The Nutcracker on Ice at The Civic

By SHELLEY HOWELLS

The Russian Ice Stars' extravagantly over-the-top performance of The Nutcracker on Ice grabs the tried-and-true traditional Christmas ballet by the tights and gives it a good shake.

It abandons chunks of storyline, tosses in new twists, adds 14 tonnes of ice, lashings of athletic prowess, and stirs.

By the time the pyrotechnics, aerial gymnastics and contortionist acts were done, the opening night audience had long abandoned traditional expectations and were sitting back - agog, much of the time - merrily anticipating the next extraordinary athletic feat or theatrical excess and expressing their enjoyment by applauding every three minutes.

There's no arguing with the ice-skating pedigree of the stars. They boast more than 200 Olympic, World, European and Russian Championship medals among them.

That they can bring the thrills, speed and gal-tossing of a full-sized rink to a comparatively tiny stage is impressive (and occasionally scary for those of us near the front - they hurl themselves full-speed towards the edge of the stage, treating us to showerings of ice-scrapings).

Standouts among the cast included Oleg Tataourov as the magician Herr Drosselmeyer. He had that wound-up energy that promised fireworks, and he delivered - literally and figuratively.

Stanislav Voituk was a panto-style goofball as Dr Romanov, and provided belly laughs for my 8-year-old guest.

Ioulia Barsoukova (not a skater, but a gold medal winner in gymnastics at the Sydney Olympic games) provided gasps of astonishment as the nutcracker doll. Her ability to bend into unlikely shapes was astonishing and occasionally creepy.

The 8-year-old was sold: awesome.

Olympic silver medallist and world championship-winning figure ice skater Anjelika Krylova's moment in the spotlight was a show-stopper.

She was Cleopatra, skating to Ravel's Bolero. An Egyptian queen dancing to a Spanish-themed piece of music. In the Nutcracker. On ice!

Yes, this show is kitsch. And it has an excessive, bizarre mix of figure skating, circus and theatre.

But the cast's enthusiasm, energy and incredible athletic ability had us forgetting all that and just enjoying the spectacle.