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Warm hearted tale glides along
Time moving on as midnight approaches Cinderella on Ice Lichfield Garrick **** THIS must be every little girl's dream;
probably the world's best loved fairy story told in a blend of ballet
and ice skating by The Russian Ice Stars all on a rink not much bigger
than the average living room! All right, a bit bigger, 11.16 metres deep and
10.6 metres wide, taking up the whole of the Garrick's stage, which in
theatre terms is a decent size but in ice skating ? That is ridiculously
tiny when it comes to doing athletic jumps, spins and throws that are
normally only seen on rinks the size of a small football pitch. People sitting in the first few rows must have
felt like ice hockey netminders at times as the skaters whipped around
the tiny rink at speeds only the completely mad or supremely skillful
would attempt and this collection of circus acts and former
international competitive skaters have skill to burn. But it is not just power skating with some
spectacular lifts along with double and triple jumps and spinning
throwsthere is also grace and elegance and great beauty about a
production which produces a rather bland version of the story. The ugly sisters and wicked stepmother are
unfriendly rather than nasty to dear old cinders and the only hard edge
to the tale comes when the clock strikes midnight and the Prince and
Cinders are separated by sinister figures in black representing time. The undoubted star is Cinders, skated by Valeria
Vorobyeva, a member of the Russian National team who only retired from
competitive skating in 2009. She skates with a beauty and grace whih is
quite remarkable on such as small rink. Her Prince is Valdis Mintals who skated with
considerable success at the World and European Championships with
Viktoriya Shklover, who plays one of the ugly sisters along with Maria
Mukhortova who is a European silver medallist and skated in the last
Winter Olympics.
Bringing some real grace is Ekaterina Murugova,
wife of Mintals and a former world junior champion. There are exciting moments from Buttons, Sergeil
Slavnov and the master of ceremonies, Denis Balandin, another Winter
Olympian, along with the court jesters Alexander and Ekaterina
Belokopytova, a married couple who are both qualified aerial gymnasts
from Moscow Circus College. Yuri Kuprin, who plays the king, is another circus school graduate, with a degree in floor acrobatics who at 40 is one of the elder statesmen of the company. He didn't start skating until he was 20 and he brings his acrobatic skills on to the ice when a trampoline is introduced. A small point – the costumes, by Joolz, on the
whole were sleek and colourful and looked the part, except for the king
who looked a little like Captain Pugwash, which made him stand out, as a
king perhaps should, but not perhaps for those reasons. We all know the story and the tradition shoe
fitting scene produced some remarkable skill and balance when the wicked
stepmother, Sergei Smirnov, another European Championship finalist,
along with the two ugly sisters carried out some quite complex routines
on just one skate – the other foot bare awaiting the royal shoefitters,
or in this case, skatefitters. Amid the skating and traditional story there is
some gentle humour as well and a bit of shock, and a laugh, when the
skate fits an ugly sister but we won't spoil that one. This cross between ballet and ice show on a
theatrical stage is a formulae which seems to work. I must admit my
knowledge of the technicalities of ice skating is slightly less than my
familiarity with mediaevil Polynesian midwifery but it looked classy,
showed phenomenal skill and at times had a beauty all of its own with a
mix of classical and more modern music. A thoroughly entertaining
evening. Roger Clarke
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