Swan Lake On Ice

The award-winning extravaganza, Swan Lake On Ice will astound audiences with its much-anticipated return to Australia, with updated chorography and a cast of skaters who together hold 250 competition medals.  

Swan Lake is widely known through dance and ballet, having been brought to the stage long ago through depictions of the more popular Petipa storyline. Artistic Director, Tony Mercer made the choice to be different from the rest, following the Tchaikovsky version where audiences will witness a love triangle with awe-inspiring acrobatics, flying sequences, aerial gymnastics and spectacular fire on ice. 

“When I saw Swan Lake in ballet, I thought, I don’t want to do it the same, so the opportunity existed for me to pick up on the Tchaikovsky version. You’ll know the changes I’ve made with characters and musically, Swan Lake is seen as a classical fairy tale, but I wanted this to become realistic so when anyone looks at the show they can feel it’s a story for today so you can relate with it and understand why everything happens.”

The biggest difficulty Mercer and the cast experienced was the ability to bring the character to life through dance and mime. 

“Skaters were taught to follow a rule book, but when they came to me I said, guys put your medals away. We spend time not only on ice, but on stage, so the performers learn to use movement to provoke audiences to empathise with the characters and feel the pain of the White and Black Swan.” 

Mercer is excited to bring the performance to Australia and share this unique genre, “I always think an evening at the theatre is great when you forget everything, you need it to take you on a journey and that’s what we do. We are looking forward to coming back, its one of the counties where we started so I’m looking forward to a new generation seeing it.”

Jul 25-29. Captiol Theatre, 13 Campbell St, Haymarket. Tickets: $89.90–$99.90+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.imperialicestars.com.au

By Jade Morellini.