The Wonderful Iceworld

Part II

By Helga Dobor & Judit

Photos © Helga Dobor & Hajni

In the opening number of the second part, the skaters juggled with huge geometrical metal shapes like cubes and pyramids. A most amazing part was when a woman was inside a cube high up in the air and they were doing splits. (Andrei Chapaikin, Stepanova, Moroz, Lebedeva, Moskalev, Gavrilenko , Borisov, Khripkova)

Again there was a little connecting program: a clown (Anna Yuzhakova ) doing exercises. Everything the clowns did had to be funny - so she pretended she couldn’t lift the cube, but when she tried she fell out of it! Wearing skates added to all the clown’s jokes. These parts were also very dangerous, which we didn’t realize because we were too busy laughing.

The pair, Jurij Gudalin and Tatiana Kamanina, again came on the ice and this was the romantic scene of the show. They wore a dress stitched together as a ribbon. The ribbon was very long, and they dragged each other with it. We were wondering what would happen if the material broke but of course this didn’t happen. They were doing spins, two death-spirals, and the Petrova/Tikhonov move again. We checked it so many times, but no, they weren’t Maria and Alexei. *sigh*

A beautiful program with a white sheet, reminded us of a Faiella/Scali exhibition program, one of Helga’s favorites. Oh, how wonderful the camel and the Biellmann Tatiana Malinskaya performed on the circus podium were! We noticed some other spin combinations too, basic and a layback. And we got a simple layback spin as a bonus by a girl in a blue and white costume. The other skaters (Hrinkova, Kalinichenko, Moroz, Lebedeva) also did great. We have to admit we almost started looking for Federica and Massimo under the sheet...

The most dangerous part of the show, but also one of the greatest, was the program with vaulter-acrobats, Andrei Chapaikin , Moskalev, Gavrilenko, Borisov, Nadezhda Panyushkina and Irina Usenko were doing such dangerous and deathdefying tricks as handstands while the bar was on the shoulder of a guy! It was absolutely incomprehensible how he pulled off some of the things he did and we almost couldn’t breathe during the entire program! The costumes and the choreography were fantastic, the artistes came on the ice in old French patrician costumes, totally torn and shredded, you could even see spider webs sewn on them! What a great idea!

The clowns, Yuzhakova and Vaiman , were coming again, and at first I didn't realize what was in their hands. But when they started to move about, we could see that it was cats! The cats were doing different tricks on the bars, which were shorter than in the last program. The cats were climbing on them, and on a ball on the beam, walked on their front legs only and did tricks with hoops, which was as much fun to see as all the clown programs. This was as much fun as all the clown program we’d seen...

We got another tight rope program. A woman was doing different moves in the air, including splits! She was grasping with only her feet or balancing on her neck. She arrived on the ice as she uncoiled from the rope. This program didn't belong to our favourite ones. (Usenko, Stepanova, Lestuha)

During the next performance the band played Turkish music (Tarkan), very promising. And we weren’t let down! There was a new clown, Simuskov, on the scene – performing magic tricks. There were other clowns too, Shafeeva & Yuzhakova , but we concentrated on his wizzardry since it was adorable and he was close to our seats. We loved what he was doing, his costume and acting were very well put together and we laughed so much again! The guy really deserved the round of applause he received and he even posed for us, so we could capture the moment for you! :)

One of the most exciting and dangerous programs was yet to come, the unicycle performances! The acrobats, Moskalev, Malinskaya, Chapaikin, Fomina, Lesmuha Zelenovsky were dressed up as playing cards. How can they ride any kind of bike with skates on? It is so unimaginable! The skaters around them surprised us with flying sit spins. But back to the unicycles, we saw a lot of incredible tricks. One of them was pedalling while the other was doing a handstand. And later another guy was doing standing splits. This was not something we had a desire to go home and try...

Clown time again! Anna Yuzhakova Jutakova asked us to play with a basketball. All small children begged for the ball, and had hit the basket. Anna started joking around with a man and never caught the ball he threw back, and later she was flirting with the same gentleman. She wanted to give him a balloon, but first he had to make a basket, and the basket was clear across the ice. It was no easy task and when he almost had the balloon, all the air went out. Anna cried a bit and almost died of a broken heart, as the music suggested to us. The story of this program was that of the unreachable gentleman and the girl who never stopped loving him.

The last program was truly spectacular. Some dancers entertained us while a protective net was set up around the rink, and then some polar bears entered! At first they were just resting on the ice, but then they started licking on it. Their trainer, Julia Denisenko, showed what the bears can do: a lot of tricks standing up, walking on 2 legs, playing with a ball... There was a funny moment when the bears got bored and one of them decided to leave. And the other one followed. The trainer was calling them with some coaxing. Once they returned she organized a band, where the bears appeared to be singing, it seemed so real! It absolutely looked as though they were singing! The bears were playing instruments and one of them was acting conductor, it was truly amazing!

And lets not forget the part where Julia and her partner, Jurij Khokhlov , were sitting on a bench and 2 bears rotated it! Later she said good-bye to the bears and a bigger bear arrived to the stage. The story just started over again! She was dancing with the bear, it did a somersault and it skated!! We can't imagine how you can teach a bear to skate!! All the bears were so sweet and it was a good closing scene.

The very last part of the show was the good-bye waves. The skaters thanked us for our attention and skated around waving. The same waves are typical for any iceshow. This was truly as memorable as a figure skating show, and we warmly recommend anyone who has the chance to go and see it! :)

You can read more about the Wonderful Iceworld here: http://www.maciva.hu/hun/fnc_main.html (Hungarian) If you have any questions about the show, feel free to contact me! Coming shortly on Absolute Skating: An interview with the helpful and talented choreographers and an inside look at the show.