Ice entertainers light up Saddledome: Ovations galore for some of skating's best

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For lovers of figure skating, it doesn't get much better than this.

Kurt Browning jumping and clowning, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz moving in near-flawless harmony and Kristi Yamaguchi swirling with exquisite grace.

Throughout the Stars on Ice evening at the Pengrowth Saddledome Saturday, figure-skating lovers were treated to some of the sport's finest practitioners, choreographed for entertainment value and dressed for fun.

Audience shouts of "We love you, Kurt," were repeated with name changes for many of the skaters, and standing ovations became routine after the first three numbers got fans on their feet.

Their years of competing against each other behind them, a dozen former Olympic skaters demonstrated just how dazzling they can be when there are no cold stares from judges, just the cheers and gratitude of thousands of people who know the sport well.

Besides those mentioned above, the show presented Alexei Yagudin, Brian Orser, Isabelle Brasseur, Lloyd Eisler, Todd Eldredge, Jenni Meno, Todd Sand and Lucinda Ruh.

Between frequent costume changes, they skated to a wide variety of music from Christine Aguilera, U2, FatBoy Slim, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Enigma and others.

Only a can-can dance from the movie Moulin Rouge proved too challenging for the women. OK, you try kicking your legs high while wearing skates.

The rest of the numbers were slick and sophisticated, with the theme of romance threading through the entire show.

Moulin Rouge influences kept popping up, and not just in the score. It's as if the film's wide success has inspired a new interest in flashy, colourful, extravagant showmanship -- an exuberant come-and-get vitality that works in an ice show as well as anywhere.

The flash never got in the way of the skating art, however, and there was plenty of room for individual performers to serve up trademark moves. Yagudin gave us his familiar tap-dancing footwork. Browning injected plenty of physical humour. Ruh showed off her spins.

And the muscular, lofty Eisler and diminutive Brasseur gave us the evening's funniest number, a cross-dressing routine that had him in a mini-skirt and her in biker colours and a mustache.