Sasha, Sarah & Styles

NEWS & VIEWS > COVER STORY

'Fashion On Ice' stars Sarah Brightman and features Sasha Cohen and other top skaters, who are joined by fashion industry trendsetters for one big show.

By Joe Szczechowski

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Nov. 15, 2007

Stars from the worlds of figure skating, popular music, and fashion design will perform together in a one-of-a-kind live music and skating extravaganza when the Fashion on Ice Starring Sarah Brightman show takes place this Saturday, Nov. 17 at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall. 

What distinguishes Fashion on Ice from similar Ice Capades-style shows is the level of talent participating in Friday's performance. Sarah Brightman, the biggest-selling classical crossover soprano of all time, will provide the music. The skaters will include Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen, reigning U.S. champion and two-time world bronze medalist Evan Lysacek, four-time U.S. ice dancing champions and Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, world ice dancing champion Shae-Lynn Bourne, and two-time Italian Olympian Silvia Fontana, among others.  

The cast will be wearing the styles of world-renowned designers John Bartlett, Heatherette (created by Traver Rains and Richie Rich), Victoria Bartlett and Tracy Reese. Former supermodel Roshumba Williams will host the 8pm show. 

The first Fashion on Ice event took place last December at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. Like its predecessor, Saturday's show is being produced by Disson Skating, a company founded in 2001 by sports marketing veteran Stephen Disson. Comcast-Spectacor entered into a partnership with Disson Skating in 2006 with the goal of becoming the leading producers of televised ice skating shows in the United States and Canada. They currently produce 10 ice skating specials on NBC, including Fashion on Ice, which will air Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008 at 4pm. 

Sasha Cohen

In a recent telephone interview for Atlantic City Weekly, Sasha Cohen said she enjoys participating in non-competitive skating events like Fashion on Ice. 

"It's so much fun to get to perform to live music and combine different elements into your program, because skating is such a creative art form," she says. "It's so much more than a sport, so it's really fun to explore the other side of it." 

Cohen hasn't competed since 2006, the year she won the ladies U.S. Figure Skating Championship. In December of that year, Cohen announced that she was taking time off from competitive skating. Her goal is to return to competition for the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. 

In the meantime, she's free to headline events like Fashion on Ice, and the upcoming 2007-2008 Stars on Ice tour, as long as they are sanctioned by the U.S. Figure Skating Association. 

Cohen, who turned 23 in October, was born and raised in Los Angeles. She started skating at a very early age, but her first love was gymnastics. 

Sarah Brightman

"I think it helps you to start being aware of your body -- becoming physically fit, developing strength and flexibility -- which carries over well into skating," she says. 

Cohen says she didn't take skating seriously until she was 10 years old. 

"I was really casual [about skating]," she says. "I just went a couple times a week and didn't even have a proper skating dress. I just loved to race around the rink and go fast." 

Less than six years later, Cohen was considered one of the top female skaters in the country, earning the silver medal in the ladies U.S. Figure Skating Championship in 2000. 

Cohen says training for shows like Fashion on Ice is far less intense than training for the Olympics, but it is time consuming. 

"Production starts six or seven months in advance of the shows," she says. "You have to make new programs and get comfortable with them, as well as new costumes. It's definitely a lot of work, but it's such a great experience to skate to live music. And of course they're all televised on NBC, so that's great. We get a lot of exposure, and people get to see skating in a whole different light." 