ALL STARS ON ICE: WORLD CUP FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONS BRING OLYMPIC SUCCESS TO SHOW ME CENTER

Cancel the chorus! Bring on the champions!

It seems the new World Cup Figure Skating Champions are the demand of the day.

Apparently former Olympic pairs and ice skating champion Randy Gardner has found a way to answer such a demand with an all-star cast.

"In the last few years, the popularity of the no-chorus-line ice show featuring only skating champions has grown tremendously," said Gardner, who along with David W. Gravatt, directs the show destined for Cape Girardeau March 17.

"They have been successful simply because there is a greater demand for quality and excellence from a discerning public."

On the heels of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, Gardner's show will appear both timely and in step with the modern ice show concept.

World Cup figure skating will be on ice at the Show Me Center on Thursday, March 17, 7:30 p.m., for one performance.

A full portable ice tank will be installed over the stage floor. Measuring 40 feet by 58 feet, the equipment takes 12 to 18 hours to preapre and requires the skill of a special ice technician to supervise and maintain the skating surface during the show.

Then it's up to another kind of skilled technician to take over.

"For a third season we are again planning to stage a show like no other," said Gardner. "We have assembled an extraordinary cast of champion skaters in one magnificent show and given them the freedom to do what they do best : dazzle the audience."

Gardner has been one of America's foremost performers with partner Tai Babilonia. Stepping out of the spotlight to direct and stage the new World Cup Figure Skating Champions 1993-94 international tour leads him in a new direction in his career.

Headed by Olympic champions Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, along with Olympic medalist Elizabeth Manley, the show will also include 1993 U.S. Pro-Am national champion Caryn Kadavy and special guest stars Elena Valova and Oleg Vassiliev, both Olympic champions.

Manley stole the show in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. In the much-publicized battle between Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas, the energetic blonde from Canada defeated both in the freestyle and captured the silver medal. She repeated the next month at the World Championships in Budapest.

World Cup Figure Skating Champions offers a completely different dimension of entertainment. It explores the world of figure skating complete with its majesty, beauty and excitement.

Additional international star performers scheduled to take the ice at the Show Me Center include Olympic bronze medalists Petr Barna and Charlie Tickner along with Canadian national champion Tracey Wainman and world bronze medalist Gregor Filipowski.

The World Cuip Figure Skating Champions include five Americans, two Canadians, five Russians, one Polish and two Czechoslovakian nationals.

Klimova and Ponomarenko have been married for nine years and have been skating together for 13 years. They first rose to prominence in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, where they won the bronze medal.

They returned to win the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, and crowned their competitive career by winning the gold medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. No other figure skaters have equalied their record in Olympic history.

In between they captured three world titles, three European titles and over 30 other championships.

Tracey Wainman and Jozef Sabovcik are also husband and wife, but are single skaters.

Wainman is one of the most popular international skating stars, continuing the tradition of a long line of Canadian champions.

This year she joins the cast of World Cup Figure Skating Champions for its third international tour. Last season she starred in the "Ice Capades" national touring company, and the previous year toured throughout Europe with "Holiday on Ice."

Sabovcik dominated the international competitive scene during the mid to late '80s, becoming the Czechoslovakian champion six times. He was the European champion twice and won the Olylmpic bronze medal.

He left his home in Bratislava to train in Canada, where he met and married Wainman. The couple make their home in Toronto with their two-year-old son Blade.