Taking the audience through the journey that each skater experiences, from the passion of the ice to the ambition, challenges and beauty of this fascinating world, Holiday on Ice “Passion” follows the true-life stories of the cast members who, every night, bring the glamour of Holiday on Ice to life for audiences across the globe.
Representing the UK is principal skater Lloyd Jones who was born in Cardiff and began skating when he was 5 years old. He trained in both free skating and ice dance and, aged nine, he started to skate with his first ice dance partner, Lucy Strange, and at 16 he started to compete in ice dance with Leigh Rogers. They were the British primary champions in 2005 and British Junior champions in 2006.
With Pernelle Carron he is a three time vice champion of France and the 2010 French national ice dance champion. They have competed in nine Senior Grand Prix events with the highest place finish being 3rd in the 2011 Cup of China. They have competed in four European Figure Skating Championships with the highest place finish being 7th in Sheffield 2012. They have also competed in four World Figure Skating Championships with their highest place finish being 12th in Canada 2013.
Skating with Pernelle Carron he qualified and competed at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. After the Olympic games Lloyd retired from competitive skating and is now performing in Holiday on Ice “Passion” with Paula Soma.
During a break in rehearsals for their Brighton dates, I spoke to Lloyd and asked about the demands of the show and the differences between competitive and ice show skating…
Is this your first year with Holiday on Ice?
No, I also skated on the tour with them last year, but I’m really looking forward to coming to Brighton, our only UK venue on the 2015/2016 tour as, although I was with the international tour last year, this will be the first time that I have performed in a professional ice show in the UK.
As you skate on a different rink in every venue, does it take time to “settle in”?
When you’re in a new arena with a new rink you always turn up on the first day and, as a principal skater, you have half an hour alone on the ice to, kind of, quickly adjust to its size, and that’s about it really – it’s showtime and off you go and you do your thing.
Half an hour?
Oh yes. Well, when you think about it, all of the principals need some time to get used to the size of the rink and we also need to be out of the way so that the technicians and the lighting people can set everything up. So we don’t get much time, but it’s enough.
Is it as much fun as it looks from the audience point of view?
It’s a lot of fun to go out there and to skate a show and, when you think about it, it’s our job to get out there and to entertain the audience so that makes it a great job to have and we all do have a great deal of fun doing the show, yes.
But hard work too, I would imagine.
It is, yes, because we do the show up to 12 times in one week, and it’s very physical. We could be pumping out the show up to six times on a Saturday and Sunday so it’s very tiring on even the fittest bodies.
Do you do any extra training or is doing all those shows enough?
Well, 12 shows a week is a lot and that keeps your skating techniques well practiced but apart from that we also get, six days a week, a half hour slot where you can get on the ice and skate and we also do off-ice training. I, personally, go to the gym four times a week and I also do stretching exercises and, together with my partner, we practice some lifts off the ice too.
How different is doing the Holiday on Ice show, from doing the competitive skating that you’ve done before?
Oh, very different. The main difference is that, in competition skating, you are a lot more restricted as to what you are allowed to do. There are loads of rules that you have to abide by and so you structure your programme, and your routines, around these rules whereas, with show skating, there are no rules so you are free to do what the audience will enjoy the most.
With lifts you can choose and develop ones that will get the best reaction from the audience but, in competition, your mind is always on doing what will score you the most points. Although routines in competition are still entertaining, the entertainment is not always the primary focus of competitive skating, it’s the judges mark.
Does that make competitive skating slightly frustrating?
It’s frustrating in competition skating when you hear a piece of music and you think, wow, I’d love to skate like “that” to it, but you know that, with so many boxes that you have to tick, you can’t do “that” because you have to play by the rules. You can get creative, and try to work ways around it, but it’s much easier in the show because you can just go out there and make your skating as entertaining as possible.
How much input do you have in your set pieces in Holiday on Ice?
The set pieces in the show have been choreographed by ourselves, with help from the choreographer and the director of the show. They give us the gist of what they want from us and we work out our own steps and put the lifts in here and there to create the piece we want to skate.
But a lot differs from person to person. Some people prefer to have the choreographer do it all for them but I’ve always been the kind of person who likes my own input whenever I can have it. In my mind it makes the piece better to perform because you feel it more yourself, it’s what you want to do, but you still have to follow what the director and choreographer say.
How does it feel to be part of such an amazing ice skating tradition?
It’s so exciting. It’s great to be part of the whole tradition of it and to be just one of such a large company too. I used to watch the shows when I was a child. I went from the age of five to fifteen, every year, but then they stopped coming to my area so I couldn’t go for a while, but I’ll never forget the feeling that I got when I was watching one of those shows.
It’s so nice to think that now I can offer that opportunity to other people and that they can get the same sort of joy that I always got when I watched Holiday on Ice.
Were you a skater before you saw the show, or did the show get you into it?
I was only skating at a beginner / learn to skate level when I first saw the show and, I suppose, because I had shown an interest in it, that was why my parents took me along – but the show was certainly inspirational in helping me to take the skating further. As a young skater is was just magical to go each year and to see all those wonderfully talented skaters and to enjoy it so very much.
Holiday on Ice “Passion” appears at the Brighton Centre on Tues 5th January at 8pm, Wed 6th January at 2pm, Thurs 7th January at 2pm, Fri 8th January at 2pm and 7.30pm, Sat 9th January at 1pm, 4pm and 7pm and Sun 10th January at 1pm and 4pm. Tickets, priced from £15 for children and £22 for adults are available from www.brightoncentre.co.uk or by contacting the box office on 0844 847 1538.