Swinging with SKY
Text © Mireille Geurts & Deedee
Photos © Joy
The first theme after the break was “Creepy”. There were coffins on the ice, and RIP on head stones. To the music of the ‘Adams Family’ we saw Wendy again, accompanied by entertaining skater and coach at Sky; Thomas Hopman (a former Dutch champion) surrounded by many scary Adams Family members. Towards the end, the music phases over to "Thriller". The zombies were already lying on their backs on the ice, pulling a Maria Petrova, as Dee jokingly said. Luckily, unlike Maria, they crawled around and did get up again on their own and started skating. After a while a truck made its way onto the ice, providing transportation for some armed skaters dressed in silver, also knows as the "GHOSTBUSTERS"! Within minutes the ice was swept clean, they did a good job.
‘Gangsters & Detectives’
was the name of the next theme and it started with Karen skating
to"‘Mission Impossible". She portrayed a burglar,
climbing out a window and sneaking around. With her spunky
steps she managed it very well, but her character didn’t,
she died at the end. Maybe Karen got a bit too much into her
role, getting so upset by her own death that she forgot to
thank the audience? ;)
The Blues Brothers convinced us that everybody needs somebody
and some convicts then tried to flee off the ice in a very
cool BMW. Of course they got caught, by James Bond (Kennes,
Thomas Kennes) no less, coming out of the trunk of the car.
After his hard work he got to relax a bit with his Bond girls.
It was very cute how he did a kind of lift-move with each
girl.
The ‘Pink Panther’ music played in the icerink
and this time there was no Navka & Kostomarov around,
but Inspector Clouseau and some girls with candy floss on
their heads. Inspector Clouseau later transformed into a very
charming Wendy.
Next stop; “Comedy” on ice. SKY’s
solist Brenda van Roy skated to music from"‘the
Mask", accompanied by some multi colored dressed girls.
To music from Austin Powers (will ignore the Navka & Kostomarov
pun this time) they tried to make us believe that Sky skater
Brigitte Linssen was a man, Austin of course. We were not
fooled, but it was very nice try, well performed, a fun program!
Austin, surrounded by his many babes was very much into the
groove spinning on his/her butt in the center of a circle
formed by the babes. Then the fun was over as a bunch of nuns
came on the ice. Or maybe not? Of course not, they were Whoopi’s
nuns, reminding us why "Sister Act" was such a fun
movie. The nun outfits didn’t last long and soon got
swapped for black and gold dresses.
It was also a lot of fun to see the volunteers dancing to
the music backstage
Make way for the “Action Heros”
on the ice! Jamie portrayed catwoman, and again displayed
her bold skating style, even managing to make a fall look
like part of the program by crawling up like a cat. To music
of "‘the Mask of Zorro", we again met Thomas
and Lucas Kennes. At one point Thomas threw his hat off the
ice and we were very happy he looked first, to narrowly prevent
a collision with our heads. Thank you, Thomas! Oh, and while
we’re at it, nice triple toe! Spiderman in the form
of Wim took the ice, showing us some wonderful spins. Returning
to puns, in Dutch the word "spin" means spider…
Compliments to Wim for managing these programs on such short
notice.
For the last theme; “Dance Movies”, "A chorus line" could not be excluded. Complete with the tap dance outfits, hats and canes. To the music of ‘Footloose’ the guest skaters, the SKY solists and trainers showed their fun one more time. They practiced some moves together and although it wasn’t really synchronized it looks pretty nice and most of them seemed to enjoy it. It was great dancing music, and that showed. Ending this last theme were some Moulin rouge dancers/skaters with feather outfits.
Our attention was drawn to the screen once again. SKY organized
this gala for 5 years already and every year a DVD was produced.
So they treated us to some of the old images of past years.
It was funny to see all the skaters we’d just seen,
but then a lot younger (since they are kids the difference
seemed even bigger!). We also got to see a very young Kyra
(Vancrayelynghe) and Kevin, of course. It ended with some
backstage fluff about this year’s show. Very nice!
And then we had arrived at the finale: ‘There is no business like showbusiness’. The ice became a mess again with all the skaters passing by to say bye…
We hope we’ve managed to visualize the show for you. In the Netherlands there are a few shows of this kind. What we specifically liked about this one was the individual spotlight on each skater, even though they were skating in groups. Also, there was a very distinct theme of the show, and they stuck to it, something you really have to do when there are so many performances and skaters. That also goes for the choreography. Although many programs had many skaters doing the same moves, like skating in a circle, they always managed to find a surprising version of it to keep it interesting. Impressive!
The costumes deserve a special mention; they all looked very pretty and well made. Some dedicated volunteers must have put in endless hours there!
This gala is one of the biggest skating productions in the Netherlands and involves many participants. It lasts over 2 hours, not counting the break. But it’s definitely worth the time. So if you are in the area of Tilburg next year, and in the mood for a fun afternoon, a visit is highly recommended!
