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THE BEST OF THE BEST, OR HELP! I'M TRAPPED IN A FELLINI MOVIE AND CAN'T GETOUT!

Reported by Fran Buhman 

(Originally published in Freestyle Volume 5, no. 3 (SEPT/OCT 1995)

What follows is a review of The Best of the Best (later renamed, for TVbroadcast purposes, the Metropolitan Open), the first-ever ISU-sanctionedInternational Pro-Am or Open, held on September 22, 1995 at the MeadowlandsArena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It is also an account of the strangestevening of skating I have ever experienced. I have often wondered what it wouldbe like to live in a Federico Fellini movie, and that night I found out. If itweren't for the two friends who went with me (Lynn Rutherford and EllenKellogg), I'd be convinced I'd imagined the whole thing.

I originally elected to see this event for three reasons: First, Nicole Bobekand what I hoped would be a preview of her new season programs; Second, KatarinaWitt and the opportunity to see her and Nicole in the same event; and Third,Aleksei Urmanov and the chance to see if a summer's training in Germany had paidoff (ever since Worlds in Birmingham that previous March, I'd been a big fan ofhis). In other words, I was really looking forward to it. Also listed on theroster: Lu Chen, Scott Hamilton, Paul Wylie, Gordeeva/Grinkov and Meno/Sand.

It was 73 hours prior to the event when I first found myself plungingheadlong into unreality. This is approximately the time when I first heard therumor that Urmanov was to be replaced by my favorite skater - Todd Eldredge! Ittook me another 48 hours to confirm the rumor. In the meantime I had alsolearned that Katarina had withdrawn (due to a back injury that threatened tojeopardize her whole season) and been replaced by Michelle Kwan, which wouldhave distressed me had I been in my right frame of mind, and that G&G hadalso pulled out (no reason given, but I suspected Sergei's back was still givinghim problems) and been replaced by Kovarikova/Novotny (which, had I been sane,would have delighted me). Now mind you, had this been an exhibition I would havebeen totally thrilled to be seeing Todd 15 days ahead of schedule (I'd thoughtI'd first be seeing him in Halloween on Ice the first weekend in October), butthis was a competition. I was simply not ready for a Todd competition, and I hada horrible feeling that neither was Todd.

Consequently, by the time I reached the Meadowlands, there was already anunreality about the whole thing, not helped by the fact I'd never been to theplace before and so my surroundings were unfamiliar. The receipt of programsdisclosed that a third pair had been found for the competition and that we wouldnow have Bechke/Petrov to look forward to. The arena appeared to be no more thanhalf full (a sign that spectator skating is past its prime, perhaps?)

Our seats were very good, 8th row, just behind and to the right of the judgesand directly opposite the skater's entrance and kiss & cry area. I wasseated right next to the aisle, and looking to my right, I discovered DickButton (co-producer of the event, with IMG) sitting in the aisle seat directlyopposite me. Several persons down from Dick (same 8th row) I found NataliaMishkutenok (definite sign of Fellini film - people popping up in unexpectedplaces), and spent the rest of the evening bumping into her every time I left myseat. She looked terrific. Her hair was now shoulder length, she looked fit, aswell as happy, relaxed, at peace, as if leaving skating had really agreed withher.

The competition was organized seemingly in accordance with ISU rules (withsome peculiarities thrown in). There were five judges, all ISU ones (from fivedifferent countries, didn't note which ones). The competition was to consist ofa short program worth 1/3rd the total score and skated completely in accordancewith ISU rules. The second part of the competition (worth 2/3rds of the total)was to consist of an "interpretive free skate" and here is where itgot screwy (or should I say, illogical? But then, why not, this was a Fellinimovie). Vocal music was allowed, but backflips weren't. For ladies and men both,the program had to be between 3 1/2 and 4 minutes in length. For the ladies,obviously, the maximum length requirement would pose no problem. Equallyobviously, not so for the men. In addition, men were limited to a maximum of 4different triple jumps and ladies 3, with no more than one jump combination formen and ladies. Also, props were forbidden, as well as theatrical makeup orremovable pieces of costume. Scoring was strictly in accordance with ISU rules(6.0 top score, 2 scores each performance added together, factored placements,etc.). In the case of this competition, the 1/3 short and 2/3 freeskate valuerendered performance in the short program meaningless - you could score straight0's in that phase of the competition and still win if you won the freeskate. Inother words, with only three competitors per discipline, you could be dead lastafter the short and still go on to win the competition. One might really ask whybother with a short program, since wherever one placed in the freeskate wouldalways determine exactly where one would finish in the competition. Think aboutit.

This being a Dick Button affair, the best (always the men!) was saved forlast, and, there being no dance competition, that meant ladies first. MichelleKwan started the proceedings. At my initial sight of her during warm-up, I wasamazed. She looked like a different person - a new, very mature and attractivecostume (red) plus make-up made her appear much older than her 15 years. Later,I got a good look at her off-ice, as following the conclusion of the ladiescompetition she came out to join her parents, who were sitting right behind Dickand thus close to me. Even close up, the make-up suited her and she by no meansresembled a little girl playing dress-up. Her new short program was likewise ahuge leap forward for her. As near as I could make out, the music was largelycomposed of the Flamenco music used by Krylova/Ovsiannikov last year in theirFree Dance. A very sophisticated program for Michelle and she carried it offvery well. I noticed a great improvement in her spins and spirals, although shestill needed to develop speed into and flow out of jumps. But I was reallylooking forward to seeing this program develop. She had a few baubles in thisperformance, but on the whole skated fairly well.

Nicole was next, with her new short program. She wore a dark costume (eithergray/black or navy blue - I'm horrible with colors), quite attractive. Moreimportantly, she looked really in shape and ready to go, fully focused. The newNicole definitely did not disappear over the summer. Her new program was toSpanish music, from the film, Don Juan de Marcos. It too was a mature program,and also a step forward for Nicole. This performance began none too promisinglywith a fall on the triple lutz but since this is the new Nicole, she carried onand didn't fall apart, landing a triple toe and a double axel. On the whole, itwasn't a bad skate.

Lu Chen completed Ladies, part 1, with the debut of her new short program. Icouldn't identify the music (sounded Chinese), but found the program as good asMichelle's and Nicole's (I anticipate a great year of battle between these threeladies). Although she had had a less than promising warm-up, Lulu pulled ittogether for the performance to skate well enough (landing a triple lutz/doubletoe) to win this portion of the competition, with Michelle second and Nicolethird.

Pairs were next, starting with Bechke/Petrov. They skated an old program,which I believe they used at last year's U.S. Open. It sounded like a popItalian number (no vocals); I couldn't identify it when I first saw it, andstill can't. At any rate, Elena and Denis were in their usual competitive mode(or Elena's, I should say) - namely, a mess, but then in my opinion, an"off" Bechke/Petrov is often better than an "on" anyoneelse, but that's just me. I've seen them skate much worse, but then I've seenthem a lot better, too. They ended the program with a pose I swear I've neverseen before - Elena with her legs rapped around Denis' waist with no visiblemeans of support other than her leg muscles - his hands are extended in the air.It might sound crazy, but it looks gorgeous and very effective.

Kovarikova/Novotny followed, skating their Romeo & Juliet short programfrom last season. Radka slightly two-footed her landing on their side-by-sidetriple toes but other than that, the performance seemed as good if not betterthan the one at Worlds. The pairs short concluded with Meno/Sand performingtheir Headbanger Waltz from last season (I heard the Blue Danube program sodescribed recently and couldn't resist repeating it). Not much to say here,except that once again they did the side by side double axels and thus wereagain behind K/N at the conclusion of the short. Bechke/Petrov placed third.

A Zamboni interval followed, and it was time for the men. At my first sightof Todd in the skater's entrance prior to the warm-up, I honestly thought I washallucinating. I was prepared for just about anything but NOT (Heaven preserveus) the King and I costume. After I'd adjusted somewhat to that shock, I took agood look at Todd's face and got another. To the experienced Todd observer (suchas myself) he looked terrible - more tense than I'd ever seen him look (even atlast year's Nationals), and as if he wanted to be anywhere else but where he wasat that moment. At that point I said to Lynn and Ellen "I have a really badfeeling about this." During the warm-up I decided a doppelganger had takenover, because the guy on the ice that looked like Todd was sure not skating likehim (at least not to my nuance-trained Todd observing eye).

Paul Wylie was up first, skating his 1992 Olympic short program (Ravel's LaValse). It was not one of Paul's better skates, and I got the feeling he was notreally "up" for this competition. And, of course, this being a Fellinimovie (with everything upside down and/or backwards), what followed was aperformance in which Paul Wylie hit all his jumps (including a triple lutz/double toe) but fell out of most of his spins (very bizarre). His scores werenot bad, but not terrific either (actually, these judges tended not to hand outvery high scores, period.)

When Todd took the ice, I had the distinct feeling I was caught in a timewarp (big characteristic of Fellini movies - playing around with time). As theKing and I music started, I was suddenly transported back to 93 Skate America.What followed had such an inescapable aura of inevitability about it that whenTodd fell on his opening triple axel and Ellen next to me groaned, I found Iwasn't even surprised. After all, I was now in October 1993 and that was whatwas supposed to happen. Then, however, since practical jokes are also a bigFellini favorite, everything changed. Instead of recovering immediately from theaxel fall to land a gorgeous triple lutz as he had in 93, Todd proceeded toexecute a two-footed landing that concluded with his having to clutch the boardsto prevent himself from falling. Granted, the lutz is probably Todd's mostdifficult jump and I've seen my share of Todd lutz disasters, but nothing quitelike this. From that point on, whatever else he did was sort of a blur as I wasjust hoping nothing worse would happen before the program ended.

The look on Todd's face as he left the ice would haunt me for a long time.Then, just when I thought things couldn't get worse, there seemed to besomething going on with his coach, Richard Callaghan. When Todd got off the iceRichard just handed him his bottle of water, barely even looking at him, andthen let him proceed to the Kiss & Cry area by himself. Really bizarre -Richard is usually so supportive of his skaters - even more so when they don'tdo particularly well. This of course had me wondering if there wasn't some sortof disagreement between them - possibly over the choice of what to skate if notover whether to do the competition at all. If this was indeed the case, I canonly imagine it was Todd not taking Richard's advice rather than Richardinsisting Todd do something that was against his better judgment. But somethingbetween them sure wasn't right. The memory of Todd sitting up there all aloneawaiting his scores and looking like death itself actually kept me awake for thenext two nights. In point of fact, the judges really did what they could to helpand I thought were most generous. The technical scores should have been abysmal,but at least no one gave him a 4 - all 5.0's and 5.1's. In presentation, he gotone 5.6 and four 5.7's, which were high scores from these judges (two of themeven had him tied with Paul, on the theory I guess that a falling Todd is nomore jarring to the eye than a mis-spinning Wylie). This generosity, however,was totally lost on Todd, who frankly was beyond caring at this point. When hefinally left the K&C area to rejoin Richard, the two actually had aconversation - or rather, Richard talked at Todd while Todd just stood therelike a dazed statue. This all took place just inside the skater's entrance andlasted the entire duration of Scott's skate (there were probably a couple ofpeople around me who wondered about the strange woman who, rather than watchScott Hamilton skate, chose to spend the entire time with binoculars firmlyfixed on the skaters entrance!) They disappeared from view just as Scottfinished.

Needless to say, I can't give a report on Scott's skate, since I didn't seeit. However, I can say he skated to In the Mood and his program was very wellreceived (I could hear the music and the wild applause from somewhere in mydetached consciousness). His scores were good enough to win the short program,with Paul second and Todd third.

The ladies then took the ice for their long program warm-up, and I attemptedto distract myself by speculating on Nicole's costume. I had heard her new longprogram would be to music from the Lion King, but her costume (gorgeous) lookedto me more American Indian than African - could it be for the Pocahontas programI had also heard she was working on?

In accordance with the Button event tradition of appearance in reverse orderof technical program finish, Nicole was the first to skate. However, just as thewarm-up was ending and she was getting ready to take the ice, there was thishuge commotion behind me, followed by ushers who'd been sitting up front rushingup my aisle, ten steps at a time. As it turned out, Joyce Barron, Nicole's"aunt", had fallen down the steps while returning to her seat. She wasnot really injured, just a slightly sprained ankle, but paramedics did appearfrom out of nowhere to take her pulse, check her heart, etc., etc. Only in aFellini movie. Fortunately, Nicole didn't see any of this happening or itprobably would have affected her performance.

Nicole's program did indeed turn out to be to music from Pocahontas,including the Vanessa Williams song, "Colors of the Wind," andconcluded with a little Circle of Life music. She skated it brilliantly and asfar as I could determine, almost flawlessly, to a rousing standing ovation andvery good scores. To me, it looked more like an exhibition program (perfectlyacceptable for this competition) than a free skate one. Michelle was next,skating what appeared to be her new long program, to classical type music Icould not identify. It was skated fairly well, but at this stage of heradmittedly rapid development, Michelle was no match for Nicole when she was"on" and flawless. Lu Chen followed with a total disaster. Skating herLast Emperor program from last year, she fell on the triple lutz with such forcethat she nearly fell off the ice entirely (it happened right near a gap in theboards, right where the TV camera was - very reminiscent of the infamous MidoriIto fall. Remember, Fellini also loves Deja Vu themes!) After that, her jumpswere all doubles and singles, with the spirit having gone out of her entirely.Thus ended the ladies competition, with Nicole the winner, Michelle second, LuChen third.

After another Zamboni interval, it was time for the pairs final. Bechke/Petrovskated their You Don't Bring Me Flowers program, a personal favorite of mine,and did fairly well, although Elena wobbled badly on the throw jump (Denis hadto extend a hand to steady her). The program was well received, but not markedhighly by the judges. Although Kovarikova/Novotny had won the technical program,they were the next to skate. This made no sense to me, but since I was in aFellini movie where nothing was supposed to make sense, I didn't worry about it.They skated a new program, to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." Ihope to see this again at World Pros (where I'll be in a better condition toappreciate it) because from what I could tell it was brilliant and very wellreceived. If this is an example of what we have to look forward to from thesetwo as pros, we are in for a big treat. Jenni and Todd followed with theirNessum Dorma program from last season, but with the Pavarotti vocalsinexplicably and unnecessarily restored a la their old exhibition number. Thevocal part came on unexpectedly and was unusually loud, causing me to jump (Felliniloves surprises like that). The performance seemed well done and was wildlyreceived. Of course, the sound of Pavarotti had everyone thinking Boitano,including I'm sure the judges, which is the only explanation I can give as towhy Meno/Sand received the highest scores to win the competition (withKovarikova/Novotny 2nd, Bechke/Petrov 3rd). After the scores were announced andthe results obvious, Ellen remarked that we had just witnessed something we hadnever seen before (Meno/Sand beating Bechke/Petrov and Kovarikova/Novotny) andwould never see again. I remained silent as it occurred to me that Ellen had notyet realized she was but a character in a Fellini movie and was thus trying tomake sense of the ridiculous.

Besides, I had other things on my mind. As Ellen was shaking her head indisbelief over the pairs result, I of course was anxiously scanning the skaters'entrance for the first sight of Todd. During the Zamboni interval after theladies final, Ellen had tried to encourage me by pointing out that Nicole hadhad a bad short, but then had gone on to win the competition. I said thatfrankly, as far as Todd was concerned that night, I was just waiting for theproverbial second dropped shoe. As it turned out, what I got was more like adropped clodhopper.

After the earlier King and I shock, the sight of Todd in the original Les Miscostume almost seemed appropriate. After all, I was already caught in a Toddtime-warp (even if distorted), so why not? Lynn and Ellen had been sure he'd doGethsemane, but I kept insisting that was impossible, it was too long (so,really, was Les Mis, but not THAT long). In the time since the short program,nothing apparently had happened to change Todd's mood, because he still lookedterrible (in fact, I began to wonder if he was ill). And if the warm-up was anyindication, the doppelganger was still in possession of his skating. A ratherbad triple axel wipe-out was followed by a number of popped jumps before thewarm-up ended. As third place finisher, Todd was the first to skate. As heassumed a position on the ice on his knees and I realized what he was about toskate, my brain just had time to scream, "No, you can't! It's too long andyou're in the wrong costume!"

The ultimate Fellini joke was upon me as I found myself subjected to adoppelganger Todd skating a butchered Gethesame in the wrong costume (could anynightmare be more complete?). As near as I could determine (simply by countingshocks to my nervous system) there were at least two major cuts, which soundedto me like the record had skipped a few tracks (a nails on blackboard effect onmy nerves that caused me to jump each time). I was so confused and disorientedthat I was unable to apprehend how he was skating other than to note doublejumps that should have been triples (but with rules limiting triples to four howwas one to know what should have been a triple?). Since January 1994 and priorto this, Todd has skated Gethsemane in public 5 times (once in competition) andnever before has he failed to receive a standing ovation for it. Until now. Butthen this wasn't really the Gethsemane program. Lynn later said she was prettysure he landed two triples. I had been too out of it to absorb much of anything.All I really needed to know about how he had skated I got from watching his faceafterward - and it was a mirror image of the earlier post-skate look. At leastthis time Richard joined him in the K&C area. His scores were notparticularly good.

Paul followed with an abbreviated JFK. Being a strictly instrumental program,the cuts here were not so glaringly obvious (at least not to my untutored earand eye), it just seemed like something was missing. At least Paul was skatingit in the right costume (horrible visions here of Paul skating JFK in theUntouchables outfit!). I imagine the cuts must have thrown Paul a bit or madesome kind of impact on the overall presentation, because although it was ratherwell done and very well received by the audience, I have certainly seen it donebetter.

Scott concluded with his Hungarian Rhapsody program, this time, however,skated without the props - i.e., oxygen mask and the fall-apart tuxedo(necessitated by the no prop rules of this competition. Poor Scott - acompetition with no props and no backflips). Although propless, he still madethe program highly entertaining, skated it very well and concluded to a rousingstanding ovation from the audience. His scores amply rewarded his performanceand he ended by winning the competition. He also won the Best of the Best award,determined by the competitor with the highest artistic scores. Only 8 5.9's hadbeen awarded in that area all evening (no 6's at all) and Scott had received 6of them (the other 2 were divided between Meno/Sand for Blue Danube and Paul forJFK).

The event ended with a World Pros like (but tacky looking) awards ceremonythat served no purpose other than to give me a final look at a thoroughlydejected Todd. I later heard that he was the first skater to leave the buildingand did not put in an appearance at the reception afterwards. Being the alwaysappreciative of fans Todd that he is, he let himself be stopped for autographs,but to my source who was an eyewitness to all this, he seemed extraordinarilyupset.

The evening (and movie) concluded uproariously in typical Fellini fashionwith Ellen, Lynn and I finally catching a ride home (in my case, to Lynn'sapartment in Manhattan where I was staying) in a car that had originally beenreserved for Tracy Wilson.

Postcript:

Todd should never have agreed to do this competition, of that I'm convinced.From calculations based on various sources, I am certain he had no more than 10days notice that he would be doing it. Then making the program choices he didfor reasons I can understand, this ultimately meant that at the last minute hefirst had to relearn a short program he hadn't skated in nearly 2 years, andthen learn basically a new program to old music (the 4 minute maximum rule forthis competition guaranteed this would have been the case no matter what he hadchosen for his freeskate). All that while having just come back from doingseveral shows in Sun Valley for the Disney special, as well as trying to preparefor the real new season and the two Halloween on Ice shows he was scheduled todo a few weeks later.

On the other hand, I have had reason to believe from reports I've receivedfrom other people who were there that Todd's performances were not as bad as heand I seem to have thought they were. In fact, I heard from one lady who saidthat in spite of the problems he had, she was turned into a total fan by hisefforts that night.

In the meantime, I was left hoping Todd could put this so-called competitionin perspective and firmly behind him so as to concentrate on the start of thereal season and the victories that lay ahead. At is happened, although theseason was to end spectacularly with his winning the World Championship, theroad to that victory proved to be bumpy in the extreme, and The Best of the Bestmerely the first of the bumps on that very, very long road.

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