WHAT with what with Dancing on Ice cutting a swathe through the Sunday schedules and slip sliding our way through Big Freeze, we’re all armchair skaters these days.
But you didn’t have to know your frog lift from your camel spin to be impressed by Holiday on Ice: Spirit.
With Robin Cousins on board as artistic director this high gloss production, which rolled into the Echo Arena for the first night of a four day run, was styled as “an exhilarating fusion of the four elements”. Presented in the form of a journey from East to West, sun up to sun down it gliding though the gamut of world cultures, from ancient Asia to Native American Indians
I’d been there before. Breath-taking moves, billowing production values, florescent spandex by the baleload - all lashed together with dodgy music and a torrent of mystic mumbo jumbo. It was River Soleil on Ice.
The dry ice cleared to reveal swooping dark blue figures, swiftly followed by paler blue ones. ‘Morning Has Just Begun, crooned the soundtrack - just to make sure we were all on the same page.
The double axels came thick and fast. So did the falls - three in the first 10 minutes. They spun tiny female skaters round on open palms like so many plates and watching such skilled and daring skating at close quarters was a strangely visceral experience. Hearing the thump and scrape of the blades on ice and the chill on your face. It was heart in the mouth time.
Next came a snowy, pine dotted scene with vaguely Russian characters flowing round in white. Then they turned Celt and jumped about in lines to Irish fiddles. Deliciously camp and huge fun. We were back on ‘spiritual’ then for some dragonfly aerobatics over a pond. “Time is not the question or the answer”. Quite. Homegrown ice star Kyran Bracken took to the ice to the Titanic theme so. He spun about capably enough but left the dramatic stuff to his partner.
Following a fabulous first half climax where the action moved to China - showcasing the gorgeously imaginative costumes - we were in urban America with a West End story vibe where Kyran revealed himself as a very efficient bodypopper.
A girl was thrown up in the air like a majorette’s baton, spinning horizontally.
Beautiful looking, dramatic and as it turned out, much more concerned with having fun than improving our souls.
