Photo Courtesy of Getty Images via Brandstand PR
*Article was originally written for Philly Happening Magazine, April 2018*
Two of the biggest names from February’s Winter Olympics were American figure skaters Nathan Chen and Adam Rippon. You will have a chance to see both skaters live when they come to a Pennsylvania city near you this week in the Stars on Ice tour. The tour will make stops in Allentown on Thursday, April 19, and Hershey on Friday, April 20. Tickets are on sale at http://www.starsonice.com/.
The tour also features Olympians Mirai Nagasu and “The Shib Sibs,” ice dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani. (It was just announced that Rippon and Nagasu will appear on season 25 of Dancing with the Stars, which begins Monday, April 30 on ABC).
In the show, skaters will finally break free from this season’s Olympic pressure and perform to fun and entertaining music under show lights. Each skater performs two individual numbers and there are also group numbers. The show is family-friendly and suitable for children of all ages.
Chen,18, appeared on the Kellogg’s Cornflakes box this winter and has appeared in endorsements for American Airlines, Nike, and Coca-Cola. Rippon,28, from Clarks Summit, a borough northwest of Scranton, became an overnight sensation at the Games, with his charming personality and sassy wit. Rippon spent many years training outside the Philadelphia area early in his career. Both skaters won a bronze medal in the Olympic team event and finished in the 10 top of the individual event.
At the Olympics, Chen catapulted from 17th place after the short program to first in the freeskate, and fifth overall, after landing six quadruple jumps. He won the World Figure Skating Championships in Milan, Italy last month.
Former Philly Happening Editor Susan Field recently caught up with Chen on the phone in between SOI rehearsals to find out what fans can look forward to at the show and what his post-Olympic plans are.
S.F.: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me! Congratulations on your incredible season and on your World Championship win! What will you be skating on the Stars on Ice tour?
N.C.: I will be skating to my short program from the season (“Nemesis” by Benajmin Clementine). I really loved that program! It will be great to skate it in a show setting. The other program I’m skating is a show program that I put together for the Japan Stars on Ice Tour that I did right after the World Championships in Milan.
S.F.: Tell me more about this year’s SOI Olympic tour. What can people expect?
N.C.: The show is so much fun! It’s an amazing cast with Olympic gold medalists, national and world champions, and a lot of skaters from the U.S. Olympic team. All the skaters have multiple numbers, so you’ll get to see each skater multiple times. You’ll get to see lots of different styles of music and choreography. In the Olympic season, we have a lot more cities on the tour and we get fans that we normally don’t get in the off-Olympic years, so that’s cool.
S.F.: I’m calling you from Philadelphia. The tour stops in two places in PA—Hershey and Allentown. Do you have any PA connections?
N.C.: My training-mate, Adam Rippon, is from Pennsylvania, but other than that, no. I was in Hershey last year for the Stars on Ice Tour and it was a lot of fun performing there. I’m looking forward to going back there again!
S.F.: A big story in the news recently is that you got accepted to Yale. Congratulations! If you go there, how will you continue to work with your coach in California?
N.C.: I think I’m going to utilize the [college] breaks. He (Raphael Arutyuyan) is willing to come out and see me on the East Coast. As of now, all the concrete details I have is that I got accepted and that I want to keep training with my coach. I’ll have to talk with him more and we’ll figure it out.
S.F.: What do you want to study?
N.C.: The great thing about college is that you can kind of go in as a Liberal Arts major and explore; you can see what your strengths and weaknesses are. I’m interested in studying Pre-Med or Econ., or something along those lines.
S.F.: What an amazing, whirlwind season you had! I think all your fans were so proud of you for the way you fought at the Olympics after a disappointing short program. What’s your biggest takeaway from this season?
N.C.: Honestly, just the experiences of the year. I had no idea what to expect going in. I had the opportunity to perform great the Olympics and to perform awful in the short program, so now I know how it feels going in and out of the Olympics, both good and bad. I gained a lot from a skating standpoint. It gives me a chance to take this experience and go forward in my career.
S.F.: What can we expect from you over the next four years?
N.C.: I want to keep expanding my “artistic horizons” and try different styles and music. I think that will be fun. In terms of technically, I’m not sure what the rules will be for next year—they might make some changes with the jump values—so I’ll have to look more into that when I find out. I know regardless that I’ll try to make it exciting. I’m excited to work on new jumps and to clean up the ones that I already have.
S.F.: I saw you on one of those NBC Olympic preview clips jamming on the guitar. What do you like to play? Does the guitar come on tour with you?
N.C.: It’s a low-key hobby…It’s just something fun that I’ve been trying to work on. I never took lessons— I watched some videos and just learned on my own. I didn’t take it with me on this leg of the SOI tour because I went right from Worlds in Milan to Stars on Ice in Japan to SOI rehearsal in the U.S., but for some other parts of the tour, hopefully I will take it with me!
S.F.: If you could skate with one of your figure skating idols, who would it be?
N.C.: Evgeni Plushenko (the 2006 Olympic gold medalist from Russia). When I skated in Stars on Ice Japan the other week, he was there, too. It’s cool to get to meet skaters who are my idols and to see that they’re just regular people off the ice.
S.F.: What’s something about yourself that most people don’t know?
N.C.: For the most part, I’m pretty introverted. I’ve been so consumed with skating and school over the years, I haven’t had much time for other things, but hopefully going to college will help me to open up and find things that I’m passionate about outside of skating!
To buy tickets for Stars on Ice Allentown or Hershey, visit: http://www.starsonice.com/
