CHARLES Perrault would have been astounded, but not displeased, by liberties taken with his rags-to-riches fairytale in this sophisticated and stylish production.


Sugar and spice and with a touch of vice, that’s what regular fairy tales are made of. Add aerial flights and daredevils on ice, that’s what  Cinderella on Iceis made of.


Snow freckled the stage as the jig of the Mouse King began, and then came the Christmas party.

And it was time to dance.

Nutcracker on Ice, set to Tchaikovsky’s score, was a lesson in acrobatics.”


All the swirls and clinches, coy looks and exuberant leaps, pulling away then drawing magnetically together, and trusting each other implicitly as one supports the other. All performed with silky smoothness against a background of swelling violins. Ahhh, when the magic of theatre meets the graciousness of ice you forget for a time that all is not well in the world.


FIONA Kirk, whose roles are Queen and Hungarian Princess, may have been South Africa’s National Dance (skating) champion, but to our average citizen, board or roller skating are sports with which they are more familiar. Yet, ice skating is a sport/ice-dance art that fascinates all. So when Pieter Toerien presents The Imperial Ice Stars in one of Tony Mercer’s Tchaikovsky ice-theatre spectacles, no one should miss out watching 25 Olympic/European/World champion skaters in action… they are a marvellously co-ordinated team.