For the week of June 11 - 17, 2003

Sun Valley ice show debuts Saturday

Lithuanian dancers open 66th season

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Eight-time Lithuanian ice dancing champions Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas will headline Saturday’s opening show of the 15-show Sun Valley Ice Show season.
Photo, courtesy Sun Valley Company.

 

The 66th summer season of the Sun Valley Ice Show begins Saturday, June 14 featuring world medalists and eight-time Lithuanian ice dancing champions Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas.

Saturday’s first of 15 shows on the summer ice show calendar starts at dusk. Tickets are now on sale for all shows.

Ice show coordinator Rainer Kolb praised Drobiazko and Vanagas, four-time Olympians who placed fourth at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. "They’re very good," said Kolb, who will have the Lithuanians all summer.

Drobiazko, 32, was born in Moscow and Vanagas, 32, in Lithuania. They have been described as exciting, fast and technically demanding—with a unique charismatic flair.

There are no big names like Sarah Hughes or Michelle Kwan on the summer schedule. That doesn’t mean the Sun Valley Ice Show is lacking stars.

"From the standpoint of skating, it’s a very strong group this summer," Kolb said.

Reigning Olympic pairs skating gold medalists Jamie Salé and David Pelletier of Canada are due back in Sun Valley for two Independence Day holiday shows, on July 4-5.

"David and Jamie will be here for a week working on a new program," Kolb said.

The "Quad King," Tim Goebel, 22, of Evanston, Ill. headlines the Allen & Co. show of July 12, which is also open to the public. 1992 Olympic and world gold medalist Viktor Petrenko will perform Aug. 16.

Goebel, coached by Frank Carroll, is the first American to land a quad in competition. He won his third U.S. national silver medal in 2003. Goebel was the 2002 world silver medalist and 2002 Olympic bronze medalist—first U.S. man to win an Olympic medal in 10 years.

One other highlight will be the return of enormously popular acrobats Vladymyr Besedin and Oleksiy Polishchuk from Kiev, Ukraine. They will do four shows from Aug. 9-30.

Professional world champions Frank Sweiding and Anita Hartshorn will headline the June 21 show. Sweiding is the ice show director for a second straight year.

Headlining the June 28 show will be Olympic bronze medalist and European champion Jozef "Jumpin’ Joe" Sabovcik from Slovakia.

Other mainstays back this summer include 2000 professional world champions Elena Leonova and Andrei Khvalko of Russia, who will start June 28 and skate through July.

The "Flack Attack," returns in July when former Ice Capades star Rory Flack Burghart from the Soul Spectacular on Ice comes back to Sun Valley for four shows starting July 4.

Flack, the 2000 American Open ladies champion and mother of two, was the first figure skater to appear on "Saturday Night Live," back in 1987. The mother of two, she is married to seven-time Austrian champion Ralph Burghart.

Hermosa Beach-born Amber Corwin, 24, the 2001 Pacific Coast gold medalist, brings her youthful style for four shows in July. National bronze medalist Dan Hollander, a great show skater, returns in August.

Eight-time British king and three-time Olympian Steven Cousins is due Aug. 2 and 9.

Skating all summer will be two popular stars—Darlin Baker and Craig Heath.

Baker is a longtime Sun Valley Ice Show regular who has performed with the Ice Theater of New York.

Heath, the last U.S. senior championship skater to win compulsory figures, in 1991, is better known in recent years for playing Andy and Sid in Disney on Ice’s "Toy Story on Ice," from 1996-2002.

A 10-year professional skater who maintains a home in Sun Valley, Heath completed 120 double axels in a row for many performances of "Toy Story on Ice." He was the American Open silver medalist in 2000.

Tickets for the Sun Valley Lodge Terrace buffet range in price from $77 to $81. Bleacher seats run from $27 to $45 per person. They are now on sale at the Sun Valley Recreation Office, 208-622-2135. Tickets also may be purchased online at www.sunvalley.com.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.