'Swan Lake on Ice' being staged in the capital

[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Swan Lake on Ice, one of the most popular productions of the theater ice skating company, Imperial Ice Stars, from the United Kingdom, was staged in Beijing at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from Aug 15 to 19.

With Tchaikovsky's music, new choreography by producers, Tony Mercer and James Cundall, and 15 real tons of ice, the show revived the love story performed by 26 former Olympic, World, European and National Championship-level skaters.

Since its premiere in 2006, the production has travelled to over 20 countries with more than 2,000 shows, which attracted over 4 million people.

In 2016, it made its debut in China and this time it toured Xiamen, Fujian province and Jinan, Shandong province, before coming to Beijing.

"Everybody knows Swan Lake through the ballet, but I believe, in a story which was created or choreographed originally in Russia by dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa," said Tony Mercer, the producer of the show,in Beijing."So the inspiration was for me was to go back into the history of Swan Lake and find out that Tchaikovsky, the composer, had written on his own story board, which Petipa changed around."

The Tony Award-winning producer is recognized as one of the world's leading directors and choreographers of theater-on-ice shows.

In 2004, Mercer and James Cundall set up The Imperial Ice Stars.

Their previous four world tours: Sleeping Beauty on Ice; Swan Lake on Ice; Cinderella on Ice and Nutcracker on Ice have earned the company a reputation for pushing the boundaries of ice dance with athleticism, and creative story-telling.