Swan Lake on Ice, The Imperial Ice Stars UK tour 2007

A triumphant performance with understated elegance and high drama.
Set to Tchaikovsky’s familiar score, the troupe of young Russian ice dancers astonish and impress with their breathtaking skill and grace. The performance ranges from the divinely elegant, through joyous and comic, jaunty and confident, to dramatic and heart-stopping. Many times the slender girls are thrown by powerful men, and sent spinning into the air, with a surprising momentum; yet they land perfectly, with inches to spare, on the stage sized ice rink, and the audience can breathe once more.

Despite an accident during their matinee show the cast perform again in the evening with consummate professionalism, throwing themselves into the ice dance with exciting enthusiasm, having reworked the routine in their short break to omit the trapeze sequence. It is not only their stamina but their courage that is applauded. They look so young, yet their punishing schedule often means six evening performances and three matinees, and all this with broad smiles and infectious zeal. There are cartwheels, Cossack dancing and even ethereal ballerinas en pointe, who slow the pace and create an atmosphere of enchantment. The costumes are romantically elegant and exquisitely detailed, and the whole combination of youthful athleticism, superb style, wonderful music and the visual feast is almost intoxicating. Not to be missed.

Comments

OLD JOY. Dir Kelly Reichardt. 2005

Dropout Kurt arrives in town and calls up his old friend, earnest father-to-be Mark to suggest a camping trip out in the forest, away from the city. They haven’t seen each other for some time and the film suggests a desire for intimacy as well as a quest for peace. Something of a lost soul, Kurt is emotional and, at times, to be pitied. He lives outside society, in a world of new age type retreats and travels, which seem to have left him out on the margins. In contrast, Mark has a home and a pregnant partner, and tunes his car radio in to phone-ins with much loud chat about the state of society in America but he seems only half alive. They drive out of town, with the camera as passenger, which gazes out of the car window while a gorgeous soundtrack by Yo La Tengo sets a mellow mood. The use of extended silence makes me a little uneasy; it’s hard to get away from memories of Deliverance, and a sense of apprehension. In the city, the glass of the car windows insulates us...

Ralph McTell, Truro, 19 April 2007

Ralph's mates from Pentewan have all turned up in a mini bus to hear him sing and play, and he walks onto the stage looking comfortable; he's amongst friends. He's a big man; very charismatic, with a warm smile and a beguiling aura of powerful gentleness. He's relaxed, we're relaxed, and he sits with his guitar, chatting easily between songs, and playing with an easy familiarity with us, and with his material. His guitar playing is intricate and playful; going from ragtime to blues to folk, and his voice is deep and rich. He comments that he's put together quite a serious programme for the two hours he's on stage; it's true that the lyrics are thoughtful and the subjects serious, but there is light material too; a tune about Laurel and Hardy, and one or two covers of old blues numbers. When he sings Streets of London there are happy sighs and the audience sing along very softly; as softly as a whisper. It feels as intimate as if we were just a few people...

Use and Abuse

Sitting outside in the evening sun with ice chinking in my gin and tonic, our chatter is interrupted by the mildly irritating, feeble piping of a child’s recorder. Five or so minutes later a little boy, aged about seven, is planted by the entrance door to the theatre, and carries on blowing down the damned thing. A woman folds a towel and places it by his feet. The boy’s little sister is placed alongside her brother; she’s about five. The woman walks up and down the piazza with a mobile phone clamped to her ear, talking incessantly. Sometimes she comes and sits with a man but they do not go near the two children. The children are pale; they look miserable, and keep going over to the man and woman, but are brought back to the theatre door. It is not obvious the first time he does it, but the man makes a flamboyant gesture of bending forward, dropping coins onto the folded towel, giving a thumbs up sign to the little boy, smiling broadly and then walking away. He seemed to be a man in th...

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