Champions on Ice awe audience

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jan 25, 2001 by Bill Blankenship Capital-Journal

By BILL BLANKENSHIP

The Capital-Journal

While the debate over the merits of amateur versus professional hockey in Topeka will rage on for years, there was no question about the caliber of those on the Landon Arena ice Wednesday night.

They were pros.

For a third year, ice show producer Tom Collins brought to the Kansas Expocentre the winter tour of John Hancock Champions on Ice, a show that features some of the best professional skaters in the world.

The champions awed a crowd of 4,360, a drop from the near sell- out crowd of around 7,300 in 1999 and around 6,700 last year. H.R. Cook, the Expocentre's general manager, had predicted the smaller house given it was the tour's third time in Topeka and the promoters had raised ticket prices by $5 each.

Judging by the audience's response, most thought they got their money's worth. Loud applause punctuated performances that ranged from the practiced grace of veteran skater Dorothy Hamill, who with her trademark hairdo can still spin with the best of the young lionesses on ice, to the unrestrained flirting of Philippe Candeloro, who stripped to the waist to the squeals of a large number of women in the audience.

Sex appeal wasn't limited to the male skaters as Nicole Bobek donned bowler hat, fishnet stockings and garters to skate to a medley of songs from "Cabaret." And Nancy Kerrigan looked anything but wholesome as she skated in form-fitting sequins to "Kiss of the Spiderwoman."

Vladimir Besedin and Oleksliy Polishchuk had the crowd on its feet applauding a slow-motion acrobat routine that drew as many laughs as oohs and aahs. And Dan Hollander had the crowd laughing with a routine in which he switched between Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny.

Bill Blankenship can be reached at

(785) 295-1284 or bblankenship@cjonline.com.