Icecapades | Verve Magazine
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Screen + Sound + Stage
April 15, 2013

Icecapades

Text by Neha Gupta.

Ice ballet in India is perhaps a first. Cirque De Glace skid through a frozen stage in Aamby Valley, creating followers in awestruck audiences

  • Cirque De Glace, Aamby Valley
  • Cirque De Glace, Aamby Valley

What lies behind the curtains of Cirque De Glace, goes miles beyond one’s expectations. For the first time this Russian group glides over an Indian stage. And the audience at Aamby Valley needn’t trot across the globe to view this dazzling magnificence.

Cirque De Glace is a story about the evolution of Planet Earth. A mix of 30 artistes – professional ice-skaters and acrobats, come together to give a performance that is an amalgamation of circus acts and ice choreography. To be able to execute such a flawless concert, ice-skaters had to train in acrobatics and acrobats had to master the art of doing tricks on ice. This extraordinary team flips through fire hoops, spins around suspended ropes, trapezes from one bar to the next and twists in several other unfathomable turns in the air against a fulsome background of dancing lights.

To learn of the fact that it takes merely six weeks to compose the choreography for such an intense 90 minutes is astonishing. And to learn that their rehearsal time is a short two weeks is even more surprising. What we tend to ignore is the long hours invested by each performer. They are masters of their own talent. While they whet their deftness all year round, learning their roles in the story is, but a trivial effort added to the exercise.

Over the years the star skaters and acrobats have cultivated the aptitude of expression solely through body movements. Perfection of all actors radiates through their confidence and trust in each other. There isn’t a second of hesitancy when being flung in the air or dropped from a height – their agility, perfected over years, shows in their aplomb.

The troop has been touring the globe since three years, performing in the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Kuwait, Jordan, Denmark, France, to name a few. Their other shows include Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Beauty And The Beast, which have gained just as much popularity, but more so amongst an audience of little humans.

When asked about the unusual choice of Cirque De Glace from its fairy tale productions, the production explained, “We wanted to create something new and our audience were willing to see something different. Plus, we wanted to offer more opportunities to our skaters. It was a difficult selection but we did it.”

Just like that, the big bad world was packaged into a resourceful bundle.

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