The show took place on the 4th of March in Moscow in Luzhniki's small sport arena. The participants were: Maria Butyrskaya, Surya Bonaly, Philippe Candeloro, Alexei Urmanov, Viktor Petrenko, Anjelika Krylova & Oleg Ovsyannikov, Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas, Radka Kovarikova & Rene Novotny, Vladimir Besedin & Alexei Polishchuk. And also some Russian pop artists.

It was wonderful to see Rita and Povilas in Moscow at last! In the first part of the show Rita and Povilas skated their oriental dance set to the music of Ayman & Hisham "Possession". The dance looked gorgeous. The ice arena was dragged into the darkness, the stage looked like the starry sky with 4 fire tongues. There was a sunrise image on the big screen on the stage, later it was changed to oriental landscapes and pictures of deserts. With the first music chords and the first skaters' movements one could feel that he is in the east about 2 centuries ago and is watching the real oriental dance... The total immersion into the oriental theme. It was beautiful. The audience gave Rita and Povilas a warm and hearty welcome.

The second part of the show was opened with a Rita and Povilas' number - flamenco. At first at the stage, that was divided into 2 parts by the passage under which skaters went out to the ice, appeared 15 dancers from the Flamenco Theatre of Vasiliy Kleimenov including Vasiliy and Inessa Kleimenov. There were 4 fire tongues again at the stage and there was only the fire at the screen. At first there was a dance on the stage and later on Rita and Povilas appeared on the ice. I love the music from this programme, it has never been used in figure skating. The music is beautiful, it is passionate and exciting. Their perfomance was like minishow - the show of Rita and Povilas inside Maria's grandshow. In the final team number all the skaters were in black costumes, Larissa Dolina (well-known Russian pop-star) was singing "I will survive" and Rita and Povilas were in blach and white costumes that they skated Quelques Cris in Salt Lake City.

The final number looked really grandiose. There was cheerful and lively music, all the skaters in great mood , a lot of pyrotechnics and fireworks. It was a deserved end of the great show.

Backstage photo by Nadia Kukebaeva
All other photos by Olga Timokhova