This year’s Kaleidoscope marked the fourth year of this celebration of cancer survivorship. Survivorship was a theme that ran throughout the night. It was intorduced in the opening remarks by Edge Health’s Mike Burg, Sanofi Aventi’s Paul Hawthorne, Pfizer’s Maria Koehler, and the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship’s Tom Sellers (who was celebrating his birthday). It was emphasized repeatedly in hosts Scott Hamilton and Dorothy Hamill’s comments throughout the evening. And it was embodied in the opening program, “I Will Survive” sung live by Gloria Gaynor and a choir, and skated by Sasha Cohen.

Before the opening number for the televised show rolled around, though, the crowd was first exhorted to bring up their energy level for the TV broadcast (which they happily complied with), and were brought to their feet to sing and dance along with a recording of “I Will Survive”. The audience would prove to be extremely receptive to all the performances throughout the evening, cheering particularly hard for David Archuleta and Johnny Weir, but very free with their applause and appreciation for all the rest of the skaters. It was one of the first shows I’ve been to in a while with a fair number of standing ovations. Despite the fact that there were stands only set up along one side and one end of the ice (the Alamodome is a HUGE football stadium, and the rink was set up at one end of the field, with a stage at one end, and a curtained wall of lights along one side), the audience was noisier and more enthusiastic than many recent skating crowds I’ve been in at professional shows.

Dorothy Hamill then came out to introduce Paul Wylie skating to David Archuleta performing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” I will admit, I’ve never watched American Idol so while I knew who David Archuleta is by name, I’ve never really heard him sing before. I was pretty impressed – he’s got a beautiful voice and tone which filled the arena with warmth.

Both David’s were given the opportunity to perform a song without a skater on the ice, and David Archuleta’s song was next. Scott talked about how he was now a bona fide star with web sites, fan clubs, bestselling albums, and a 20th birthday coming up really soon. David sang “Falling Stars”, which was absolutely gorgeous and heartfelt. His voice just filled the arena, and he can definitely emote while singing.