Three-time U.S. champion skating duo join Stars on Ice

There is something about figure skating that seems to please any eye.

Perhaps it is the combination of athletic prowess that rivals any sports feat combined with an aesthetic experience that competes with the grace of ballet.

No one demonstrates that better than one photogenic pair who have just joined the current edition of the Smucker's Stars on Ice production Friday night at Savvis Center. They are John Zimmerman and Kyoko Ina, three-time U.S. Skating pair champions.

Their origins are a study in contrasts. Zimmerman's skating experience goes back to age 4, when he started tagging along with his sisters to a small rink in Montgomery, Ala. Ina is a Tokyo-born New Yorker who was both a daughter and a granddaughter of athletes in competition.

Ina decided to switch over to pairs when she was 18. "There was a lot more challenge, but it is a challenge that you can predict," she says.

In some ways, choosing and sticking with a skating partner seems to be as complicated as getting married. Ina linked up with Zimmerman after coming to a parting of the ways with her old partner over their goals.

"At the time, (Zimmerman) was in Los Angeles. I had heard he was looking for a partner - skating is a pretty small world," she said. "Basically, our coaches arranged a tryout."

How do you settle on a partner? Zimmerman says that while there are many factors, three are crucial.

"No. 1 is compatibility, personally and artistically. No. 2 is how well they work with a coach," he said. The final factor is especially important - a shared set of ambitions. "One (partner) may want to go to the Olympics, the other may just want to compete for fun. At the beginning (you need to identify) what are the goals of each person."

One of the reasons the the partnership clicked is that their goals were the same: "Kyoko and I wanted to go to the Olympics as a team. We both had the desire to make the games and we had four years to make it happen," Zimmerman said. "Assessing our abilities (at the time they met), we had a lot of work to do."

Zimmerman remembers their Olympic competition enthusiastically: "That was the best (performance) we had at any competition."

There are downsides and disappointments as well, most notably their first trip to the national championships. "We were the favorites, but we had a disastrous routine. Fortunately we ended up second," he recalled. The pair sets up a skating routine by starting with the elements - the jumps and moves that the skaters are at ease with and which make a good audience impression. Then "you've got the choreography, (finally) you pick the music to complement your style and complement the elements," he said. Though new to touring, Ina and Zimmerman are enthusiastic about the experience.

"This is our first year on tour," he said. "I think we are pulling a lot of weight - but everyone pulls a lot of weight ... there is a sense of bonding with everybody."

Other skaters scheduled to appear in the show:

Olympic gold medalist Alexei Yagudin

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Katarina Witt

Four-time world champion Kurt Browning

The co-gold medalists in pairs in last year's Salt Lake City Olympics, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze (Russia), and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier (Canada)

World champion and six-time U.S. national champion Todd Eldredge

World medalists Jenni Meno and Todd Sand

Because of injuries, Olympic champion Tara Lipinski and eight-time British national champion Steven Cousins will not be on this stop, part of the troupe's 61-city U.S. tour. This year, a portion of ticket sales will be donated to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Smucker's Stars on Ice

What: A program featuring champion figure skaters

Where: Savvis Center, 1401 Clark Avenue

When: 7:30 p.m Friday

How much: $35-$58