THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503110034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
PEGGY FLEMING. Dorothy Hamill. Katarina Witt.
The woman who've put an international face on figure skating can be counted on one hand - even when the last skaters to snatch the limelight are added. But the black eye Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan gave the sport last year had an up side: It brought in audiences.
``People tuned in the TV because they wanted to know where the story goes,'' said Witt, a two-time gold medalist. ``Maybe people weren't very interested before, but I think the ratings are so good this year because they saw the sport and fell in love with the skating and all the athletes.''
Witt, who skates at Scope tonight with ``Discover Stars on Ice,'' a tour de la creme starring fellow Olympians Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Paul Wylie and Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, is no stranger to creating a sensation.
In 1984, the 19-year-old skater from the former East Germany rocked the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Her bold style combined Fleming's fluid grace with Hamill's athleticism; her sultry, drop-dead looks were far removed from the squeaky-clean kewpie dolls who had defined the sport. Four years later, in Calgary, Witt became the first woman in more than 50 years to win back-to-back golds.
She took home six European and four world championships between 1983 and 1988. In 1990, she won an Emmy for ``Carmen on Ice.''
``I'm always trying to be different,'' Witt, her accent still pronounced, said last week from Boston. ``We came up with different ideas, which was telling stories on the ice. It's amazing to me how much this stuck in the minds of the people. I think it was just very different, telling the whole story on the ice, being a character out there. I've always loved doing that.''
That kind of enthusiasm, she said, is what helped Oksana Baiul beat Kerrigan in Lillehammer, Norway.
``She skated with her heart. I think that's what skating is all about, too. It is a sport, but you have to put your heart and soul into it, and this is what Oksana is doing.''
Witt has no plans to stop competitive skating, but is enjoying her first full year with ``Stars on Ice.'' It's a hectic schedule - the tour bus was leaving Boston in 15 minutes - and she was looking forward to performances in New York following a swing through New England.
``Full time, I'm on the road,'' she said, laughing. ``So when I'm home, which is Berlin and New York, it's only for a couple of days always. It's nice while I'm here on the road to have a home in the States where I can go once in a while.
``You come on tour and you have to be very well-prepared. Of course, it takes a few days to adjust to the new programs and everything, but you are sort of in a routine. Before a show, we have an hour of practice, and when we're in a city for maybe two days - which is hardly ever - we do work out in the morning. But basically you have to come on tour and be prepared.''
Following the tour, Witt will film a fairy tale in Germany. She also has her own production company, and is developing projects on and off the ice. ``You know how this is. You work on 10 different things and you're happy if two things work out.''
The challenges, though, have not changed since Witt first made international headlines: Take chances, learn something new, try anything. Even the ``Stars on Ice'' tour applies.
``There are skaters like us who are always trying to be more contemporary,'' she said. ``If you compare our show to Disney's, it's just totally different. It's way more for a younger audience. It's very athletic. It's dramatic. It has no fluffy-fluffiness in it.'' MEMO: Staff writer Ruth Fantasia contributed to this story.Staff writer Ruth
Fantasia contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Katarina Witt...
by CNB