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dress rehearsal at the end of the day. Just
remembering last year with Denis and how
much passion he put into this show. You can
feel his spirit, but you know that something
is missing.
“Everyone could feel the void without
Denis in the arena. I was crying through
half of it because it really hit me then. You
could feel his energy and his spirit, but
you just knew there was one piece of the
puzzle missing.”
MEMORIAL GALA
The following evening, a skating gala took
place at the Almaty Arena. The event was a
sellout with 12,000 spectators in attendance.
The original show — “Denis Ten and
Friends” — which first took place in
Kazakhstan in 2013, was part of Ten’s efforts
to make figure skating more popular in his
homeland. This was the fifth time the event
had been held, but the first without him. The
show has been renamed “Friends of Denis.”
“What I loved most was that we had all
taken our own time to process everything
and the day of the show everyone came in
with a smile on their faces,” Weaver observed.
Bestemianova choreographed the group
numbers, as well as the opening and the
finale to music that Ten had composed
(“She Won’t be Mine” and “Heartbeat”).
His parents had asked the skaters to
perform one program to music their son
had used during his career, and to choose a
second piece themselves.
Asada, who had taken part in Ten’s
shows in previous years, said there was no
hesitation that she would attend this time.
“I still don’t want to believe what happened.
Last time I came here, Denis organized
everything,” the Japanese star recalled.
“We only fully realized that he is not here
anymore when we arrived at the arena. He
is always on our minds.”
Asada, who is currently touring Japan
with her own show, “Mao Thank You,”
performed to “Singin’ in the Rain,” music
that Ten had used as an exhibition programin 2013, replete with a costume that was
almost a replica of the one Ten had
worn. For her second number, Asada
skated to “Wind Beneath My Wings,”
which was performed by a Kazakh singer
accompanied by a live orchestra.
As had been the case in previous
shows, almost all the performances in the
second half were skated to music played
by the orchestra.
Abbott, who had been invited to Ten’s
shows in 2015 and again in 2018, said he
was very happy to be invited to take part
in this show. “It’s a great opportunity to
pay tribute to Denis — who he was as
a person, an athlete, artist and creator.
He really brought the whole world to
Kazakhstan and this show is a perfect
tribute to him.”
The first number Abbott performed
was to a Michael Jackson medley, an
exhibition piece Ten had used in 2009.
“I found some small ways to pay tribute
to Denis. I took little pieces of his
choreography from the program and
mixed it with my own,” Abbott explained.
“The second piece, ‘Pure Imagination,’ is
one that I’ve been performing this season.
I chose it because I felt the lyrics of the
song really embodied Denis and his spirit.
He was such an imaginative person and
he really wanted to invite everybody into
his world of pure imagination.”
Voronov performed his “Way Down
We Go” competitive long program from
last season that Ten had choreographed for
him. Voronov’s only regret with respect to
this program is that Ten never lived to see
him compete it.
“The reason to come here first of all is
out of respect for Denis and his country,”
Voronov said. “The second reason is that
last year Denis helped me a lot when he
agreed to choreograph my program. That
was a noble gesture from his side and I
appreciated that already last season. It was
really interesting to work with him. It was a
kind of mix, and we even laughed about it.”
Voronov noted that Ten had worked
with some of the best choreographers in
the world, such as Shae-Lynn Bourne
and Lori Nichol. “If a person is erudite,
they always take something from people
like that. Denis was erudite and also very
smart and he soaked everything up like
a sponge,” Voronov recalled. “He had a
personal approach, which is very important
for a choreographer. I believe that with
time, Denis could have developed into aMao Asada and Elena Radionova