The Herald, Scotland
By Mary Brennan
Forget "less is more". Sometimes more is so much more effective ... and all the more fun for it. This wonderful spectacular from the Imperial Ice Stars is a case in point.
In two acts, this telling Swan Lake encompasses the feel-good flamboyance you'd expect from a showcase of world-class skaters, but then it adds in elegant set and costume, with the swans lovely in feathery layers of white. It entertains with gymnastic prowess: lads cartwheeling, scarey Black Swans on stilts, even a sword fight between forces of good and evil and exquisite moments of flight. But it ties all these gambits into a well-paced narrative powered by the conflicts and emotions that run through the story.
Director Tony Mercer's decision to have the Odette/Odile role performed by two skaters ratchets up the possibilities: Olena Pyatash smouldering as Odile. Olga Sharutenko breathtaking as Odette, emerge as rivals for Siegfried (Vadim Yarkov) in a trio that has passion as well as astounding lifts by Yarkov. And there's a lovely camraderie between Siegfried and his friend Benno (Andrei Penkine), while Anion Klykov's Rothbart has dash and menace.
Mercer's skaters prove there's more than fast spins and death spirals to skating.