Berliner Ice-Flip 2000

For me and my wife Anke it was the first visit of a skating show, and it was a great experience. In the first place I was concentrated in enjoying the beauty of the sport, so please be lenient, that I can’t remember every skater’s successful jumps. In any case there were no falls.

The show started at 7:30 p.m., and we were there at 6:45 p.m. Our seats were on the first rank in the third row, not directly on the ice rink, but you could see well from every place. About two thirds of the seats were full, but the reason wasn’t the lack of interest of the Berliners, but the high ticket prices. The atmosphere was great, though.
Until about 7:15 p.m. some young talents from the sport club "Berliner TSC" were on the ice, showing their skills. They already got nice applause.
The show started with the greeting and introduction of the "guests" (sponsors and politicians) and the obligatory "thank-you" to them (of course they want to organize another "Ice-Flip" again next year).
The moderator didn’t introduce himself, so I can’t say, who it was.
The whole time a red "Skoda" (a German car type, one of the sponsors) stood on the edge of the rink. The car didn’t seem to disturb the skaters, but I found it very cumbersome.
In the first part of the show some of the skaters were accompanied by the "Berlin Starlight Orchestra".

The first skater was Elena Liashenko from the Ukraine, who skated to "Hijo de la Luna". She showed a nice program without big highlights, but she’s still very young, so I think we’ll hear more from her.
Dorota Zagorska & Marius Siudek from Poland skated to the song "I want to spend my life with you". They showed a successful throw triple toeloop and their well-known lifts with several changes of positions.
Dmitri Dmitrenko from the Ukraine skated to classical, somewhat heavy piano music.
The first highlight of the evening were Kati Winkler & Rene Lohse from Berlin, who were greeted by frenetic applause from the crowd. Their program started with a slow romantic ballad and ended with a hot Rock’n’Roll. In my opinion they have very improved since last year and can really keep up with the World class.
Radka Kovarikova & Rene Novotny from the Czech Republic inspired the audience with complicated lifts and a gorgeous throw triple toeloop to "Eternal Grace".
Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko from the Ukraine danced to "Cabaret" (he with hat and stick).
Petr Barna from Czech Republic skated to classical music and showed a triple toeloop and an axel (didn’t realize, if it was a double or a triple).
At that time should have been coming Tanja Szewczenko, but this part of the show was passed over with silence.

For us (beside Mandy and Ingo) the highlight of the evening were definitively Oksana Kazakova & Artur Dmitriev. At first they skated to Frank Sinatra’s "Fly me to the Moon". It was absolutely fantastic to see this program live and these wonderful skaters in person. They are really a class of their own. At the beginning of their program they showed a gorgeous throw triple toeloop, and then lots of their typical trademark moves. Their programs always work as of a piece, not a simple stringing together of different elements. The audience was enthusiastic and they’ve got the loudest applause of the evening.

Susanna Rahkamo & Petri Kokko skated (just like Romanova & Yaroshenko) to "Cabaret. Their costumes were unusual as always and she had bright red hair. They are able like hardly another dance pair to tell stories on the ice.
Denise Biellmann skated to operatic music and showed two triple jumps (toeloop and flip?, don’t know exactly). Of course she also showed the "Biellmann-spin".

Next to skate were Mandy Wötzel & Ingo Steuer. Their first number was "Revolution". The costumes look really great, they sparkle and gleam. Highlights were the lift, where he holds her with one hand in a vertical position (don’t know how to describe it, but I think, you all know which lift I mean) as well as the "headbanger". The throw double axel was gorgeous as well.

Alexei Yagudin from Russia skated to a song like "For you" or so, and he showed the most difficult program of all men this evening (of course, he’s the world champion). He showed triple loop, triple toeloop and an axel, I don’t know if it was a double or a triple.
The conclusion of the first part were Maya Usova & Evgeny Platov with their wonderful "Moonlight Sonata" program. They wore white costumes and danced romantically and impressive.

At next there was a break because of the renewal of the ice.

Denise Biellmann had the thankless job to skate at first after the break, since the "guests" at the seats in the first rows of the grandstand weren’t back at this time, although the moderator several times had asked to come back. They came back only when already Peggy Schwartz & Mirko Müller were skating. Denise Biellmann skated to "Mambo No. 5".
Peggy & Mirko showed a very beautiful, slow program with a superb successful throw triple salchow and side-by-side double axel, successful by Peggy, a little stumbled by Mirko.
All the following skaters skated to music by Richard Clayderman, who played live on the piano (also with orchestra, although there were no orchestra to see, so I doubt that it was really live, but who cares). Some of the melodies were well-known, but I can’t say the titles of the songs.
Once again we saw Romanova & Yaroshenko, Petr Barna (triple salcho, triple toeloop, double loop, triple (?) axel), Zagorska & Siudek (throw triple salchow) and Elena Liashenko ( double flip, double axel, triple salchow).
Kati Winkler & Rene Lohse skated impressively to a Tango and received a great reaction by the crowd.
Then we had another break of the event, when Roland Kaiser, a German pop (?) singer, had his entrance, then followed Dmitri Dmitrenko, Kovarikova & Novotny and Rahkamo & Kokko.
The music of Alexei Yagudin was very well-known, but I really can’t say, what it was. He showed triple toeloop and triple loop.
At that time the moderator said that Tanja Szewczenko had to withdraw due to the flu. I’ve already read this in the morning newspaper, but it wasn’t a surprise for anybody.

The next highlight: the second performance of Oksana & Artur skating to classical romantic music with superb high throw triple salchow (received big "Wow"s from the crowd). Their program was a bit similar to last year’s "Sad Waltz", they showed beautiful lifts and their trademark flexible moves. The choreography of the routine was very polished and mature. Both seemed relaxed and enjoyed to be here. The applause was even louder than after their first program, they were definitively the favorites of the audience.

Maya Usova & Evgeny Platov showed another beautifully choreographed and polished program. The break-up with their former partners was really good for them, their programs are really very harmonic and mature.

Last to skate were Mandy & Ingo. They skated to a Richard-Clayderman-ballad, a very beautiful, romantic program, again with a first-class throw double axel, wonderful lifts and death-spirals. They wore the costumes from their world championships long program. It was really a great experience to see them live. She’s really very tiny, as well as Oksana Kazakova, and it’s really impressive, what the women achieve when they are throwed several metres or when they are floating in the air during the lifts.

In the great final all skaters were again on the ice and got electric sparklers, and they all skated together several rounds for saying good-bye. While the skaters leaved the ice, Oksana and Artur tried again a half throw salchow and then Artur took Maya Usova’s hand and together they tried a few dance step sequences. It was really funny.

That was the end of a gorgeous show, which we enjoyed a lot. Everybody, who ever will get the chance to visit such an event, should use this chance, it’s really unique.