Dreams on Ice, the Japanese way.

 

Text and pictures © Natsuka

 

The Dreams on Ice Show was held on 14-16th July in Yokohama, Japan.

 

Luncheon Party

 

Before the show, a Luncheon Party was held at Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel on 14th of July. This party was held by the Ice Crystal Japanese figure skating fan's club, about 300 fans attended this year.

At first the Japanese skaters appeared on the stage - Daisuke Takahashi, Nobunari Oda, Yasuharu Nanri, Kensuke Nakaniwa, Takahiko Kozuka, Tatsuki Machida, Takahito Mura, Hirofumi Torii, Yukari Nakano, Nana Takeda, Rumi Suizu, Satsuki Muramoto and Akiko Suzuki. They talked about the last season and about goals for the new season individually. While a skater talked to the audience the others chatted quietly, all looking like good old friends.

Later the guest skaters appeared and the audience rose to view Stephane Lambiel, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski and Yu-Na Kim, when they came on the stage they were met by the fans cheers and appreciation. Maxim took out his camera and took a picture of the fans. The skaters said some words as greeting to the fans and presented them with their favourite perfumes. They brought Burberry (Stephane Lambiel), Gucci (Xue Shen), Chanel (Hongbo Zhao), Dior (Albena Denkova), Hugo Boss (Maxim Staviski) and Jennifer Lopez's Still (Yu-Na Kim). When Stephane gave his perfume to the man who won his perfume, he sprayed some on the wrist of the man.

The MC asked skaters some questions one at a time. She asked Stephane about his program:

"Your program "Flamenco" is amazing! How did you make it?" "I went to Spain and I made an effort to perform real flamenco" - Stephane answers.
Xue Shen, Hongbo Zhao, where do you intend to go for your honeymoon?" "We have just recently got engaged, we don't plan to get wed yet, so we haven’t decided but surely we will go somewhere in China" - says Hongbo Zhao
“What are your plans?” This question was put to Albena and Maxim. " On these shows we will perform our "Libertango”, because so many fans requested that from us!” – answered Albena.
The MC asked Yu-Na Kim about her favourite Japanese food and Kim answered “Sushi” immediately.

Then all the skaters gathered to the centre of the stage and it was time for the fans to take photographs.

 

The Show

 

The show was held in Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel Skate Center.

In the opening yet again the Japanese skaters appeared first and only after them came the guest skaters to the ice, all the skaters were there and they all made spins.

The first skater was Akiko Suzuki, her performance was really beautiful, and she showed remarkable progress in her skating. Then came Takahiko Kozuka to the ice and performed his new short program. Kensuke Nakaniwa was next and danced a funny mambo.
Fumie Suguri's new program "Chicago" was very unique. When she finished her program she hung her shawl on her shoulder and pointed to the audience, which was very cool.

The second act started with the program of Yasuharu Nanri, he impersonated a Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki. Yukari Nakano performance was so elegant, especially I liked her beautiful spins!
Nobunari Oda became a rock star of the ice; he played airguitar strumming a tune. Yu-Na Kim's performance was cute.
When Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski appeared on the ice the audience cheered louder. Albena had on a nice black dress, their "Libertango" was beautiful and full with passion. The audience and I were so touched. They also performed the whole "Hit the Road Jack" program when the audience asked them to encore their program! It was so exciting! They got standing ovations.

Stephane Lambiel skated to the "Un Giorno per Noi" with a white rose, he described the sad story of "Romeo and Juliet" very beautiful as his expression was great. I was very impressed, and whenever he was close to the audience a big cheer arose. He skated the last part of "Flamenco" as encore, his steps were so powerful and his passionate performance keyed up the audience and of course he got standing ovation again. When he left the ice a little bouquet was thrown to him by Maxim Staviski, who threw yet another bouquet again, Stephane laughed and picked them up and waved them and left the ice.
Xue Shen&Hongbo Zhao performed the "My Way" program and it was like showing their life, they looked at each other and their eyes showed so much happiness.
The last skater of the show was Daisuke Takahashi, he brought his "Bachelorette" program by Bjork and his second skating was "The phantom of the opera", as the audience asked once again for more.

In the finale the skaters performed one by one and then they left the ice, only to come back and put on the sweaters with the Dreams on Ice logo and presented a unique dance.

After the finale of the last show some Japanese skaters (Nobunari Oda, Kensuke Nakaniwa, Yasuharu Nanri, Hirofumi Torii and 2 ladies) appeared on the ice again. They copied a part from Kensuke's program and skated to that all together, which made the audience roar of laughter. The other Japanese skaters then came back to the rink to wave to the audience, and then Jingu Ice Messengers (the Synchronized skating team) started drawing a circle on the ice in the centre of the rink. The skaters joined to them one at a time and they all skated hand in hand and drew a bigger circle, then finished with standing in a line and bow. The audience stood up and gave them lots of applause – End of show.

 

In the report you can see photos only from the Luncheon Party, because it’s strictly prohibited in Japan to take photos at skating events, only agents can take photos.