by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
What: Sleeping Beauty on Ice
When: December 13th @ 7:30 pm
Where: Fine Arts Center at UNF
Maybe you’re looking for a family show that isn’t prefaced by Nutcracker or doesn’t end in Carole. In that case, buy tickets for Sleeping Beauty on Ice. It’s still family oriented but less Christmasy. The show is put on by Russia’s State Ice Ballet Company and presented at UNF.
Performed to Tchaikovsky’s legendary score, audience members will see it as more of a ballet on ice. But on ice they can do faster spins and leap to more thrilling heights.
“Audience members feel like this is real ballet, not ballet on ice,” said artistic director and choreographer Konstantin Rassadin, through an interpreter.
Some of the things that contribute to the ballet feel, besides the score, are the elaborate sets, romantic lighting and gorgeous costuming.
“The costumes’ materials come from countries around the world,” said Rassadin.
The scene opens with the King and Queen celebrating the birth of their daughter, Princess Aurora. Beautiful fairies arrive, bringing gifts and fairy blessings. An evil fairy, peeved at not being invited to the party, vows vengeance. On the Princess’ 16th birthday, a witch casts a spell that causes the entire Kingdom to sleep for 100 years. Only a kiss of love can awaken Princess Aurora. Enter the Prince, who seeks to break the spell and restore the Kingdom.
The talent is Russian, some of it coming from real ballet, but mostly from the world of competitive sports skating. It can take time to train the skaters to be actors on the stage, incorporating more ballet movements into the choreography, but Rassadin is satisfied with the results.
“In the end, they learn what they need,” he says.
The long traveling time of the company means that the troupe has all contingencies accounted for. They have replacements for costumes if they should become torn and replacements for skaters, if they should become ill or injured.
Getting the ice on the stage is an elaborate business, but one that the traveling troupe has down to a science. They regularly turn ordinary stages into ice rinks. They build the rink frame, and then they put down heavy sheeting in multiple layers to protect the stage. Cold pipes or tubing start the process.
“It can take [many] hours to have the ice they need on the stage because they need [it] two or three inches above the pipes…To make it faster they will use crushed ice.” says Rassadin
When adding the crushed ice, someone must be there to spray the surface with a hose. After five minutes of hosing it down, and 15 minutes of waiting for it to freeze, the process starts again and continues.
I had to ask if they had a mini-Zamboni to clean up between acts, and was disappointed to learn that they merely use a large scraper.
This show has been on the road for some 40 years, traveling around the globe to exotic locations in South America, Japan, China, Korea, the U.S., Britain and all over Europe.
Tickets are $10 for children and all students and $28-$38 for adults. This show is on Thursday, December 13th at 7:30 pm at the Fine Arts Center at the University of North Florida. Charge tickets by phone at the UNF Ticket Box Office by calling 620-2878, or buy online at unf.edu/fineartscenter.
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