World-class ice-dance and giant skating tulips - Holiday on Ice is back (From Hereford Times)

World-class ice-dance and giant skating tulips - Holiday on Ice is back

12:50pm Wednesday 10th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

DRAMA, spectacle, glamour and excitement - Holiday on Ice, produced by artistic director Robin Cousins MBE and choreographer Karen Kresge, has got the lot and then some. This year’s show, Spirit, has a title that allows the producers, choreographers and costume designers to take inspiration from a breathtakingly wide array of sources, including the four elements of fire, air, earth and water, to create a series of truly spectacular performances.

But it’s the skating that really impresses - eight world-class principal skaters pull out all the stops to give us the kind of moves that generate constant applause and, the moments we’re all waiting for, gasps of amazement at a succession of brilliant lifts, leaps and spins.

From the moment ice skating moved into mainstream TV entertainment with Dancing on Ice, there’s one death-defying move that we all want to see wherever there are skates and dancing, and we weren’t disappointed. The headbanger (for those who’ve yet to see it, the female skater is held by her ankles and spun in swooping circles so that her head virtually kisses the ice) was served up as the climax to one of the outstanding dances of the evening - maximum thrills were rewarded with maximum applause.

There is nothing quite like a Holiday on Ice show - a production in which athletes at the top of their game demonstrate their skills in performances of extraordinary kitsch with the odd moment - skating tulips comes to mind - that verges on the utterly surreal.

Holiday on Ice - Spirit can be seen at CIA in Cardiff until Sunday, February 14. To book, call the box office on 012920 224488 or visit livenation.co.uk/cardiff.

From February 26 to February 28, the show will be at the LG Arena in Birmingham, where former Dancing On Ice winner and ex-England rugby star Kyran Bracken MBE is making a special guest appearance. To book, call Ticket Factory on 0844 5811313 or online at theticketfactory.com/holidayonice