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The Temptations provide music for show, but won't be donning skates
| Source: |
Globe and Mail |
| Date: |
October 11, 2007 |
| Author: |
Beverley Smith |
When legendary Motown group The Temptations strode into the Hershey
Centre for their date with figure skating, one thing became very clear
to them about this novel task.
"It's cold!" one of the members of the quintet said.
The Temptations were in Mississauga to provide live music - along with
a younger group heavily influenced by them, Boyz II Men - for Kurt
Browning's seventh edition of Gotta Skate last night at the frigid
rink.
The Temptations had never met the 41-year-old former world champion
and skating icon before they encountered Browning in a hallway on
Tuesday.
However, the group had provided live music once before for a skating
show in West Virginia about five or six years ago.
The singers couldn't recall the headline skater, but did remember
vividly one of the show's participants: Surya Bonaly, an athletic
black skater from France who always sizzled. "I was like, 'Wow,' " one
of the Tempts said.
"We are always interested in doing different things," said Otis
Williams, the only original member of the band that became The
Temptations in Detroit in 1961.
"And it gives us great television exposure."
Gotta Skate will air on Nov. 11 on NBC and at a date to be announced
on CBC.
"I think when you're in the business as long as they have been, it's
pretty hard to find something they haven't touched," Browning
said.
Williams watches figure skating on television during Olympics. "It's a
graceful sport," he said.
Williams says with a grin that he is 26 years old.
In reality, he will turn 66 on Oct. 30, but he hasn't lost a step -
still precise and energetic doing the group's recognizable dance steps
on stage.
Other members of the current incarnation of The Temptations, whose
lineup has changed several times over the past 40 years, include Ron
Tyson, a tenor/falsetto who joined the group in 1983; secondary lead
Terry Weeks, who has been a Tempt since 1998; bass Joe Herndon, a
four-year veteran of the crew; and powerful vocalist Bruce Williamson,
who joined the group this year.
Although The Temptations are one of the most successful groups in
music history, not everybody in the skating world is familiar with
them.
Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen was born in 1984. Does she know
much about The Temptations?
"Not really," she said. "But I do love old music. I'm a big fan of the
Beatles and Ray Charles."
"Who?" responded several skaters in the crew when told they were going
to skate to music from The Temptations.
Even Browning, who's from a much earlier generation of skaters, says
he had gone through life hearing the group's music and not always
realizing the source.
"They were really good, weren't they?" he said. "Yes they
were."
As an aid, Browning and choreographer Lea Ann Miller came armed to
early rehearsals for Gotta Skate with DVDs of The Temptations'
concerts. And the skaters learned even more after The Temptations took
to the stage for a rehearsal on Tuesday night.
The skaters applauded the musical group after they performed their
first number and clustered about the stage as the group took them
through their on-stage choreography for their hit Get Ready, giving
the skaters exact counts and sequence of moves.
Browning says he's hoping the show comes off as a nice marriage
between what the musicians and the skaters offer.
For his part in this unusual marriage of talents, Williams was asked
if he would like to don a pair of skates.
"Not even," the singer said emphatically.
"I'd be on my backside more than I would be upright."
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