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Browning talks of slowing down
| Source: |
Globe and Mail |
| Date: |
October 9, 2007 |
| Author: |
Beverley Smith |
At age 41, Kurt Browning is talking about slowing down this year.
He said the same thing several years ago, but last season was his
busiest ever. In this, his 13th season as a pro skater, and a father
for the second time, he's finally lightening his load, he says.
For the coming season, he's turned down 20 shows from the Stars On Ice
schedule. He's doing only three television shows, including his own
Gotta Skate - the seventh edition - on Wednesday night in
Mississauga. He also recently played host to Kristi Yamaguchi's recent
show, which will air soon, and a Frosted Pink show in California, to
raise awareness of women facing cancer. Included in the show are
Sharon Osbourne, Peggy Fleming, Olivia Newton-John, Heat, with skaters
Katarina Witt, Nancy Kerrigan, Katya Gordeeva, Oksana Bauil and
others.
After this brief fall fling, he won't skate again until Feb. 1, when
he suits up to become Ross Petty's latest Peter Pan at home in
Toronto. "It's all puns and silliness and clever, with adult humor,''
Browning said between rehearsals for Gotta Skate. It's Peter Pan with
a difference. Wendy has a Valley Girl attitude. The character normally
known as Shadow is referred to as Elvis Stojko, for example. Browning
expects the four-time world champion will laugh about that.
"I haven't figured out what Peter Pan is like,'' Browning said, noting
that his version of Peter Pan will not be wearing green
tights.
The pace will be torrid, however. After 3 ½ weeks of rehearsals, six
days a week, Browning will do 53 shows, eight a week. At least he will
be home to watch his youngest son, Dillon (born Aug. 14) grow up. His
first son, Gabriel, is four years old.
"It's like being a father for the first time, only it's the second
time,'' Browning said. "The baby was in (wife) Sonia's warms and she
said: 'He looks like the first one.' He really looked like Gabe. In
about two days, he started becoming himself. But they're very
similar.
"My mother-in-law said: 'What, you couldn't get creative and do
something different?'''
Browning's reply: "Do you know anyone else who could do that
twice?''
As far as the Gotta Skate show goes, it'll be worth the price of
admission to see Browning do a duet with Shae-Lynn Bourne, who was the
2003 world ice dancing champion with Victor Kraatz. They're
sensational. Perhaps nobody should be surprised that Browning can team
up with an ice dancer. He was the pre-juvenile dance champion in
Alberta in 1978 at age 12, when he skated to music from the Mickey
Mouse Club.
Also performing in Gotta Skate is 2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha
Cohen of the United States, who is taking time off from competition to
do shows and become an actor. She said on Tuesday that she intends to
start training again seriously next June, with an eye to competing at
the Vancouver Olympics. She doesn't have a specific goal, other than
to be there.
"I still love to skate,'' she said. "I still feel that I've got a lot
to learn. It's a process for me and I really enjoy it. I'd love to
come back and see what else I could do.''
It's been healthy for Cohen to be away from the skating scene, and do
other things, she said. "When you take a break from something, you're
refreshed and you want it more and you have that perspective,'' she
said.
Cohen has still been maintaining some of her jumps, but she's also had
to deal with injuries. She still has that incredible stretch, allowing
her to do spins and spirals that few others can attempt. "I definitely
have been skating,'' she said. "But I'm going to have to get in good
shape this year for Stars on Ice. Its' a lot of work and I think I'll
learn a lot.''
In the meantime, Cohen has been working at a career in acting. Last
summer she took acting lessons for six weeks at the American Repertory
Theatre at Harvard, perhaps to expand on that surprising cameo role
she played in Blades of Glory, starring Will Ferrell last
spring.
Of the movie, she said she didn't actually see it in its entirety
until the premiere, which she attended. "I laughed all the way through
it,'' she said on her website, sashacohen.com. "I thought it was
really funny.''
Her part was one of the last ones they filmed, and she said she was
told that she was better than the producers had expected, and if they
had to do it again, they would have asked her to do more.
Other interesting insights on her website: she attended two of the
Anaheim Ducks games in the NHL playoffs last season, and said: "The
fighting didn't bother me. I thought it was very
entertaining.''
She's so busy focusing on her new career that she hasn't been shopping
and is saving money.
When she was at Harvard, she roomed in a dorm and got a chance to
build relationships with other people. "I've not done that before,''
she said.
In the acting class, she had to cry real tears, something that was
difficult for a former skater in a culture that does not want to
reveal vulnerability.
Cohen does indeed play a more complex role than she did in Blades of
Glory, in her latest movie attempt: a soon-to-be-released flick called
Moondance Alexander, directed by former soap star Michael Damian. In
it she plays "the mean girl,'' she says proudly.
The movie was shot in Canada, where she learned to ride horses for the
first time. Also starring is Don Johnson.
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