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Kurt Browning to choreograph Stars on Ice
| Source: |
thestar.com |
| Date: |
April 18, 2012 |
| Author: |
Laura Stone |
These days, Kurt Browning is in charge. And that means he can tell
Kurt Browning to get off the ice.
After 21 seasons as a performer, Browning is taking the professional
leap - a quad, if you will - as the choreographer of this year's Stars
on Ice.
His first order of business: take himself out of the show's all-male
number.
"So it could be more handsome," said Browning who, shaved bald at 45,
still betrays a boyish charm as he bites into strawberry chocolate
crepes at a north Toronto restaurant.
"We've got four amazing skaters. They're all really tall, and they all
have hair, and they're gorgeous. So I'm like, I'm out of it."
Out but not gone - Browning will still perform two solos as well as
group numbers in the show, which begins its cross-Canada tour on April
27 in Halifax. It arrives in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre on May
4.
But the man who estimates he's performed in some 800 Stars on Ice
shows admits he's getting on, so much so that he plays a character
dubbed "The Old Man" in one of the production's group numbers which
was inspired by the 2009 Disney-Pixar movie Up.
It's all part of the reason Browning asked for the gig in the first
place.
"This is my workplace. Stars on Ice is my bread and butter and it's
also a bit of my identity as a professional skater," he said.
"Now it's my turn to take the responsibility of keeping it healthy,
and keeping it strong."
The first step to creating a show is to start with something that you
want to say. And for Browning, it stems from the title.
In coordination with co-director Jef Billings, Browning came up with
"Love n' Life."
"If you say it fast, it's loving life," he said.
Each of the 12 skaters - which include Olympic bronze medallist
Joannie Rochette, two-time national champion Cynthia Phaneuf, and
Olympic gold medallists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (one of the
"handsome" skaters in the all-male number) - perform their own solos
or in pairs, as well as in the choreographed group numbers. (The
individual skaters design their own solo routines.)
It's up to Browning to piece it all together under the theme of love
and life, in what he calls an "icy Rubik's Cube."
"I want the show to feel like a cohesive thing. ... We have
individuals bringing their part to the puzzle. My job is to see how to
fit it in," he said.
That might mean a quick costume fix, or a complete overhaul of the
music, as Browning was asked to do recently by a long-time
producer. He chose "Baby Please Don't Go" by Van Morrison and was on
his way from lunch to the nearby Granite Club to rehearse with little
more than a week to go before the tour.
The father of two - and four-time Canadian and world champion - also
admits his knees hurt, his back is tight and "I don't jump as high as
I used to." These things are relative, of course.
But he also didn't expect to be skating this long, and through
choreography, Browning still feels connected to the sport he
loves.
"It's a job that allows me to take everything that I've learned as a
skater and funnel it into new skaters and influence them with my
passion for skating, and it's another way to get something out to my
fans," he said.
"I stand back and watch the group number and I'm like, ‘This is so
cool. Instead of me skating my solo, I've got 11 people skating my
solo.'"
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