The Australian
By Deborah Jones
SWAN Lake on Ice plays fast and loose with the world's most-loved ballet but then, if you take the purist view, so did the English National Ballet's Derek Deane with his vast arena staging, and even Australia's Graeme Murphy with his "there were three people in this marriage" version for the Australian Ballet.
In keeping with old Soviet practice, Swan Lake on Ice, performed by a company of Russian stars, is not a tragedy. The magician Rothbart is defeated, Odette is freed from the spell that turned her into a swan, and she skates off with her prince, but not before she has gone a few rounds with Rothbart herself. This production offers a kick-arse Odette. In a further development, Odile - the roles are taken by two performers rather than the now traditional one - sees herself as Rothbart's pawn and gives her blessing to the young couple.
Odette's lack of fragility is in part determined by the nature of ice dancing, where speed leads to exciting jumps, turns and spins. There are, however, opportunities for lyricism that Olga Sharutenko, who performed Odette on Wednesday, skated over, if you'll forgive me. While Englishman Tony Mercer is listed as the artistic director, the choreography appears to have been created by committee and is a mixed bag. ... The ensembles for courtiers and for the princesses who are paraded before Siegfried are wonderful, the former elegantly arranged and the latter pyrotechnic.
The hard-working leading men reel off expert and endless streams of tight spins, multiple air turns, lifts and backflips mainly because they can, and a closer look at why they're doing it would strengthen the drama considerably. Siegfried's friend, Benno, for instance, does a bravura dance to the Black Swan's music while Odile is standing right there. Most peculiar. But the audience is perhaps unlikely to know or care about such detail...
Such is the vitality of Swan Lake on Ice that even this - is desecration too harsh a word? - can't spoil the enjoyment. Yes, there is a close flirtation with kitsch and some bumpy dramaturgy, but there's also something absolutely right about a swan queen who can skim across a frozen Russian lake and who, in one of the production's most satisfying moments, can really fly.