Sunday Telegraph, Australia
By Diana Simmonds
Now on their second visit to Australia and New Zealand and bringing with them a brand new show, the Imperial Ice Stars company has to be one of Russia’s more memorable exports. With 25 of the world’s finest ice dancers and athletes and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet score (with some snips and additions) new and spectacular meaning is given to the old story of the prince torn between two loves; the baddy and his blinding ambition and all the other aspects of aristocratic court life: promenading, hunting, flirting, watching colourful ethnic entertainments and generally having a good time in gorgeous clothes (Albena Gabueva) while waiting to be married off.
Artistic director Tony Mercer has shared the choreography between seven artists and it shows in the variety and imagination displayed on stage. The company bursts with talent: the extraordinary stilt-skaters Vladislava Kovalenko and Stepan Eremin, for instance; the evil Rothbart (Anton Klykov) oozes menace and power, the prince (Vadim Yarkov) is grace and melancholy personified; Andrei Penkine’s saucy-sexy stage presence as Benno is a scene-stealer, while the dual swans Odette-Odile, in the form of Olga Sharutenko and Olena Pyatash, is a pairing that gives the evening some of its most unexpected, poetic and poignant moments.
Eamon Darcy’s dreamlike setting of snow-drifted scrims and romantic forests and castles is perfect for the stark white ice stage and the ooh!!!-aah!!! factor is catered for with swans that really fly and grumpy cygnets who turn into swans even as they dance together.
Don’t go expecting the ballet Swan Lake - it isn’t - it’s different, exciting, spectacular, fun and if the Imperial Ice Stars don’t leave a new generation of Australian blade brats agitating for ice, then I’m Sonja Henie.
Swan Lake on Ice: Lyric Theatre Sydney last shows today; Princess Theatre Melbourne, from June 21; Festival Theatre Adelaide, from July 5; Westpac St James Theatre Wellington, NZ, from July 13; The Civic-The Edge Auckland, from July 26; Lyric Theatre Brisbane, from August 9; Burswood Theatre Perth, from August 18; Canberra Theatre, from September 5.