The Art on Ice exhibition took place in Zürich, Switzerland from January 24 -26, 2002. Evgeni
took this opportunity to show for the first time his new free skate to the music of "Carmen"
and
practice it before the Olympics in front of an sold out audience.
I have just seen one show in a tv broadcast and I'm not an expert in describing figure skating
programs but I try my best. This performance of Carmen was very powerful and he did the
jumps with great ease, one quad Toe and 7 triples, it looks like he is recovered from his
injuries but he did not the Biellman spin.
(I noticed that he rarely shows the Biellman
spin at exhibitions)
I would describe the program as very classical, expressive and artistic, it is very different
from the Cirque de Soleil program, he can interpret the classical music very good like at Bolero and the audience just loved it!
He wore two different Carmen costumes on that events, we will see at the Olympics for wich one
he decides to wear. At the TV broadcast he wore the black costume and that suits him and to
the program very well. I really liked his hairstyle, his hair was brushed back like on the
left photo, it looked very elegant!
The Program: (I'm sorry that I can't describe it in detail) He did 3 Toeloop, 4 Toeloop
with great ease, 3 Axel, 3Axel, 3 Flip, some very nice smooth dancing moves, 3 Lutz, 3 Loop,
both jumps perfectly placed to the music, spin combo, 3 Salchow, great fast
straigt line footwork, at the end of the footwork, camel spin-another sit spin very
fast, scratch spin and the end.
The moderator of the show (Daniel Weiss) shouted: "What you just saw, that was
INCREDIBLE!!!" It really was, he skated very fast and with very smooth movements, he
can win with this program the Olympics and it fits better to him than Cirque de Soleil.
Evgeni got an standing ovation from that huge audience! I'm sure he can show us an
even better performance at the Olympics!!
At his second performance he skated to live music from Gloria Gaynor to "I will
survive" He had a very nice white lace shirt on and he skated to this music, it was
gorgeous! With great speed like the music was. First he picked up a rose from the
ice and skated with it for a while, 3 Toeloop and then gave the rose to Gloria. He
danced a lot in that number and it looked like as he improvised it and not like
an choreography. Then a high 3 Axel
and the MJ short program circular footwork, great as always, 2 Axel and the MJ sp
straight line footwork, spin combo very fast, Biellman spiral. He had
a lot of fun skating to live music, and it was great to see that different program from him.
Photos copyright © Fotograf Harry Hangartner, Zürich
