The things the audience missed – a backstage look
at the Antwerp SOI shows
Part I: Thursday
by Mireille
Geurts & Titia
Tolsma & the rest of the "AS Antwerp Crew"
Photos © Absolute Skating
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The skaters and crew arrived in Antwerp
a few days before the shows, and had some hectic days
ahead. Some suffered from jetlag, and all needed to
get used to the surroundings, practice their own programs
in the actual setting and learn and practice the group
numbers together. |
And we had the honor to watch all this again. We already
knew there’s a lot of work putting everything together,
not just the choreography of the programs, but the entire
shows with the costumes, all the equipment, the cast and crew
etc. Still, to see it first hand is mind boggling. And every
time we watched we started to understand it a little bit better.
Going from chaos to show in just a couple of days, is truly
a small miracle!
Many people from Absolute Skating came to Antwerp this weekend,
crew and members alike, and of course the prize winners of
the Game!
But the first day of actual practice, Thursday, was pretty
quiet. The only people present, besides the IMG/Proximus crew
and the people of the ice rink, were us; Titia and Mireille.
In fact, not even the entire cast was there yet; like the
two ice-dance couples from Italia and Russia. Later we’d
find out that one of them wasn’t coming at all. But
let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Like in previous years,
the practice on Thursday was not held at the Antwerp Sportpaleis,
because the ice there was still being prepared.
So we went to an icerink in the near
vicinity of Antwerp. An icerink where it’s really
cold but only right by the ice. There’s no space
for spectators, except if you stand behind the boards.
But a half level up, there’s a nice cafeteria
where you can watch through a huge glass window. It
is pretty comfortable and a lot warmer than downstairs,
and you can sit at a table and order coffee or lunch
and still watch the skaters. It does have a downside
though, you can only see, but not hear.
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When we walked in, we took seats some distance away since
we didn’t want to disturb the skaters, who also had
their breaks, lunch and dressing rooms in or near the cafeteria.
Little did we know that they would run around the entire cafeteria
while warming up, and before we knew it we were surrounded
by skaters jumping, stretching, hopping, running and crawling
around. How was that for a nice start of our Antwerp adventure?
Kevin (van der Perren) was already on the ice, practicing
parts of his solo routine. In the first half hour we were
there, we noticed a clean 4-3, a 3-3-3 combination as well
as a triple Axel. We weren’t the only ones being off
to a good start…
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Katie
& Garreth |
Emanuel |
Ilia |
After the other skaters had warmed up, they came on the ice
too and one by one they all started on their solo numbers.
We figured out what they would skate to, but we also knew
we’d get a music list with the show program, so we didn’t
put all that much energy into trying to recognize the music
or writing everything down. It’s not like we immediately
recognized all the music anyway, so we mainly wrote down our
impressions, some of them could be read in the
live report that was posted on AS the next day.
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As you can read there too, at first we
weren’t really surprised when Margarita Dobriazko
and Povilas Vanagas walked
in. We had already taken photos and all that, when one
of us suddenly remembered: “Hey, aren’t
they supposed to NOT be here?” We actually had
to check the press pack we had with us, and indeed,
they weren’t. This was a nice surprise!
In the early afternoon we learned that Emanuel Sandhu’s
music hadn’t arrived yet, and the technical guy
got orders to play it as soon as it showed up. Unfortunately,
we never noticed this to happen. We also heard the joyous
news that they would have a real Zamboni this year,
yea! Who doesn’t remember the troubles they had
with the thing-that-was-supposed-to-be-an-ice-resurfacing-machine
last year? |
Thursday afternoon was spent putting together the first group
number. At least that’s what we thought… later
it turned out to actually be two; the opening and the first
part of the cast appearance before the break, but really,
at this time we had no clue. All the music pieces had a nice
flow into each other, and the opening was already set to a
mix of music, we couldn’t tell where the opening ended
and the group number started!
In our show review it was explained what these programs looked
like, but you just can’t imagine how many times the
“Citius! Altius! Fortius!” was being played! Luckily
it never got boring. For the skaters it might have, they had
to stand on the ice, waiting for a long time while different
sections were being practiced. And waiting makes one do silly
things... We witnessed some very odd moves (described
in our live report), as all the skaters tended to play
around a bit while waiting. And when you’re waiting
in a line for five other skaters to do their moves, there’s
nothing like having fun with the people around you. At least
it’ll keep you warm. Sometimes we felt really sorry
they wouldn’t be doing this during the show.
It might surprise you how long it takes to make a synchronized
circle out of a line and then go back to a line. And since
this was done a few times in the program, it used up a lot
of time.
After the lunch break (that was already a lot later than lunch
normally is) they continued on the last steps of the opening
and what turned out to be the first part of the cast group
number at the end of the first act.
In between all this, a handsome young man approached us and
asked if we were from Absolute Skating. Wow, was this really
Ruben Blommaert, the cute, shy little boy we saw for the first
time last year? Well, he’d sure changed in a year! He
not only got bigger (because that’s what kids do ;)
) but he also seemed to know how to make contact easily. We
said yes, and he sat down by us. He asked us a few questions
about what we were doing and we chatted a little. We then
talked a bit about where in the Netherlands we all came from
and Titia taught him a lesson in Frisian dialect, then he
had to go.
Glancing back at the ice, we saw some people we hardly recognized.
Because of the severe cold, everyone was putting on more and
more clothes as the day went by. We had to zoom in on Ekaterina
Gordeeva to be 100% sure it was her, after she added a hat.
Vera Vandecaveye (Kevin’s coach) had fetched the coat
he’d left in the car, and Emanuel had added a flashy
pink sweater to the red costume everyone saw in the show.
Luckily, Susanna Pöykiö had just put a yellow coat
over her pink sweater, so at least we wouldn’t get those
two mixed up...
Povilas tried to imitate what Ilia Kulik was doing with the
Riverdance steps; Ilia already did them Russian style. We
have no idea how to explain this to you, but Povilas mimicking
him made Ilia totally crack up. And us too, for that matter.
Margarita came up with pretty original on-the-spot choreography,
as did Emanuel. It’s a good thing those weren’t
used in the show…
After a long day of practice, all the skaters left for the
hotel and so did we. But first Kevin informed us what the
costumes for the opening looked like (the bee ones).
At the hotel we confirmed the schedule for the next day with
the excellent IMG show organizer Ellen Dupont, and asked her
about the surprise arrival of Margarita and Povilas, and the
absence of the two other ice-dance couples. At this point,
they were still both scheduled to arrive the next day. We
spent the rest of the evening getting the report and photos
to you. This was not an easy task, but we’ll spare you
the details.
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Margarita |
Ruben |
Ekaterina |
Susanna |
Go to Part II
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