Breaking the Ice
An adapted version of a Tchaikovsky classic makes its debut in Beijing
Swan Lake on Ice, a show which integrates figure skating with ballet and is produced by the Imperial Ice Stars, the world’s leading theatrical ice skating company, was staged at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing from August 15 to 19.
The Swan Lake ballet on which the show is based premiered in Moscow in 1877 and tells of a love story between Prince Siegfried and Odette. After coming under the spell of the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart, Odette appears as a swan during the day and a beautiful princess at night, and her unlikely romance with Siegfried develops into a tale of deceit, passion and sacrifice.
“Everybody knows Swan Lake through the ballet, I believe. I went to watch Marius Petipa’s version in which the black swan and the white swan were performed by one person and thought this didn’t make sense. I was enjoying the dance but I didn’t understand the logic of the show,” said Tony Mercer, producer and artistic director of the Imperial Ice Stars, at the launch ceremony of Swan Lake on Ice on August 15.
In having two different actresses perform the roles of the black and white swans, Mercer wants to enable the audience to feel for what is happening to each character and to understand why. “I just want to make this experience more enjoyable,” he said.
The show uses the original musical score composed by Tchaikovsky, with new choreog- raphy by Mercer.
Based in Moscow and founded in 2004, the Imperial Ice Stars is made up of 26 Olympic, world, European and national championshiplevel skaters, who hold more than 250 competition medals altogether. In addition to Swan Lake on Ice, the theater company has produced other performances such as Sleeping Beauty on Ice, Cinderella on Ice and The Nutcracker on Ice. Since their debut 14 years ago, the Imperial Ice Stars have enthralled more than 4 million people in over 20 countries.
According to Mercer the goal of his company is to gather world leading figure skating athletes to present classical plays in the form of ice dance.