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Canadian figure-skating legend Kurt Browning lacing them up for 25th Stars on Ice tour
| Source: |
Winnipeg Free Press |
| Date: |
May 12, 2015 |
| Author: |
Laurie Nealin |
Kurt Browning was rocking a mullet when he performed in the first
cross-Canada Stars on Ice tour almost a quarter-century ago. He was
already a three-time world men's figure skating champion (his fourth
win came in 1993), and had female fans screaming, "We love you, Kurt!"
whenever he sashayed into the spotlight. They still do.
The seemingly ageless Browning is in the midst of his 25th consecutive
tour with Stars on Ice, which stops at the MTS Centre Wednesday
night. Over the years, he has performed alongside dozens of other
luminaries of the sport who have come and gone while he has skated
on.
With his 49th birthday just a month away, to say Browning has staying
power would be an understatement.
The "bad hockey hair," as he describes it, may be a distant memory but
the mastery of the blade and intricacies of movement that made
Browning one of the all-time greats have only improved with
age.
By his count, he has performed in some 800 Stars on Ice shows in
Canada and the United States and has 10 more years on the show than
his show-skating mentor Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion who
launched the Stars on Ice concept.
Next in that Stars longevity line are three Canadian Olympic
medallists -- Brian Orser (13 seasons) and current cast members
Joannie Rochette and Jeff Buttle (11 seasons).
Browning was one of the first cast members to tour while still a
competitor in the international arena. The kid from Caroline, Alta.,
spent his first tour alongside Hamilton, Orser and Toller Cranston and
"trying to figure out what happened."
"I came up (the ranks) quite quickly in skating and then all of a
sudden, I'm doing double axels beside my hero Brian Orser. How is this
happening? It was a busy, busy time, an exciting time. Back then, we
were selling out Maple Leaf Gardens two nights in a row -- 15, 16,000
people... we were rock stars on ice."
Browning admits to not remembering every tour after that, but he
believes the 25th-anniversary one will prove to be his most
memorable.
"That's not a cop-out trying to sell this show, but it's because I'm
at that point in my life where I have perspective of my career and
have perspective of my skating, and how much I love it and how much it
has given to me, but I'm also in control of the tour now. I'm the
director, the choreographer and have access to the celebration of 25
years.
"We're also doing something I have wanted to do since about 1995, a
group number to Supertramp. It's a 20-minute-long, story-driven number
with props and costumes that we have very rarely tried to do in past
Stars on Ice."
The first half of the 2015 show is a look back at Stars on Ice history
through the eyes of today's cast.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, 2010 Olympic ice-dance champions, pay
tribute to their Canadian predecessors, Marie-France Dubreuil and
Patrice Lauzon, while three-time world champion Patrick Chan salutes
the men of Stars on Ice.
Chan considered them his "superheroes for skating" as he climbed the
sport's ladder. "They would do all these really cool, intricate
numbers and I said to myself, 'One day I want to do that.'"
The legendary Cranston, who died in January, is recalled by Shawn
Sawyer. Sawyer's avant-garde skating style and artistic flair have
often been compared to that of the iconic showman. When Cranston
retired from performing, he invited Sawyer, then only a pre-teen, to
be part of his tribute show. Video from that gala complements Sawyer's
Stars performance.
Browning chose to tip his hat to Hamilton by recreating, with help
from choreographer Sandra Bezic, a favourite from the American
skater's repertoire set to Sinatra's One for My Baby.
"This is my way of saying thank you to both of them. Scott helped
influence my humour (in show routines) and my footwork and Sandra was
a huge factor in my happiness as a skater and my success as a
skater."
Another blast from the past is a reimagining of one of Browning's most
popular programs from 2006, set to the Commodores' Brick
House.
"It's a boys' number. We're taking some of my old choreography, doing
it as a group and redoing it in a new way."
The show's second half features a quartet with two couples who set the
competitive world on fire this past season -- newly crowned world pair
champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford and world medallist ice
dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje.
The combination of the current generation of competitive skaters plus
his own contributions on the ice has Browning fired up for the Stars
tour.
"The show is everything I've got," Browning says. "I'm going to the
bottom of the barrel with my imagination and my talent as creator and
skater. I'm proud of it. I'm not afraid to say it."
Asked if this 25th anniversary tour will be his last as a performer,
Browning whispers, "I don't know."
EVENT PREVIEW
Investors Group Stars on Ice
Wednesday, May 13, 7 p.m.
MTS Centre
Tickets $33-$133.25 at Ticketmaster
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
WHEN the Stars on Ice anniversary tour ends in Vancouver next week,
Patrick Chan will take a surfing holiday in Costa Rica before buckling
down to train for his return to competition following a year-long
hiatus.
"I'm not a huge (surfing) expert. I'm still learning. It's a very,
very challenging sport, more challenging than skating, I think,
because you're dealing with forces of nature as opposed to a
controlled environment," says the seven-time Canadian men's figure
skating champ.
During last season's break from competition, Chan skated show tours in
Japan and the U.S. where he took the opportunity to go skydiving in
Florida. As it was his first time up and out, he made a tandem jump
strapped to an experienced parachutist. He calls it "a great
experience" and would do it again.
Chan's summer training for the 2015-16 season will begin in Toronto
where he will work with choreographer David Wilson to create a new
short program and retool the long one.
Asked if he is considering a bid for 2018 Olympic gold after settling
for silver last year in Sochi, 24-year-old Chan says, "I'd love to,
but it's a long ways away. I'm older than a lot of the skaters now in
the men's field. Hopefully, my body will hold up. If I do the right
things, I'm sure I will. It would be a great goal to achieve.
"These next three years -- if I choose to go that long -- I want to
treat it as a time where I can skate for the pure joy of it, not
because I want to make records or get medals, make more money by
getting more medals. I found that's putting a lot of pressure on
yourself. It takes the joy out of competing."
Whatever his decision may be on the competition front, Chan wants to
hold onto his tour membership for the foreseeable future. "Once you
become a family member of Stars on Ice, it's hard to leave," he
says.
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