Snow White on Ice,

Malvern Theatres

THE cold wafting from the specially installed ice rink may have chilled the Malvern Forum but not its audience, many of whom were on their feet at the end of a bravura performance from the Russian Ice Stars.

This production of Snow White on Ice is hot stuff.

It's actually the most traditional of ballets, along the lines of Sleeping Beauty and the like - but putting it on skates brings all those extra elements of the ice discipline.

And don't the dancers - former competitors at National, European, World and Olympic level - demonstrate it.

Spectacular skating ensued, seemingly unhampered by a worryingly small space, to a pleasing score, written especially by renowned Italian composer Silva Amato.

A quick glance at the programme revealed an eyebrow-raising number of scenes. Here we meet the Wicked Queen first, then she meets King, who then chooses someone else, who then has a baby (Snow White), who then dies, and then the King marries the Wicked Queen before we even start at the "mirror mirror on the wall," bit.

Yet things - nay skaters - zipped along at a cracking pace and all was deftly wrapped up in a spectacular two hours.

The company's links with the Russian Circus meant there were even eye-popping juggling demonstrations and a limb-twisting appearance from Sydney 2000 Olympic gymnastics gold medallist Ioulia Barsoukova.

This was the company's fourth appearance in Malvern - lets hope it's back again soon.

JK