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Browning laces up for his first stint shaping and skating in Stars on Ice
| Source: |
Halifax Chronicle Herald |
| Date: |
April 26, 2012 |
| Author: |
Andrea Nemetz |
Since 1991, beloved Canadian figure skating star Kurt Browning has
been a fixture with Stars on Ice.
When this year's 12-city cross-Canada tour kicks off at Halifax Metro
Centre on April 27, Browning will not only be lacing up his skates
-the four-time world champion will also be co-directing and
choreographing the star-studded extravaganza.
"It's been fun," says Browning by phone from the Granite Springs Club
in Toronto where he was testing out some ideas for the opening group
number.
"It's something that has been part of my life for two decades. It's a
natural evolution ... and I have a lot of support from co-director Jef
Billings."
Browning, suffering a nasty cold and a day away from getting on a
plane for France, where he was to do commentary for CBC-TV at the
World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, began working on the show
in September, getting down to work in earnest in November making DVDs
that he sent to skaters to learn a few steps.
"We have three days to put the show together in Halifax. If they come
with a few steps they are comfortable with, they are literally a step
ahead and it makes my job easier," he says, noting it doesn't add
significantly to the skaters' workload, though creating the DVDs adds
to his already busy schedule.
Married to National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Sonia Rodriguez
and father of sons Gabriel, 8, and Dillon, 4, Browning also toured
with the U.S. version of Stars on Ice starting Dec. 30 in Lake Placid,
N.Y.
Newly crowned 2012 world champions and 2010 world and Olympic gold
medallist ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir return to the show,
as do 2010 Olympic bronze medallist Joannie Rochette, 2008 world
champion Jeffrey Buttle, two-time Canadian champion Cynthia Phaneuf
and 2011 Canadian silver medallist Shawn Sawyer.
New this year are 2012 Canadian silver medallist ice dancers Kaitlyn
Weaver and Andrew Poje, 2012 U.S. and Four Continents champion Ashley
Wagner and three-time American singles champion Jeremy Abbott.
Browning choreographed Abbott's competitive short program and
describes him as "a lyrical skater with great feet."
"He's a big guy with big stroking and sweeping movements and skaters
like that usually can't do the quick-stepping stuff. But he
can."
Three-time Olympian Browning wanted to bring in "up and comers" Weaver
and Poje, who finished fourth at the 2011 and 2012 world championships
and third at the 2012 Four Continents competition, because "they've
had some super close calls, little things tripped them up, but they've
set a new standard of expectations for the skating world of what they
can do."
"I'm really impressed with them and I wanted to give them a
shot."
He's asked the popular skaters to perform their competitive long
program.
"It's very story-driven, about two people who are rapturously, totally
in love at the beginning and by the end not so much. They use their
talent to tell the story and it's fantastic."
This year there will be two ice dancing teams and no pair team so
there will be a different energy and dynamic, says Browning, who
co-hosted three seasons of CBC's popular reality TV show Battle of the
Blades.
The 45-year-old will skate two solos, one to Adam Lambert's Feeling
Good, and he notes he loves the voice of the American Idol
runner-up.
He says his knees are barking, his consistency is down and his speed
is lower, but his love of skating carries him through.
The opening group number was co-written by Geoffrey Tyler, a musician
and song and dance man Browning met while doing Ross Petty's Peter Pan
in Toronto several years ago. They created the music for the opening
around words the skaters said about how they looked at love and
life.
The first act finale is Adele's Rolling in the Deep. A Life Loved,
motivated by the movie Up, opens the second act.
"It's an on-ice journey as a skater remembers a lifelong love," says
Browning, noting it's a feel-good number at the beginning and gets sad
at the end.
In the U.S., Todd Eldredge was "the guy" and Browning played an older
version of him. In Halifax, Browning will hold an on-ice tryout to
decide if he or Buttle should be the older version.
The finale is Florence and the Machine's Dog Days are Over and is
about family and love.
"Jeffrey Buttle put in the dancing and did the upper body work,"
Browning says.
And what has turned into one of the audience's favourite numbers is
Colin Hay's Waiting for My Real Life to Begin. It's skated by the four
male singles skaters in a rectangle, lit only by four lampposts in the
corners.
Browning took his concept to Linda Garneau, a dancer with whom he
worked last year on his Stars on Ice solo to Supertramp's Downstream,
and they workshopped it together.
In previous years as a skater, he says, he was concerned with only one
or two moments in the program when he was trying to keep his fans
happy."Now I feel connected to the whole two hours... It's a
different experience to have so much control. To have the reins is a
wonderful experience and I hope people enjoy it."
Tickets for Stars on Ice range from $19.50 to $117, plus fees, and
are available at the Ticket Atlantic box office at the Halifax Metro
Centre, by phone at 451-1221 or 1-877-451-1221, at participating
Atlantic Superstore outlets and online at ticketatlantic.com.
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