Ever since he won gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics back in 1980 the name Robin Cousins has been synonymous with everything connected to the world of ice skating. From his own European and World medal winning performances, the opening of his own production company which created the legendary ice shows Electric Ice and Ice Majesty back in the 1980’s and culminating in his 10 season residency as Head Judge on the enormously successful TV series, Dancing On Ice, Cousins ice pedigree is second to none.
It is through his success and reputation that Robin has been able to put together a cast of 14 of the world’s best ice skaters who, with great skill, power and grace perform his latest ice show, simply titled Ice. It is a little difficult to review this show as, although in Brighton the performance takes place on a full size rink, most of the other venues on the tour are theatres. On the theatre stage the cast would fill the ice perfectly, but on such a large rink they occasionally struggle to create the same intimate ambiance, which I assume to be one of the key elements of this production.
The music is an eclectic mix of contemporary compositions by Maurice Luttikhuis combined with everything from Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, through The Bangles Walk like an Egyptian to a simply superb swing version of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and culminating in the finale song, Jackie Wilson’s (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.
The new compositions are mostly quite minimalist in structure, but that simply makes it easier to concentrate on the superb skating, and the incredibly intricate way that Cousins blends music and movement into one seamless entity. There is a graceful and very balletic quality to almost all of the skating, but there are still a few opportunities to see some of the more daring flips, twists and lifts that epitomise modern ice dancing.
The seven male and seven female skaters are all at the very top of their game and that makes it hard to single out the performances, but special mention has to go to Kate Endriulaitis, who performs and incredibly brave aerial routine using a ring suspended above the ice, Vaughn Chipeur, who delivers the most daring of the stunts – including Cousins very own signature move, the back flip, and Michael Solonski who, while skating one of the most intricate pieces, also sings live, and he sings just as brilliantly as he skates!
With none of the sequins, feathers and gimmicky light-up costumes that are associated with other ice shows, this is definitely a production that encourages the audience to focus on the skating and, as mentioned previously, this production is not really designed for an arena performance but nothing can detract from the fact that this is a classy show, performed brilliantly and is a superb tribute to the choreographic skill and direction of Robin Cousins MBE.
**** Four Stars