It’s dramatic. It’s camp. It aims to breathe new life into an 80-year-old ice skating show. Here’s what we thought of Holiday On Ice’s latest show ‘Aurore (A New Day)', currently touring in France.
ADVERTISEMENTOften spoofed in pop culture as a form of entertainment that caters to children or Disney adults, ice skating shows aren’t exactly known as the pinnacle of high culture.
But while other companies, like Ice Capades in the US, have gone out of business, Holiday On Ice has persisted for the past 80 years, putting on more than 60,000 shows in front of over 330 million visitors on five continents.
The producer of the company’s latest touring show in France says that kind of success isn’t a fluke.
“It’s the longest-running touring show in the world,” Olivier Genest said. “That doesn’t happen by accident.”
Genest produces “Aurore (A New Day)”, the latest Holiday On Ice show that’s currently travelling across France in celebration of the company’s 80th anniversary. He told Euronews Culture that people who dismiss ice shows as passé would benefit from taking a second look.
“People often tell us that Holiday On Ice is old-fashioned or going out of style,” Genest said. “Once you’ve seen the show you’ll realise that’s not true at all. The reason it’s lasted so long is because we’ve managed to adapt to new technology, as well as new skating and production techniques.”
A modern twist on the classic ice show
“Aurore” tells the story of a humanoid creature from another dimension – one where everyone dresses in black and white silk pyjamas and moves around robotically, with no emotion, no feelings, no love.
Aurore escapes this world, travelling across time and space and eventually landing on Earth, where she meets a young Earthling named Adam, who decides to show her the beauty of humanity.
“We’ve always had these shows where we want to escape, but I think (Director Francisco Negrin) wanted to bring out the beauty of what we have around us,” said Gabriel St-Jean, who plays Adam.
“I think with Covid, it’s nice to revisit the beauty of being human and everything that surrounds us, because we kind of lost it for a little bit,” he told Euronews Culture.
Award-winning stage director Francisco Negrin, who is known for his contemporary opera productions, took a modern twist on the classic ice show, blending theatre with acrobatics, highly-technical figure skating, elaborate set design and meticulously-crafted costumes.
The tone alternates between dramatic, emotional and pure camp.
The opening Rococo rock opera number is a riot of tall neon-coloured powdered wigs, petticoats and tailcoats; at one point, one of the performers dons a rubber Albert Einstein mask.
Another piece has performers in animal costumes – including jellyfish, butterflies and one unfortunate snake costume that looked a lot like a black gimp suit.
The glorious final scene before intermission features a towering sun god standing five metres high, who had to be rolled across the ice by a handful of performers. It ends with the ice being literally set on fire.
The eclectic style gave off a variety show feel at times, which divided audiences used to more traditional performances.
At the Paris premiere on Thursday night, French Olympic bronze medallist and veteran Holiday On Ice performer Philippe Candeloro said he wasn’t sure about the abstract storyline.
“The technique and scenography were incredible, as expected from Holiday on Ice,” Candeloro told Euronews Culture after the premiere. “I loved the lighting. But the story was a bit complicated to follow if you hadn’t done your homework ahead of time. And there were a lot of musical interludes that I think might turn off diehard fans of the show.”
ADVERTISEMENTA technical, athletic and artistic feat
On top of the theatrics, the show is an astounding showcase of high-quality figure skating technique.
The athleticism is impressive if at times alarming, as skaters perform difficult lifts and jumps, sometimes hovering mere centimetres above the rock-hard ice. Most of the performers come from the competitive figure skating world, learning to marry technical skill with performative flair.
"I've been doing this show for a year and a half, and it's still, for me, the most physically challenging show and the most impressive show I've ever done," said 23-year-old St-Jean, who was formerly a Canadian competitive skater.
"There’s a lot of theatre, there’s a big story line that mixed up with acrobatics. There are things you can’t do in competition that you can allow yourself here in the show world. And there are things you do in competition that you actually leave for competition because they’re not really pretty to look at."
St-Jean said his solo in "Aurore" is one of the most challenging routines he's ever performed.
ADVERTISEMENT"I am suffering," he half-joked. "But when you finish and you get that applause and you see that the people actually enjoy the effort you put into the show, that's always rewarding."
Holiday On Ice is also a showcase of craftsmanship, bringing together specialists across different domains.
For “Aurore”, a team of artists and artisans crafted 350 different costumes by hand (customised with velcro to allow for quick changes) and created hundreds of wigs.
Genest said the crew has to install 38 tonnes of equipment in each venue, including three suspension systems, pyrotechnics and a light installation made up of dozens of screens.
Travelling with a show that has this many moving parts is a logistical feat – it takes 12 semi-trailers to transport all the equipment, along with the two ice rinks that the crew assembles and disassembles in each venue they perform in.
ADVERTISEMENT“We dismantle the rink in city A while we’re on our way to city B, where we reassemble the second rink so it’s ready before we arrive,” Genest said. “It takes three days to install and requires a lot of staff, who we hire locally.”
Performing in different venues means that unlike a theatre show, the performers have to constantly adapt to the size of their stage changing.
Night after night, the 80 staff members from 18 countries who travel with Holiday On Ice – including 40 performers, 30 technicians and 10 administrators – get together to put on a show that reflects eight decades of entertainment experience.
“Even if you’re not necessarily a big fan of figure skating, I think you’ll also be impressed,” St-Jean said. “Because it’s not just a figure skating show; there are so many more elements that add to it and create this unforgettable piece."
Holiday On Ice's show"Aurore (A New Day)"is touring in cities across France until 28 April.
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