On Friday, Luzhniki hosted a big show by Ilya Averbukh, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Tatyana Tarasova.
She celebrated it back in February, but then it was the height of the Beijing Olympics, and therefore the concert was decided to be postponed to a later date.
The program of the evening turned out to be very intense and extremely emotional.
Several generations of figure skaters, as well as theater, film and pop stars gathered to congratulate the legendary coach.
Many numbers on the ice were accompanied by live performances by artists, and between them Tatyana Anatolyevna shared memories of her childhood, parents, friends and beloved husband.
She spent more than three hours of the show at an impromptu judge's table on stage - almost the same as in the Ice Age project dear to her.
“It is very nice to see the almost full Sports Palace.
You have no idea how many times we skated here, took our students out.
Our legs did not hold us, as we worried at Luzhniki.
Such was the responsibility.
And now we will try to please you, ”said the coach, opening the program.
Skaters coped with this task with a bang.
Each room was greeted with thunderous applause.
Many new programs were presented, each of which Averbukh staged specifically for this landmark event.
So, the Olympic champion in team competitions Mark Kondratyuk performed to the live performance of "The Tempest" by Peter Nalich.
This evening the athlete really wanted to please the audience with a quadruple salchow, but he did not succeed in performing the quad cleanly - even when he twisted the jump with the next attempt, the exit turned out to be blurry.
“All because the site is smaller than usual.
This is good for us old people, but young people need more space, ”Aleksey Yagudin, the host of the show, explained this with humor.
An incendiary number in the truest sense of the word was performed by the champion of Pyeongchang Alina Zagitova.
She took to the ice under Can't help falling in love performed by rising star Diana Ankudinova, and in the final of the performance she lit a real fire in her palm.
“At the rehearsal, I even set myself on fire a little,” the skater admitted while talking to the press, pointing to the injured tracksuit.
Fortunately, during the performance, the fire show passed without excesses, and the spectacular black dress with scarlet inserts remained intact and intact.
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There was a small quarrel in the performance - however, it was planned.
It was masterfully played by the stars of the Ice Age Oksana Domnina and Kirill Zaitsev in their issue The Taming of the Shrew.
First, the partner rolled the girl into a carpet, then they slapped each other, and the program ended with a long kiss.
Yagudin even called it the longest in the history of the project.
Domnina, by the way, was the only participant who went on the ice three times - and each time with new partners.
With Maxim Shabalin they performed a lyrical program under "Dedication to a Woman", and with Roman Kostomarov they performed a rhythmic number in identical outfits and red hats.
In red, Evgenia Medvedeva also took to the ice.
The two-time world champion wore the same dress that she wore to the show in St. Petersburg two weeks earlier, but the program showed a completely new one.
This time, Zhenya decided to do without jumps, focusing on a sensual performance with poignant choreography.
Her performance was accompanied by the live singing of the opera diva Khibla Gerzmava.
Before the start of the gala concert, the figure skater noted that it was especially exciting to participate in Tarasova's anniversary evening, because the famous coach once supported her very much at a transitional moment in her life and career.
“During the pandemic, after returning to Russia, I skated at CSKA for several months, and Tatyana Anatolyevna came to my training every day, no matter how difficult it was for her.
Corrected errors, left comments about the details that make up the art of the program.
In a difficult period of my life, she helped me a lot as a coach, ”said Evgenia.
That evening, many shared their memories, talked about the role that the legend of domestic and world figure skating played in their career.
So, Ilya Averbukh called Tarasova his "creative mother".
“Tatyana Anatolyevna entered my life after I finished my sports career.
She became the foundation of my entire future life.
This is a person whose eyes I very often look at my work, whose character and willpower I cannot but admire.
On such people, legends, you need to educate a new generation, ”said the Olympic medalist.
He himself also took to the ice on this exciting evening for many.
Ilya performed solo to the live vocals of Elena Kamburova, and then presented the hero of the occasion with a huge bouquet of burgundy roses.
The world champions Aleksey Tikhonov and Maria Petrova also shook with antiquity.
They had not performed in any shows for a long time, but for the sake of the anniversary of Tatyana Anatolyevna, they uncovered their skates and prepared a number for the famous aria from Juno and Avos.
And for an encore they performed a spectacular rotation: Tikhonov spun his partner over the ice upside down, and at times it looked quite risky.
Yagudin at some point even gasped, but the former athletes proved that it was not in vain that they had trained in the last month.
The love story of Tarasova and her husband, pianist Vladimir Krainev, was tried to be realized on ice by Olympic champions Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin to the song "Love is like a dream" performed live by Mariam Mirabova.
Former athletes spent the rental in the same breath.
And before their release, Tatyana Anatolyevna told the audience a touching story about meeting her future husband.
“He offered to give me a lift, I just needed to train at Luzhniki.
We were driving along the Stone Bridge, and suddenly I see two rainbows in the sky.
I say, “Wonderful.
There will be something out of the ordinary."
Volodya says: "We will probably get married."
And we've known each other for 15 minutes, no more.
And after 18 days we got married.
We lived for 33 years, by the way, ”said the famous coach with a smile.
At the end of the show, the champions and prize-winners of the Beijing Games performed.
Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov showed a number to the song “There is no me there”, Anna Shcherbakova - an abridged version of the Olympic program “Master and Margarita”, and Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov performed to a live performance of Maria Zaitseva’s song “That Feeling”.
Athletes pleased the audience with complex pair elements, but Zhenya slightly blurred the exit from the ejection.
Therefore, the couple decided to repeat it for an encore, and the second time everything turned out perfectly.
By the way, before the performance, Morozov assured that they were not going to end their careers and, after a short vacation, they would start preparing programs for the new season.
Kamila Valieva, in turn, skated last year's short program to Eric Radford's "Storm".
She tried to perform only one jump - a triple flip - but fell.
But the fans still greeted the 15-year-old athlete with thunderous applause, and at the end of the rental they threw a bunch of soft toys on the ice, including a huge white and pink unicorn.
Camila had to carry them off the ice herself, which turned out to be not an easy task.
And the performance of Alexei Yagudin completed the program of the holiday.
Tarasova's favorite took to the ice to the legendary song "How Young We Were", and behind him on the screens flashed footage from a performance at the Games in Salt Lake City.
He tried to repeat the famous step sequence from the landmark program "Winter", threw snowflakes into the air, and with the last chord he knelt down and kissed the ice.
Then, having again risen to the stage to Tarasova to hand her a bouquet of white and red roses, Yagudin burst into tears.
“Earlier, every year on Tatyana Anatolyevna’s birthday, I wished her something.
And this year I did not want to repeat the banal congratulations.
Therefore, I wished everyone around them to absorb at least a piece of this great person, her knowledge, her skills, ”said the former skater with tears in his eyes.
And the audience did not disperse for a long time, welcoming the participants and the great coach, which made an indelible impression on her.
"All liked it!
And most of all - people who got up at the end, but did not disperse.
Not a single person left the room!
For 20 minutes they stood up and thanked the artists for such wonderful performances.
I always like people!”
— shared Tarasova after the show.