Fanfocus: Katarina Witt – "Enjoy the Stars 2004“

Part II

Text © Victoria Maczionsek (Icyvicky)

Photos © Victoria Maczionsek (Icyvicky)

After the break the “Preluders” were introduced, a girl band from Germany. They performed two songs, but didn’t appeal to everyone, and especially not to my old ladies... The style didn’t fit the show and I was wondering why these girls were even invited. Well, that was my opinion anyway.
Orser, Urmanov and Petrenko skated during the second song and the skating was fun and very entertaining and I especially liked the ending. Hopefully we’ll get to see it on TV.

Then Julia came on the ice again. She wore a very pretty dress and skated to “Dance with me”. I love this song, but again got the feeling that the mostly older audience didn’t appreciate it much. But I enjoyed the program very much and was cheering and screaming for lovely Julia.

After her we got our next unannounced surprise: Stefan Lindemann! Nobody expected him to be there and especially not the older ladies next to me. They seemed very happy about the fact that they got to see him. Yes, Stefan has a certain charm and he skated perfectly to his gala program from Worlds in Dortmund. There was one moment where we almost stopped breathing. Obviously the size of the ice was way smaller than usual and after his toe-loop he ran out of space and nearly crashed into the boards. He saved himself in the last second but we were still shocked. I think this part will be edited before airing the event, so no one else will be able to see it. At the end someone in the audience shouted “Super, Stefan!” and suddenly a very sweet smile came across his face.

He was followed by Violette and Pete and their second number. They did amazing things with a big cube made of steel. I am not sure whether this program is also from last year, but again, they had breathtaking lifts and her flexibility is just amazing. And at the end he took a rope and was tossing her around with it and the audience was on its feet for sure!

The next very innovative program was performed by Alexei Urmanov. He was wearing a cape and skated to the musical “Notre Dame”. Later he took the cape off and looked like the famous Quasimodo from the story we probably all know. And at the very end he took this off too, and was dressed in a black costume. I found that rather cool and overall it was a really nice programs and he still has some great jumps! We were all very impressed.

After him the lovely Yuka Sato skated to one of my favorite songs this year, “Naughty girl” by Beyoncé. I was kind of sad because nobody in the audience joined me in cheering for her. I loved this program; Yuka wore such a pretty costume and her jumps were just perfect! And the way she interpreted the music was very nice, this was one of my highlights of the entire evening!

But the top-highlight was Viktor’s second number! I’m sure everybody knows this music but unfortunately I forgot the title…

After that we got to see another great program from Elena and Andrei. They once again showed us their huge double Axel throw and some very fast pair spins.

Then Steven Cousins came and he was introduced by my nice ladies with the words:” Wow, he is hot!!!!” Nobody can imagine how hard I laughed, but they were absolutely right! He IS hot and very attractive! His performance was very cool and he had some really fast, wonderful spins. He has great charisma and you just have to keep looking at him. And with that nice smile he caught everyone’s eye!

Katarina returned and skated her second number to “Come to my window” and she really convinced me to give her my personal award for “best costumes”. Her sweet smile bedazzled me all the way! She had the most beautiful presentation on the ice and skated so smoothly to the soft guitar music. I am totally in love with her programs and I’m sure I’m not the only one, her movements are so lovely!

The next wonderful number was skated by Kati and René. It was a rock ’n roll medley by Dick Brave. This number was very entertaining and their movements totally fit the music! The audience loved it and everybody felt them connecting with us. I am sure they’ll have a wonderful career as professionals. They can skate to slow and soft or fast and funny music equally astonishing and always blow the audience away!

The finale was just beautiful. The Preluders come back wearing colorful costumes and sang a 70’s and 80’s medley. Three male skaters; Steven, René and Jason were playing around with Katarina and it was so funny to watch! Then the other skaters came out, one by one, and chased each other, played around or just skated crazy. Then all the girls did some steps and other elements and then the men, like they battled against each other. It was great and the audience loved the finale!

Kati Witt gave a nice speech thanking the audience and it seemed to me that she wanted to come again next year! I hope she does, I’d be very happy about it, but I sincerely hope more people will come then.

The show will air on January 2nd at 17.00 on ARD.