Southampton's Mayflower Theatre turns skating rink this week with the arrival of the spectacular Cinderella On Ice.
The Imperial Ice Stars, who have won international critical acclaim and five-star reviews with their previous tours of The Sleeping Beauty On Ice and Swan Lake On Ice, are back in the country with their latest production which has already triumph
ed in New Zealand.
It then went on to tour Australia, a great experience, recalls Olga Sharutenko who simply bubbles with excitement over the phone.
"It's a favourite fairy tale for everyone, but the interesting thing is that we are doing something different. What we have done with the story is to explore it in a slightly different way to try to make it our own. You can follow the same story, but it is not really a fairy tale now. It is more a lovely romantic story."
The King has become a Lord Mayor and the fairy godmother has become a gypsy fortune-teller: "What you are seeing is what is happening in Cinderella's life."
Olga makes it all sound so simple – just as she and her fellow skaters will make it look so simple on ice. That's the most impressive thing about the whole show. But behind that ease, behind that grace lies hours and hours, indeed years, of hard work – work sustained by the obligation to look after themselves.
"We have got a rehearsal director who is looking after the show to make sure that it all goes well, so that every show is good, not just one a week. We do eight shows a week and we have to be 100 per cent every night because different audiences come every night.
"It does not matter how tired you are feeling or maybe you have injured yourself or you are not in the correct mood. It has got to be perfect. And so we help each other. If you know that someone has got a headache or is not feeling so good, then you help them through. We have got a good company feeling as a group because we live together and work together. We all look after ourselves and we all look after each other."
Cinderella On Ice has been conceived and choreographed by Tony Mercer, widely regarded as one of the world's leading creators of theatre on ice, with the ice coach Evgeny Platov, dual Olympic gold medallist and four-time World Champion, and last year's ice dancing World Champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski, who also took the title in 2006.
The 25-strong cast of World, European and National Championship skaters comprise the cream of Russian skating talent. The majority of the skaters have been trained by Russia's leading coaches, some from as early as two years of age, and between them they have won more than 250 competition medals.
The show is at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre from Tuesday February 17-Saturday February 21. Tickets on 02380 711811.
