celebration on Ice show tonight. As the die-hard, cheesy, skating fan-girls that we are, it was a real treat. Mom was concerned about the seats, but they were perfect - 8 rows up and at the end where the skaters' entered. And a program to end all programs!

Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, and Brian Orser for starters. Still all in fine form (although they jump a little bit less) and Browning in particular - newly bald - retains his title as the Gene Kelly of skating. At this point I have to mention the butts. No really, they are worth mentioning. If anyone ever questions why women love men's skating, the toned butts have to mentioned. Oh, and they're better in person, only 8 rows away, swathed in blue, red and violet lights...

Other performers included Shae-Lyn Bourne-who has gone solo and is now the definition of slinky, some upcoming Canadian talent and our new men's champ - Jeffery Buttle. Buttle is a Sudbury boy, so the hometown crowd was wild for him. Deservedly so. He is on the edge of exceptional. You can see the Tolar Cranston in him. Look out World Championships.

However, the real treat was the inclusion of two duos I had never seen who are doing radically different things with skating. One team was from the Ukraine and have melded acrobatics and figure skating into a cirque de soliel on ice spectacular. They do lifts that are full extensions of one person on the hands of another towering over the ice - incredible! The other pair (a married team) do a rocking combination of pair's skating and death defying tricks - including a rotating spin using a neck harness! You have to see it to believe it!

My last highlight was the wonderful skate by the youngest members of the Sudbury Figure Skating Club. All about 4 years old, two little boys and eight sequined girls skating shaky laps around the rink. It was so heart-warmingly cute that I cried.

And then there were more butts...