Kyiv hosted Viktor Petrenko’s Ice Show
For the first time in the past decade the Ukrainian capital’s Palace of Sports staged an event attracting so many eager viewers, starring Viktor Petrenko (of Ukrainian parentage, 1992 Olympic champion) with his ice ballet program titled We Are the Champions, featuring Olympic figure-skating title-holders.
The Saturday before last, the Sports Palace’s ice arena came alive with world figure-skating stars (Viktor Petrenko, twice Olympic champions Artur Dmitriyev and Oksana Kozakova, 2002 Olympic champions Oksana Berezhna and Anton Sikharulidze, five-time French Olympic champion Sorya Bonali, and many others).
As with most other such gala shows, the audience was first treated to less spectacular figure skaters, so that by the time the British spy Austin Powers, performed by Vyacheslav Zahorodniuk, appeared on the ice arena, all those present were in the right mood. He pulled all kinds of stunts, falling on his knees and gliding all the way to the first raw, swinging his hips, addressing the upper stands, and so on. DJ Pasha, introducing 1994 Olympic champion Phillipe Candeloro, said that the man did not have prestigious titles but was an indisputable ice ballet king. Philippe proved him right, emerging as Mel Gibson’s Brave Heart principal character. Bound by timeframe, the French skater took minutes to express the sentiments the Hollywood star had taken hours to show on screen. And his final cry Freedom! made hearts in the audience miss a beat just like all those watching the movie.
The way the figure-skating champions chose their roles, Oleg Ovsyannikov and Angelica Krylova (Caesar and Cleopatra), Artur Dmitriyev and Oksana Kozakova (Puppeteer and Marionette) certainly rated special notice. The acrobats on ice worked like Trojans.
The second part of the ice show proved considerably more entertaining and better made professionally. Vyacheslav Zahorodniuk appeared on ice as Verka Serdiuchka, the popular boy dressed up like a woman seeming to know neither of the languages officially spoken in these parts. Someone wondered about anyone being able to figure-skate sporting such hefty milk factories. Phillipe Candeloro (now very popular with the audience after his number in the first part of the show) appeared as a bullfighter, chasing his invisible adversary, doing it as a striptease. In the end, scantly dressed, he performed several somersaults and glided all the way to the stands, stopping by a pretty girl in the first row, rising to embrace her and give her a passionate kiss, sending the audience in an appreciative uproar.
Phillipe’s countrywoman, Sorya Bonali, did a backward somersault, a stunt officially banned, specially for the Kyiv audience. That night such stunts were done only by the French performers. After that the audience witnessed something worth a lot of viewer’s money in Las Vegas. According to the emcees, Irina Grigorian had practiced her hula hoop number in Las Vegas.
Viktor Petrenko did his best number in Kyiv, dancing with a doll sewn to his costume, the whole thing being his Odesa calling card, leaving the audience bewitched by an excellently concerted “pair” pas.
The finale was highlighted by the cast’s joint potpourri based on ABBA tunes. The foreign performers must have left satisfied with the Ukrainian audience’s welcome, after picking countless bouquets and teddy bears off the ice arena, hearing the Sports Palace’s audience erupt in an endless ovation. Viktor Petrenko addressed the audience, saying it was their first but, hopefully, not the last ice show in Ukraine.
