|
|
|
Stars on Ice returns to Hamilton with skating greats Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Kaetlyn Osmond in tow
Annual show hits FirstOntario May 4.
| Source: |
The Hamilton Spectator |
| Date: |
April 30, 2019 |
| Author: |
Steven Milton |
Kurt Browning wasn't sure whether he was done with all this or not,
but now he's back touring in front of Canadian audiences.
Browning will be among the headliners on Saturday, May 4 when Stars on
Ice makes its annual stop in Hamilton where it's appeared more often
than in any other Canadian city.
Last year, when Stars drew a sold-out crowd at FirstOntario Centre,
the cast was made up of Elvis Stojko and skaters who'd competed for
Canada at its wildly-successful 2018 Winter Olympics. Legendary ice
dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir now have their own tour and aren't
with Stars this time. Browning helps fill that gap.
Browning was a four-time world champion and at the 1988 Worlds landed
the first quadruple jump in skating history. But skating fans
associate him and his charimatic artistry as closely with Stars on Ice
as they did his mentor and 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton,
around whose showmanship and drawing power the touring show was
originally built.
For close to three decades, Browning had headlined and often
choreographed for Stars on Ice, but he wasn't with the troupe on its
cross-Canada trek last year. That led many to conclude he'd retired
from touring.
"I'll never use the word 'retirement,'" he told The Spectator. "Last
year it was good to just watch all those Olympians coming off their
great performances, and Elvis of course. It felt right. This year they
asked me to guest skate and then later suggested I come for the whole
time.
"So I get to skate with those Olympians, Elvis and with Evgenia," he
said.
That would be the fiercely dynamic Evgenia Medvedeva who trains with
Brian Orser in Toronto and, at 19, has already won two world
championships and the 2018 Olympic silver medal, just 1.21 points back
of fellow Russian Alina Zagitova.
"Evgenia is a huge figure skating star," Browning says. "She just owns
her programs."
Stojko and Browning will be back on the same ice where in 1993 they
staged one of the most memorable head-to-head competitions in Canadian
championship history.
Other headliners are four-time world champion and 10-time Canadian
champion Patrick Chan; two-time world pairs champions and triple
Olympic medalists Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford; Kaetlyn Osmond who
last year became Canada's first women's world champion in 45 years;
three-time world ice dancing medalists and reigning Canadian champions
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje; national ice dancing silver medalists
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier; and reigning Canadian men's champion
Nam Nguyen.
Also appearing for the Hamilton, Toronto and London segment of the
tour is 14-year-old Stephen Gogolev, runner-up to Nguyen at
Nationals. He is the youngest skater ever to land the quadruple toe
loop, the youngest to land the quadruple Salchow and the youngest to
land a quad Lutz.
Skaters don't perform such high-risk jumps in off-season tours, but
it's a compelling parallel that Gogolev will be here with the man who
executed the very first quad.
"Once you figure it out, it's like a Rubik's Cube," Browning, who went
on to build one of skating's most varied artistic portfolios, says of
quad technique. "Somehow he's deciphered the quad Rubik's Cube, he
seems to have found the magic elixir.
"Sometimes I totally forget I was part of the whole quad era. Nathan
Chen did more quads at Worlds this than I did in my career. But I do
remember that skating into it, knowing that the place was going to
freak out...now that was fun."
For tickets go to www.ticketmaster.ca.
~
|
|
|
|
|
