Original Dance!

Prelude:  I got a lot of great shots today, so I am just going to liberally sprinkle them throughout todays story, so most of them will appear without additional commentary (except for maybe a caption in brackets)...

I had a huge surprise waiting for me when I got to work today at 3pm... there was a ticket for me to the Figure Skating Original Dance competition starting at 4:15pm!!!!

(Paul Poirier and Vanessa Crone of Canada)

NBC had already given me a ticket to the Canada vs. Switzerland hockey game earlier in the week, so I had no expectation of being able to see another event. 

(liked these costumes... Estonia)

However, I had let John Pastore (my boss here) and Chris Worth (the wonderul lady who, among many other things, has the difficult job of determining who gets tickets to what) know that I was interested in Figure Skating.

(USA doing American Country dance)

Well, actually, what I said was that I would do just about anything for a ticket to Ice Dance (because both Vanessa and Paul, and Scott and Tessa, are from Ontario).

(French team with a very entertaining Can Can)

Figure Skating is a high demand ticket, and I knew it was a long shot at best, but I figured that if I didn't let them know that I was interested, I didn't have any chance at all.

(Russians doing "controversial" Aboriginal Dance - yuck - 3rd)

I think that having the US vs. Canada hockey game today might have worked in my favour as I think a lot of the people who might usually get Figure Skating tickets were at the hockey game instead.

(Charlie Davis and Meryl White of the USA - 2nd)

Once I got to  the arena, I could tell that the seat was intended for somebody important because it was right at centre ice and only about 6 rows from ice level!   (It also had a face value of $420!!!)

(love how they made the skates look like cowboy boots!)

Watching the NBC late night show back at the IBC, I could see myself on TV many times.

(Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue of Canada)

I had the pleasure of sitting with Nancy Giordano from AT&T (a vendor to NBC) and Cindy Lau (wife of NBC IT guru Craig Lau).  Nancy and I actually met on the bus over to the venue, and discovered that we were going to be sitting next to each other.

In the Compulsory Dance (two nights ago), all the pairs skate the same dance to the same music (so the judges can evaluate technique on a level playing field).  In the Original Dance, they are given a theme but can choose the music and the choreography.  This year's theme is Folk or Country Dance, so there were lots of interesting interpretations of this.  It was interesting to me that the music had vocals and that they were allowed the use of props (hats, ribbons - one Japanese couple actually held hand fans through the dance).

Of course, the highlight of the night for me was getting to see Scott and Tessa...

They skated a Spanish Flamenco (actually so did Vanessa and Paul!).  Tessa is simply stunning, and they skated with amazing unity.

They ended up in 1st place overall with a 2.6 point lead going in to tomorrow night's Free Dance!

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the USA skated last but could not catch Scott and Tessa...

(Tanith Belbin gets a little "cheeky"...)

I thought the outfits of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the USA were a little over-the-top, but she is so pretty I didn't mind much...

I also bumped into Steven Sugar, who is one of Caitie's Figure Skating coaches.  Mr. Sugar is a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee, and is out here working and enjoying many of the events...

What an amazing night of Ice Dance! 

(I think the judges got it right tonight...)

The best part of all was when I got back to the IBC, John presented me with another amazing gift...

Chris had found me another ticket for tomorrow night's Free Dance!!!  I actually teared up when he gave it to me, and later, I ran down the hall and gave Chris a huge hug.  I am still stunned, and I am so fortunate, NBC has been very, very, good to me.