Laying Low in Hollywood (13 page)

   “Elena, it will be so easy for you, Ron will be fine, he’s very stable in the lunge position,” I told her, but she just kept shaking her head determinedly.  I sighed miserably, this was much harder than working with children.  Children were always eager to please and usually, they didn’t even care if they fell occasionally.

   I was aggravated, I knew they could do it!  I guessed I would have to show her that Ron was going to be fine.  My idea was to have Ron skating in a lunge position and have Elena skate facing him, place her left blade on top of his right skate then Elena would lean forward, Ron would support her waist with his arm, while she pulled her right leg up behind her head, in a full Beilman position.

   I took them off the ice, so we could try it on the rubber mats that were right next to the ice.  I got Ron into position, then I did it myself, to show her that it could be done.  She was still shaking her head empathetically.

   “He weel fall on me and keel me,” said Elena.

   “He can do it,” I told her as I ushered them both back to the ice.

   “Fine...you first,” said Elena, gesturing for me to try it on the ice with Ron.

   I rolled my eyes, I was supposed to be the coach and choreographer, this was getting ridiculous!

   I gave Ron a few, last minute instructions.  Then the two of us began skating around to gain some speed.  Ron had to have enough momentum to support his weight and mine without falling.

   I spun around in front of Ron, so that I was skating backwards, he cautiously began to slide down into position, I carefully placed my left blade, on top of his right skate, then leaning forward onto his right arm, I slowly pulled my right leg up behind my head, holding it for 3 seconds, then I carefully came back down onto the ice.  We were both a little bit shaky, but we did it!  I was stunned when I heard a solitary person applauding us from the edge of the ice.  Of course, it was Jorge.

   “Once again I tell you, I picked the wrong person to do the actual skating.  Would you and Elena like to switch roles?” asked Jorge, his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

   “Maybe next time you should only hire skaters who have pairs experience,” I told him, raising my eyebrows at him.

   “Step to it Miss Denkova, it’s your turn to try it,” said Jorge, clapping his hands to make his point.  Elena frowned, then she took Ron by the hand and began skating with him.

   Ron was very cautious and Elena seemed to be moving in slow motion, but they actually did it!  Elena was too nervous to completely extend herself, but they did it well enough that I felt like it was a definite possibility.

   I was bursting with pride as they skated back over to us, with a little bit of work the move was going to be stunning!  I was excited.

   “I can’t wait to see the entire program.  I had my doubts at first, but I think this team may actually be a top contender.  I’m very impressed,” said Jorge.

   “Thank you,” I said, giving him a smile.

   “I came to invite you all to a private screening of the show’s debut tonight at Spago,” said Jorge.

  “Spago, like Wolfgang Puck’s Spago?” cried Ron, excitedly.

   “The very one,” said Jorge, giving us a little nod.

   “Yeah!” cried Elena, clapping her hands excitedly.

   “Once again you’ll be arriving as a team, the media will all be there, so be on your best behavior.  Check with wardrobe and Carmelita when you are done here, she’ll set you up for hair and makeup,” said Jorge.

   I resisted rolling my eyes.  I hated these big Hollywood events, I just wanted to put my jammies on and watch it at the condo, instead we had to make a big Hollywood night of it.  Of course, it was part of my contract that I had to go to all these silly parties, but that didn’t mean that I had to like them.

                          
CHAPTER 13

   Early that evening I was back at the salon, having my hair and makeup done.  Then I would be dressed in the black designer dress that the stylist had picked out for me and I would be off to yet another party.

   I arrived at Spago with my team, completely overwhelmed to be amongst Hollywood’s “in crowd”.  Elena and Ron both looked completely gorgeous and I had pretty much forced them to sit next to each other in the limo.  The three of us posed for photos on the red carpet together, then, when we reached the door of the restaurant, Jorge took my arm possessively.

   The whole affair wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated.  In fact, I actually enjoyed myself.  We had a wonderful dinner prepared by Wolfgang Puck and his staff, then we all got to watch the season premier there on the big screen.  I had to giggle as I watched it, my team definitely looked the worst in their practice videos, and of course, Maurice had been capturing all my deep sighs and eye rolling as I tried, often without much success, to make a figure skating pair out of my seriously mismatched raw talent. 

   All ten teams did their 30 second intros, but ours was definitely the most stunning.  After watching my team’s sorry practice clips, you’d almost swear they weren’t even the same team out there on the ice performing!  At the end of the show, we finally got to hear the comments made by the panel of judges and guest skaters who had been brought in. 

   I was happy, most of the comments were pretty positive. The judges and the guest skaters all thought that team Muramsatsu had the most raw talent, though several had commented that despite my team’s rocky start, they had definitely seen a glimmer of potential.

   I was content enough, it was good that the judges had recognized us as actual contenders in this competition, without putting the idea into people’s heads that we would be the team to beat.  I really preferred to fly under the radar a little bit.  I didn’t want to be everyone’s enemy right off the bat.

   The rest of the week went by very quickly.  My team had finally settled into a routine of sorts and they seemed to be working quite hard, and surprisingly, without a lot of complaints.

   The days seemed to be racing by, on Wednesday we would be taping yet another show, it seemed surreal to me, that our first elimination would be this week.  I was pretty stoked about our “Gypsies” routine.  I knew we were going to blow everyone away!

   Our last run through on Wednesday went perfectly and I knew my team was ready for their performance in front of the studio audience that night.  Our team would be second in the lineup to perform, right after team Maricelle.

   After the director briefed us, we were brought into the arena as a group.  There was an entire section of seats designated for the skaters and their coaches.  Across the ice was judges box with the studio audience seated directly behind them.  Of course, this was our first real taping, so things didn’t go real smoothly, we weren’t really into a routine yet.  The viewers would never know of our difficulties working through the first episode, all that would be edited out.

   Team Maricelle was first up.  I smiled to myself as I watched their program.  The concept was cute, they were skating to “Don’t stop till you get enough,” by Michael Jackson, their steps were good, but their lift never really got off the ground,  both skaters stumbled clumsily, then they went back to their lame dance moves.

   I suppressed a little giggle, if my team performed as good tonight as we’d been doing all week, we definitely wouldn’t be the first team eliminated.

   Finally, team Maricelle had finished, and they were taking their bows at the center of the ice, the three judges each gave them fives, giving them a score of fifteen out of thirty.

   I smiled as Ron and Elena were introduced.  They skated confidently out onto the ice, they looked so cute, all done up in their gypsy costumes.  I tried to ignore the cameraman who was hovering nearby, ready to record my reactions as I watched excitedly.  I smiled serenely as my team pulled off a nearly perfect performance.  The crowd seemed to enjoy the performance too, as the applause seemed to be deafeningly loud as they both skated back over to me.

   I hugged them both as they returned to me at the edge of the ice.  I had hold of both their hands as the three of us sat in the judging area, dubbed the “Kiss and Cry” just like a real skating competition, while we waited for the scores. 

   I was actually pretty happy with the producer’s choices for the judges.  They were all accomplished skaters who were well known and creditable and it was actually kind of entertaining to listen to their comic banter. 

   The first judge was Natasha Webber.  She had been a legend in her own time and an Olympic gold medalist.  She had retired from skating years ago but she was still well known, and quite witty.

   The second judge was Jack Montrose, he had been a men’s world champion several times and was now a popular coach and sports commentator. 

   The last judge was Hal Luther, he was the oldest of the judges and probably the best known figure skater of all time!  As a judge, Hall Luther was proving himself to be quite a hard ass, he craved perfection, though at this point in the competition, perfection was hardly attainable.  I was enjoying his sometimes, awkward comments.  If he had something to say, he didn’t hold back, and it was cracking me up. 

   Finally, my team received their scores, eight, eight and a seven, from Hal Luther, of course.  I was beside myself with excitement!  That was even better than I could have imagined for our first week doing a full program.  In fact, I had originally imagined that my team would be eliminated tonight, now I was certain that we would be able to stay, at least, one more week! I could have went home right then and there, I was so excited over my team’s performance.               Most of the teams did well, though no one really stood out to me, and so far, no other team, had beaten our score.  All the teams, including ours, were still a bit shaky.  I was a bit worried about the next team that was preparing to skate, Jorge had seen them in action and he told me they looked really promising.

   The team consisted of retired Canadian figure skater, Ed Costello, and his partner, volleyball star Valerie Vasquez.  The team was skating to the song “Stairway to Heaven”, by Led Zeppelin, which seemed perfect, because Valerie looked like an angel in her white dress, she was so beautiful.

   I watched their program in awe, the program was beautiful and mesmerizing.  It was hard to believe that in such a short time period they had pulled together such a technically perfect program.  Even I had to admit, the choreography was stunning, and the program was well practiced, even to my trained eye, I hadn’t noticed one tiny flaw.  I was waiting to see the required element, their lift, I was sure it was planned to be the grand finale.

   I was almost holding my breath as I watched couple skating rapidly around the rink, obviously to gain speed for their lift.  I gasped as Ed lifted his partner up into a star lift, which was very difficult.  Too difficult, I thought, for a pair that were not seasoned professionals and had only just begun working together. 

   I could feel my heart beating nervously in my chest.  I guess maybe it was the mother in me, but I was a stickler for safety.  The last thing I wanted was for one of my students to get hurt.  I was almost panicking as I watched them, the scary part, for me, was that Ed was spinning across the ice, almost too fast, as far as I could tell.  I was cringing nervously, these pairs were way too inexperienced to be attempting stunts like this. 

   I had a sick feeling of dread when Valerie changed her position to come down from the lift.  My worst fears were realized as Ed lost his footing somehow and fell, I cringed as they both crashed full speed into the wall.

   I had already jumped up from my seat and was heading that direction.  It seems as if everyone else had the same idea, their coach was already on the ice with them and a crowd had gathered around Valerie, who was laying on the ice perfectly still and had not gotten up from the fall.  I was almost sick to my stomach, seeing her laying there, it was heartbreaking to see someone get hurt like that.

   Finally, I let out a sigh of relief as they helped Valerie to her feet and she waved self consciously to the cheering crowd.  The ice was now covered with her blood and her coach was holding pressure with a bandage to a large gash on her chin.
             

   The ice was resurfaced and the host was forced to do multiple takes when he finally announced the last few teams.  Valerie’s crash had shaken everyone.  I can’t really say that either of those last two teams stood out to me in their performances.  Maybe it had nothing to do with either of the actual performances, I was still numb over poor Valerie’s crash. 

   Soon the host had returned to the ice and was announcing that the judges had made their decision and they would be announcing which team would be eliminated tonight.  I figured it would be team Maricelle, they’d had the lowest score of anyone. 

   I was surprised when Ed and Valerie’s coach stepped up to the microphone to announce that their team was withdrawing from the competition.  Apparently, Valerie had injured her shoulder badly and would be unable to continue in the competition.

   So that was it, the judges chose not to eliminate a team this week, based on the fact that Ed and Valerie had withdrawn due to injuries.  It was sad, they had truly been a beautiful team, but I was happy that Ron and Elena would be back for another week.  We had even earned the high scores for the week, which was very exciting.

   I went back to my condo that night, very pleased with myself.  Tomorrow night this episode would air and my team would be in first place.  I wasn’t planning to watch the show on TV tomorrow night though.  I wasn’t sure I could watch Valerie plow into that wall again.  It had been much too painful to watch the first time.

   Tomorrow my team would begin working on a brand new program, new music, new costumes, and a new required element.  It seemed like an awful lot to get done in one short week.