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Dorothy Hamill hits the ice in O.C. – and the dance floor
The Olympic skater, who stops in Anaheim with Stars On Ice, will also compete in 'Dancing With the Stars.'
| Source: |
OC Register |
| Date: |
March 1, 2013 |
| Author: |
Peter Larsen |
Figure skater Dorothy Hamill isn't really that old but to hear the
Olympic gold medalist tell it she's an old woman in a young woman's
game.
Two games, actually. For not only is Hamill on tour now with Stars On
Ice, with a stop in Orange County on Saturday, but she's also just
signed on as one of 11 celebrity contestants on ABC's "Dancing With
The Stars."
"It's kind of crazy," says Hamill, who at 56 isn't really all that old
at all. "I didn't know I'd be doing double duty!"
Stars On Ice, of course, is where you'd expect to see the skater who
won gold and hearts with her performance at the 1976 Olympics in
Innsbruck, Austria. Yet while she toured for many years with the Ice
Capades, the original Stars On Ice tour and other skate shows, it's
been at least five years since she went on tour, and getting back into
performance shape wasn't easy, Hamill says.
"When the invitation came to me I had about a month and a half," she
says. "It takes more than that to get in shape at my age. I'd been
skating, but not sort of performance level, just for fun, for
myself. In ice skates that were probably 11 years old.
"So it's not been easy, and I can't say that I'm perfectly there and
able to do what I'd like to be able to do, or that which was easy for
me to do in the past. But it's been good. I've missed it."
Part of what she'd missed was the camaraderie of hanging out with
other top skaters, Hamill says. "I sort of feel like the old lady mom
trying not to embarrass myself or anyone else. And they're very sweet
to me and I really enjoy our time together."
This version of Stars On Ice includes such stars as Ekaterina
Gordeeva, Ilia Kulik and Kurt Browning, for whom this is the four-time
world champion's farewell tour.
"The personalities and the skaters on this tour as just as nice as can
be," she says. "You just don't get any better than this if you
handpicked the ones you wanted to skate with."
Her role in the show includes a solo number, a duet with Browning, and
several of the ensemble numbers in the show.
Appearing on "Dancing With The Stars," meanwhile, had been a long-time
dream but once which Hamill figured wasn't ever going to
happen.
"I've been a fan of the show for a long time," she says. "Years ago,
maybe second season or third season, I think there was a call to my
agent and I was in the middle of one of those (skate) tours and it
just wasn't possible."
She watched fellow Olympic figure skaters Kristi Yamaguchi and Evan
Lysacek compete on the show (they finished first and second in their
separate seasons) and thought she'd missed her shot.
"On the bus in Japan (with Stars On Ice) someone said you should do
'Dancing With The Stars,' and I said, 'No, they'll never ask me,'"
Hamill says. "Then about a week ago I got a phone call and they said,
'We would love to have you join.'"
After talking it over with her husband and a friend, she decided to go
for it, only to again end up feeling like the mother of the crew when
she met her fellow "Dancing" contestants on Tuesday.
"It was just shocking to me to realize that I am the oldest one there
– and not just by six months!" Hamill says of meeting celebrities such
as Zendaya Coleman, a 16-year-old Disney Channel star and 18-year-old
Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman.
She's never danced ballroom before and says that despite some
similarities between figure skating and dancing she's worried about
how different it will be.
"The technique is so different," Hamill says. "So that's going to be a
challenge for me. While it looks easy I've never been very good on my
feet. I've always been kind of klutzy."
"I don't know how any of (her skating skills) will translate to the
being on the dance floor in high heels," Hamill says. "I can barely
walk in high heels, so it's going to be amusing."
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