DANCE REVIEW: Swan Lake on Ice, Jerusalem Theater, July 20

What more could one want from an evening’s entertainment?

By RUTH BELOFF
Irina Kolesnikova, in ‘Swan Lake.’ (photo credit: NINA ALOVERT)
Irina Kolesnikova, in ‘Swan Lake.’
(photo credit: NINA ALOVERT)
The St. Petersburg State Ballet on Ice performed Swan Lake on Ice, a magical coalescence of ethereal elements: haunting music, beautiful balletic choreography, masterful skating and magnificent costumes.
What more could one want from an evening’s entertainment? Performing to a full house, the skillful skaters meticulously rendered the ballet to a powerful recording of Tchaikovsky’s timeless masterpiece.
Particularly impressive was the level of accuracy and control the skaters exhibited. Generally, ice dancers have a full-sized rink on which to whiz around and execute their leaps and lunges, spins and spirals, swizzles and twizzles.
But on the comparatively small stage of the Jerusalem Theater, turned into a mini skating rink, the adept skaters leapt in the air, sped across the ice and wove around each other with pinpoint precision. The ice dancers were so competent and confident, so sure-footed, that it never even occurred to me that someone might fall. And, of course, no one did.
The performance was exhilarating from start to finish. And it was really delightful to see something one knows so well presented in a different, and even more graceful, form. How often have I seen the four little swans doing their pas de quatre and heard the accompanying jaunty little theme? It is charming enough to see ballerinas performing the pas de quatre on pointe shoes, but seeing those ice dancers doing the piece on the point of their skates was enough to make me just sit there and smile.
Me and everybody else, as the audience gave the ballet company a rousing ovation at the end of a truly spectacular show.