Dance Review: Swan Lake on Ice TAPAC, September 17

The two entertainment producers who formed The Imperial Ice Stars group 10 years ago, hit a bonanza.

By ORA BRAFMAN
Swan Lake 370 (photo credit: John Hogg)
Swan Lake 370
(photo credit: John Hogg)
The two entertainment producers who formed The Imperial Ice Stars group 10 years ago, hit a bonanza. They collected a number of former ice skating medalists of international and regional competitions and adapted famous and much loved ballets for ice rings and dent them to dazzle on most respectable stages around the world.
Judging by the full house at Tel Aviv Opera House, the idea, contrary to my assumption, appealed mainly to adults.
There is no point in trying to compare this Swan Lake show to the classical ballet though both disciplines may be part of stage entertainment category, along with circus acrobats and tight rope walkers, which rely on their body and require long years of practice. Ice skating has its own advantages, as well as limitations when it comes to dancing. So there is no way on earth that a production of Swan Lake on Ice, will satisfy balletomanes to the core.
But then, its not meant to replace ballet, but to offer a different mass entertainment proposition, and this production, loaded with hair raising acrobatics, aerial numbers and the ever surfing and floating human figures, easily dazzle the viewers with spinning top like pirouettes.
It was a colorful production, with changing sets, beautiful performers with good technique. The basic story freely adapted so it could accommodate more dramatic scenes and special effects like a flying swan, Peter Pan style, a huge ring of fire on the icy floor, along endless spectacular lifts and hair raising duels, needed to cover the ice skaters greatest drawback: their movements lexicon is on the short side and the stage is not large enough to enable speed and acceleration required for performance at Olympic level. Yet, by and large, the Tel Aviv audience loved them.
Swan Lake on Ice will be performed on 24/9 at Jerusalem Theater, and on 26, 27/9 at Congress Center, Haifa