Belle of the ice

Fire and ice will add an extra thrill to the magical fairytale of Beauty and the Beast at the Reading Hexagon this month.

A dazzling display of skating talent by world famous company, Wild Rose, will bring the tale to life from Wednesday until Sunday, May 18. Not only will 24 twirling Russian ice stars take to the rink but the crowd will also be amazed by a whirling dervish of fire juggling.

Add to that the world’s tallest professional ice skater, in the shape of Andrey Chuvilyaev who plays the Beast, and you have the makings of a spectacular night.

Lifted high in his arms will be ice queen Olga Pershankova, who has been with the troupe since 1995 and who will be hanging up her skates at the end of this tour.

Together they will weave a traditional retelling of the entrancing love story between beautiful Belle and the cursed prince who is transformed into a hideous beast.

Tour manager, Julian Deplidge, said: “A lot of people are familiar with the Disney film but we have gone back to the traditional version. There are no singing and dancing candlesticks.”

They have however used some artistic licence in the creation of the castle’s mysterious creature inhabitants who will leap around the ice and swing above the audiences heads, he said.

The dramatic spectacle has been created with a musical score by Italian composer Silvio Amato and choreography by Giuseppe Arena, who choreographed the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The set involves 14 tonnes of ice and 15 kilometres of pipework. The performers are drilled for two hours each day to make sure their movements have absolute precision.

Julian said there is no room for error: “Normally only two performers skate on an Olympic size rink but we fit 24 performers on a much smaller rink. Everyone has to know what they are doing because if you get one skater standing in the wrong place they could be decapitated.”

There is no doubt that the performers represent the cream of ice dancing. Between them the Russian ice stars have 300 competition medals.

Details on 0118 960 6060 or at www.readingarts.com