"Ice gala 2004" Bolzano (Italy)
On Wednesday, December the 29th, there was in Bolzano (a city in the north of Italy) the fifth edition of the "Ice Gala" a great show of figure skating and dance in which a lot of skaters took part. There were Winkler&Lohse, Denkova&Stavisky, Faiella&Scali, Alexander Abt, Carolina Kostner (that is from near there) Dubreuil&Lauzon, Debbie Park, Maria Butyrskaya, Sabovcik, Leonova&Khvalko, Surya Bonaly, Stanick Jeannette.
There was also Evgeni Plushenko, and he was the real star of this evening.
I think it was the first time he skated in Italy. Also last year he was scheduled to partecipate, but he had to withdraw because of his hurting knee, and so this year it was a double joy for me seeing him skate so well.
In the first part of the show he skated last and he presented his new free program, "The Godfather". He had a nice costume: all in black, except some red insert on the back of his hands and under the neck.
He looked very concentrated on skating and he performed all the program skating very clean.
He didn't do any difficult combinations, I think he did a 3-2-2 and a 3-2 but I'm not sure. He did other two jumps (one was an Axel).
He did a circular footwork and the straight-line steps sequence. He skated fast and with a perfect rythm.
He showed some beautiful spinning, in particular two beautiful combination, one in a corner (just in front of me!!!) and another one at the end.
The public loved this performance and he bowed to all the four sides of the rink, so that each side could cry out alternatively.
In the second part of the show he skated to "Sex Bomb", again beautiful skating and a lot of fun.
Just in the beginning he came out with a little flower he gave to an old lady, kissing her hand. He entered into the rink with black leather pants and a red jacket, but he soon started the strip, acting in a very funny way.
He remained with this costume like of all muscles and gold boxers. Then he jumped over two barriers and walked on the stairs between the seats, kissed a girl over there and returned into the rink.
Obviously all the public cheered at him from the beginning to the end.
It was the first time I saw him alive, and it was just amazing.
I liked "The Godfather" more than the "Tribute to Nizijsky", but "St. Petersburg 300" is still my favourite for now. According to all, this was a beautiful night, and the king of the evening it was, of course, Evgeni.
Report by Chiara: