Hi!
I attended Beauty on Ice last night in Bridgeport,CT & got a very
nice surprise-Maria was in the show! She was a last minute
replacement, she wasn't listed in the program, & she flew in from
Moscow on Thursday! She performed her Shakira program & did very
well except for 2 jumps. Since it's an exhibition for NBC, at the
end of the show, the skaters were allowed to do retakes. Maria had a
lot of trouble w/the jumps & did 3 takes for the first jump. After
the 3rd attempt, she went backstage to rest-jet lag & repeated
jumping is not a good combo. After 2 other skaters, Maria came back
out. She hit the second jump on the first take, however she forgot
to continue skating so that the camera crew could do the splicing on
the tape. The stage manager explained to her, in Russian, what she
had to do, & on the next try landed great. The crowd was very
supportive & were cheering for her to get the jumps & when she
landed she got a huge ovation.
The show is scheduled to be aired on NBC, Saturday January 3 from 4-
6. It should be a lot of fun. It also stars Katarina Witt, Yuka
Sato, Steven Cousins, Oksana Baiul and Nicole Bobek.
-Mary