1996 Tour of Champions

This is a review of the 1996 Campbell's Soup Tour of Champions, which took place at the United Center in Chicago on June 1, 1996. I posted this review to the rec.sport.skating.ice.figure usenet group, but when I decided to add it to my skating site, I couldn't find the file that I had saved on disk... thanks to the DejaNews newsgroup archives, I recently tracked it down! So here it is, as originally written for (and "addressed to") the group. Enjoy. :)

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Hi! It's been weeks since I last visited here, ever since school ended for the summer, and ironically, now that I actually have time to "surf" I find myself without the free Internet access that I took for granted at the university. :( Oh well, c'est la vie.

Anyway, for anyone who's interested, I just thought I'd share my comments on the Campbell's TOC that came to Chicago's United Center on June 1. I caught the matinee (2pm) show with my mom and sister, and our seats were ultra-nosebleed: 16th row, 300-level (top balcony!), but our view was nice and unobstructed. Binoculars came in very handy. :) I've kind of forgotten the skating order already (maybe someone can help??? please?), but I'll mention what were the highlights for me.

First of all, we all thought that tv just can't compare to live viewing as far as excitement and atmosphere goes... Just the realization that we were *in the same building* as all these famous skaters was such a thrill! It was fun actually applauding and "woohoo!"-ing their performances. Plus, you could really tell how well a skater covered the ice, etc, even from top balcony seats. The opening quasi-group number (which started off with a lightshow display of the Olympic rings) was fun and showed off individual skater's strengths well, and actually also ended up giving an indication of whether they were going to be "on" or not that day.

Tonia Kwiatkowski started things out with a techno number ("Are You Ready For This?")... very good and different style for her... I think she would've gotten a bigger crowd response if she came a little later in the show.

"Chicago's own" Nicole Bobek did her Cirque du Soleil "bird" program and was really on... two nice triples (I think toeloops) and a good double axel, plus some amazing spirals. Very cool!

Punsalan & Swallow did "La Vie en Rose" and were very very cute.

Dan Hollander was a big hit... he skated in a janitor's uniform with a mop and bucket to some lively music... I think he may have bobbled a jump towards the end of his program but more than made up for that with a cool backflip, right over his mop/bucket setup! Big ovation.

Rudy Galindo did "Ave Maria" and was flawless and graceful.

Jenni Meno & Todd Sand looked so good together, and she is really beautiful with her hair down... They skated to "You Make Me So Very Happy" (I think that's the title) and were quite good, although they only did a throw single axel instead of a double.

Todd Eldredge did a very nice program to "This is the Moment"... he popped what looked like was supposed to be a triple axel, but otherwise skated fast and cleanly with good style.

Right after intermission, Guddat & Beacom did their neon skates-on-hands routine. Weird but fun!

Elvis Stojko skated to some Michael Jackson songs and was a big hit with the crowd. Great jumps, of course, and fast footwork.

Grischuk & Platov did Madonna's "You'll See" and were very good. I wish their competition routines could be this enjoyable!

Michelle Kwan did a very very nice "Pocahontas"... she did a triple salchow, double axel, triple lutz (a little shaky landing), and triple toe... Perfect choreography... I really like this program!

Brasseur & Eisler were awesome, they wore similar "Blues Brothers"-type costumes and did some huge tricks. Very dynamic and fun! Huge applause for them.

The last skater was Brian Boitano and he was awesome... even from our seats, his jumps and death drop looked huge, and his skating looked so strong. Needless to say, great ovation.

The closing number was similar to the opening and provided a nice end to a great show. The skaters skated off to "We are the Champions" and a warm applause.

Some disappointments/other comments: Alexei Urmanov and Nancy Kerrigan both fell on triple toes (I'm surprised Nancy even tried a triple considering she's what, four months pregnant now?), Scott Davis was only okay (though my sister just about went crazy when he was announced!), Lu Chen didn't do any triples (otherwise skated nicely), Usova & Zhulin's program theme escaped me, Klimova & Ponamarenko were good but nothing to get excited about, Viktor Petrenko tried a triple axel and barely missed, Oksana Baiul did her Arabian program and was very disappointing jump-wise (only a double salchow and a step out of a single axel)... Also bummed that Surya Bonaly wasn't there. Did I forget anyone?

Miscellaney: This was my first trip to United Center, really nice, clean, good popcorn :), good views everywhere (I'm assuming, since we were almost as high up as you could get and we could see pretty clearly)... The crowd was generally very good although I guess I don't have much to reference from since this is only the second skating show I've seen in person... an exception was the couple sitting in front of me who were very obviously pro-Oksana and anti-Nancy... they actually laughed when Nancy fell. Ugh!

Anyhow, sorry this was so long but I've appreciated reading the reviews of others who've seen the show and I thought I'd share my own thoughts with anyone else who might be interested. I'll probably be away from the group again for a while, so if anybody would care to reply or add comments, or if someone else who went to the Chicago show could refresh my memory about the skating order (I should've taken notes!), I'd love to hear from ya via e-mail.