Atlantic City Weekly

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If you're a fan of skating, you know the Smucker's Stars on Ice tour. If you're not a fan, you're going to be after seeing this show. For 18 seasons the world's best skaters along with a brilliant team of designers and choreographers have produced a truly spectacular event. This year's version of the Emmy Award-winning tour, packed with more stars, more lights and bigger sound and color than ever before, is coming to Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall on Saturday, Feb. 21.

Headlining the season are such skaters as Todd Eldridge and Yuka Sato and legendary pairs like Jamie Salé & David Pelletier. As a special treat for skating fans in the Northeast, Olympic Champion and two-time World Champion Kristi Yamaguchi and Olympic Silver Medalist and World Professional Champion Paul Wylie will be joining the tour. Yamaguchi was the first American to win the Olympic Gold Medal since Dorothy Hamill in 1976. She was a touring member of Stars on Ice from 1992 to 2002. Throughout her decade as a professional skater, she appeared on dozens of televised specials and became one of the most recognized athletes in the world. Wylie had an equally illustrious career, winning 10 professional championships and being a member of the Stars on Ice tour for six seasons. Atlantic City Weekly was lucky enough to catch up with Yamaguchi and Wylie as they prepared to join the tour.

Wylie remembers Atlantic City well. "We did a holiday show in Atlantic City in 1986," he says, "Donald Trump showed up. It was a really great time. My grandmother lived in Ocean City and my sister lives in Philadelphia so I have a lot of connections to that area. I think the best audiences for skating are in the Northeast because people there grew up watching skating. You can't expect people in California to get pumped up for winter sports."

He should know. Paul Wylie was born and spent 11 years growing up in Texas, where skating was not exactly highly valued as a sport. "People thought of skating as something nice to do at a birthday party," he laughs. "It was somewhat of an advantage though, because I had more of a chance to be a kid without so much pressure to compete."

Wylie always maintained a balance between skating and other concerns in his life, be they academic or professional. "I was always more efficient when I was balancing everything," he notes. "I found there were diminishing returns when I wasn't doing other stuff. I got stale. I didn't like it that if you had a bad run-through it would disrupt every aspect of your life. I couldn't live that way. With skating, you're only as good as your last performance, so I needed something I knew I was good at to fall back on."

Five years ago Wylie broke from skating entirely, got a MBA from Harvard Business School and began working for Walt Disney's Buena Vista marketing group. Yet, he says, "I missed the skating, the creative aspect of it. Not that being in marketing isn't creative. But there's a sense of personal creativity and the movement that's hard to replicate in the business world. I played on the intramural hockey team, but I was pretty burnt out. I held back deliberately. I got married [his wife Kate is a Cape Cod native and former College Division I Ice Hockey Goalie], had a baby and got my MBA, so I'm in a very different place. I think I may appreciate it [skating] more."

Legendary skater Scott Hamilton is at the helm of this year's Stars on Ice, and along with director Christopher Dean, conceived and planned the show's many performances. The theme this year is "Time." "Scott told me he wanted me to come off strong, with a lot of energy," says Wylie. "So I was listening to the radio and this song, "Long Time" by Boston comes on and I just knew that was it. The lead singer of Boston, Tom Scholz, is a figure skater, and skates at the rink where I teach. It really expressed my feeling that it's been such a long time but this is where I am right now."

Yamaguchi had a similar experience after skating with Stars on Ice for an amazing 10 seasons. In 2002 she settled down in Raleigh, N.C., to pursue business and advertising opportunities and raise a family (In 2000 she married NHL star Bret Hedican and the couple welcomed their first child, Keara, on Oct. 1, 2003). "I've been busy," she says, "and having a baby puts you in a very different mindset. There will always be a part of me that misses and loves touring and the friendships that you form. But it's been nice to move on and make it just a part of my life. You sacrifice time with family and friends to train and tour for so much of your life as a skater. It is really nice to slow down a little bit and get back to your roots."

She hasn't slowed down too much. "I have been doing some things," she says, "working with Northwest Airlines, etc. outside of skating to keep my options open." In addition to Northwest, Yamaguchi has worked as a spokesperson for Heinz Frozen Foods, Allstate Insurance, Bank of America, Hallmark, General Motors and Chevrolet. Perhaps her most rewarding achievement is the Always Dream Foundation, a charity for needy children. She has also written two well-received books: Figure Skating for Dummies and Kristi Yamaguchi, Always Dream. Both titles give practical and personal advice for aspiring skaters and regular folks. This past November Kristi hosted her own television special, Salute to American Music, on NBC.

Yamaguchi is looking forward to finalizing her routine for Stars on Ice in practice and getting in front of a live audience. "Usually I don't get to see much other than the hotel and the rink," she says. "But the crowds in Atlantic City are super nice, really supportive. I haven't seen the show yet, but I've heard a lot of good things about it. I'm doing one solo. It's a piece by Celine Dion called 'Have You Ever Been in Love?' I told them some of the lighting cues I would like, but once I join up we'll work on it and put it all together."

Emmy-winning costume designer Jef Billings has re-vamped the show alongside choreographer Jamie Isley, while Roy Bennet has planned a truly astounding light show. Wylie noted that the intense lighting and design can be distracting to the performers, particularly after years competing with no lights, props, or effects. "But they turn your routine into theater," he concludes, "so it ends up being really hard to skate under any other conditions, because they make it all so wonderful."

Yamaguchi summed up the feelings of herself and Wylie. "Skating is in my blood," she says, "and I think for the rest of my life I'll try to be a part of it somehow." Even with burgeoning families, business deals and time away from the flash and speed of the tour, these two champions are happy to get back into the rink for fans nationwide.

Another interesting development for Stars on Ice is a brush with reality television for John Zimmerman, who was a World Bronze medalist and three-time U.S. National Pair Champion along with Kyoko Ina. Zimmerman was recently chosen as a subject for the hit Bravo show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The "fab five" help him in an upcoming episode to impress his new wife Sylvia, by overhauling his look and cooking a great meal. The show airs March 9.

Paul Wylie, Kristi Yamaguchi, John Zimmerman and many more skaters will be performing at Smucker's Stars on Ice tour at Boardwalk Hall on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25-$80.