Denney and Frazier Hope for a Packed House In Las Vegas

Little by little, sports are becoming more prominent in the Las Vegas scene. NHL's Vegas Golden Knights paved the way in 2017 and WNBA's Las Vegas Aces joined the following year. Additionally, NFL's Oakland Raiders will be relocating to a new stadium that's under construction in Las Vegas.
 
Figure skating is right there in the mix. The Grand Prix season will kick off at 2019 Skate America presented by American Cruise Lines from Oct.18-20 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The excitement surrounding the Golden Knights has caused enrollment in Learn to Skate USA at area rinks to skyrocket. Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier hope that Skate America will add to the buzz and spark an increased interest in figure skating in the desert.
 
"It's going to give a whole different perspective for skating fans to come there and watch," says Frazier. "It'll be a different energy and I think it's really good publicity for our sport. There's so many shows in Vegas, amazing shows, top shows in the world and it's kind of good to get figure skating out there in our country a little bit more publicized. When you travel to Japan, Russia [and] Europe, you know, even Canada, you see a little bit more of an enthusiastic crowd. I mean, Haven and I always love competing at Skate America. We love competing in the homeland."
 
Frazier hopes that this is the start of something new and doesn't happen infrequently. He'd even like to see Vegas host a U.S. Championships one day. He and Denney will be leaving their poker faces at home. They'll exude a lot of emotion and bring a ton of showmanship through their artistic choreography thanks to the creative mind of Renée Roca.

The team's short program is perfect for the Las Vegas show scene. The routine is set to the soundtrack from Cirque du Soleil's "Quidam."

"In our program, we want to be the circus-like imaginary world and bring the audience in to our world and what we're doing, which is a little bit off-base from the original 'Quidam' story," explains Denney. "'Quidam' is about a girl who is separate from reality, so she makes up imaginary characters in her head, so in the program we want to be both imaginary characters."
 
Frazier adds that it'll be a mix of moments of intensity and playfulness. "We've always had a strong long and then the short was always like a more generic program," he says. "This year, we kind of really went all-in with having both programs being really just kind of out there. I think the short personally so far is going to be my favorite piece we've skated to."
 
Cirque recently made its way into the skating world with the touring production of "Crystal" and will soon debut a second ice show, "Axel." Frazier believes thinks this is a "gateway" for new fans to discover the sport. 
 
"When a show franchise big like Cirque du Soleil does a show for ice skating, you can really hook a lot of people in there and just enjoy the beauty of ice skating," he says. "Then, that can attract them to get more involved in it or want to be more of a spectator and see more of the bigger competition events."
 
When Denney and Frazier step on the ice for their free program, it'll be a circle of life moment. They are skating to the soundtrack from The Lion King, which they previously skated to in the 2014-2015 season. However, Denney promises it's all new with re-orchestrated music that blends the soundtracks of the original animated Disney classic with the new live-action feature film. As a fan of Queen Bey, Denney is destined to bring her inner Sasha Fierce to the ice. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter voices Nala in the film.
 
"Oh, yes. I most definitely will be channeling my inner Beyoncé in this program," she says. "I love Beyoncé, so I'm so happy she's in this movie."
 
The team's goal for this season is achieving consistency. They've remained consistent with their training atmosphere, staying in Wesley Chapel, Florida, under the tutelage of John Zimmerman, Silvia Fontana and Jeremy Barrett. They hope that translates to competitions.
 
Denney and Frazier are also pushing new levels and focusing on improving their in-between skating by adding transitional moves versus crossovers. "John has done a great job of filling, giving us a lot more weapons and tools to do a bigger arsenal of lifts and tricks in and out of our elements, and Renée Roca glued it all together in a good way," Frazier says.
 
Fans can look forward to a couple of "wow factor" moments towards the end of their free program that Frazier credits Zimmerman for creating. Denney and Frazier kick off their season this weekend at 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany. Stay up to date with all results on competition central.