REVIEW: The Imperial Ice Stars Sleeping Beauty on Ice

On a worldwide tour, “The Imperial Ice Stars Sleeping Beauty on Ice” opened on 24 September at the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The traditional Sleeping Beauty fairytale is switched up in this modern take choreographed by Tony Mercer. Gone are the tales of yore by Charles Perrault involving spindles, evil witches and “a true love’s kiss” by a prince.

Although performances on ice are traditionally catered to children, the marked changes seemed to have been made with the adult audience in mind. The storyline of Sleeping Beauty on Ice is made more believable and the costumes are toned down to suit a more modern audience. There is no shortage of variety in this performance, with aerial silk acrobatics, fire displays, and powerful lifts and throws. But, I thought more can definitely be done by the acclaimed 26-member Imperial Ice Stars. Too much emphasis seems to have been made to make this performance an exciting story than a chance for the skaters to showcase their talents.

It would be unfair, and disappointing, though, to judge this performance by the standards of its ballet equivalent. On its own, the standout performance had to be the evil Carabosse (Yahor Maistrou), with his impressive lifts; at one point, he lifted one female skater on each arm in a powerful lift sequence. Egor Chuddin, as Prince Desire, could not match the strength possessed by Maistrou, but he had the musicality in his skating sequences to make up for it. Catalabutte (Alexandr Kazakov)’s performance was also commendable, with his triple loops and double axels. A beautiful ballet sequence (on-pointe on the ice floor, no less!), by Princess Lilac (Alina Saprykina) was also a treat and made references to the ballet version of the fairy tale. However, the rest of the performers did not get to show off their figure skating prowess until the encore, which was a bit of a waste considering that this is a performance on ice. I would have loved to see more turns and lifts by the rest of ensemble.

Despite the ice stage, the sets did not disappoint. The majestic castle and the misty, gloomy forest lend way to the ethereal quality of the performance. In a memorable scene, the prince found the princess within a golden clam-like bed in the forest where she was hidden by the evil wizard. As he was about to administer the antidote, the bed opened up spectacularly to reveal the sleeping beauty residing in it.

The use of fire, while undeniably exciting, seemed a little over the top for a mainly theatrical performance. Perhaps, the use of such elaborate tactics is to make up for the absence of dialogue in the show, so that they are able to capture the attention of the younger audience. However, the acting in the show is already sufficient for them to comprehend the changes in the story. This leaves the irony of fire displays for a performance on ice a tad difficult to reconcile for me.

As in the story, Prince Desire (Egor Chudin) did not make his entrance until way into the second half of the performance. Fortunately, the beautiful ending skating pas de deux between Princess Aurora (Olga Sharutenko) and Prince Desire made up for their lack of time together on stage. The dance between the duo – sans fire, acrobatics and the like – made the ending that much more beautiful to watch.

If only the fairy tale was made complete with a true love’s kiss by Prince Desire to awaken Princess Aurora. In my opinion, there are just some things in life that cannot be replaced — even if that includes a cliché romantic ending to a well-known classic.