The figure skating ice show “Dream on Ice” began on the 28th at the Kose Shin-Yokohama Skate Center in Yokohama City, with top skaters including Kaori Sakamoto (Sysmex), who has won the women’s world championship three times in a row, and Yuma Kagiyama (Oriental Bio/Chukyo University), who won the silver medal at the 2024 World Championships, performing new routines for the 2024-2025 season.
Many skaters skated to new short programs, and Sakamoto expressed a new worldview of tango to the arrangements of “Resurrection of the Angel” and “Death of the Angel” by bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla. Kagiyama performed “Sound of Silence,” a song from the movie “Graduation,” with ease.
Mao Shimada (Kinoshita Group), who is currently reigning two years in a row as world champion in the junior women’s category, performed light-hearted jumps to the music of the musical “Wicked,” while Renae Kamizono (LYS), who placed fourth at last year’s All Japan Championships despite being 13 years old at the time, skated to the powerful free skating piece “Bells.”
Sakamoto commented, “The tango I’ve performed in exhibitions up until now has been a ‘rough tango’. But this SP was choreographed with a focus on the fingertips, gaze, use of the face, and other small, subtle expressions, so I think it’s a little different from the tango I’ve done before.”
Kagiyama also expressed his enthusiasm for completing his new program, saying, “I want to use my body and express myself in a way that matches the music. In particular, I want to avoid making any noise with the edges in the first half of the music. I want to show careful edge work.”
In order to make the format more similar to a competition this year, singles will be divided into groups of three to five people, and six minutes of practice will be required before the performance. The use of spotlights and other effects will also be avoided. The performances will run until the 30th.[Kurazawa Hitoshi]