Skaters use songs from musicals for performances

Yesterday, I had the priveledge of sitting at the Exhibition of Champions from the 2007 National Figure Skating Championships, held here in Spokane. The TV schedule shows a broadcast of Feb. 18 from 4-6 p.m. on ABC. The medal-winners from each discipline performed whatever routine they wanted to whatever music they wanted -- unlike in competition, which is purely instrumental. Many chose rock 'n' roll or hard rock. My favorite chose showtunes.
Unfortunately, the sound system in the Arena made it impossible to understand the names of the performers, so I don't know who they were. I'm going to make educated guesses based on the photographs from the usfigureskating.org site.
Alissa Czisny took to the ice in a laced-up costume reminiscent of a peasant dress, such as one Aldonza might wear; the music was the theme from Man of La Mancha, as sung by Linda Eder. (I'd bet that half of the audience thought it was Barbra Streisand.) The powerhouse singer put La Mancha on her solo album, and performed it live at Carnegie Hall in an evening of divas.
Immediately following her was pair Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, with Bette Midler's The Rose, from the film of the same name.
Soon after came an ice dance couple who "Dreamed the Impossible Dream," with an edited version, but most of it was the version with Linda Eder. (I'm guessing it was Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov?)
Songs from movies or musicals are pretty common in performance, although for competition they have to be instrumental versions. The year of Tara Lipinsky's tutu (to quote Car Talk), her exhibition was to the animated film Anastasia, written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Once Upon a December and Journey to the Past were sung by Liz Callaway, a respected soloist (and the best interpretation of Meadowlark anywhere!) But my all-time favorite use of musicals in skating came from Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan.
Paul and Nancy had the same coach, and Paul had spent some time skating pairs before focusing on solo men's competition. When he and Nancy both won silver in the 1992 Olympics, they were both to perform in the exhibition. I remember watching Kerrigan in a white costume skating to one of Kim's solos from "Miss Saigon," performed by Lea Salonga. Soon after Paul came on with "Why God?" from Saigon, the male love interest. He had a white jumpsuit, with the same kind of accents as Nancy's. Then they stepped on the ice together and performed the duet "Solo Saxophone" from Saigon. It was beautiful. I can't tell you anything special about the performances other than they worked beautifully with the music -- and Kerrigan landed the spin Paul threw her into. (The look on the coach's face was priceless.) And in the age of YouTube.com, you can see the moment for yourself. (I also just saw Nancy Kerrigan's performance of Defying Gravity for a TV special. My only quip - why so few jumps for "Defying Gravity?")
In any case, the great thing about music from musicals is that they tell stories in song. The skaters have a few minutes to tell a story in dance, jumps, and body expression, and if the story is told partially in the song, all the better.