Anyone who got hooked on this year's European Figure Skating Championships, covered way beyond saturation point on Eurosport last month, will know just how compelling ice skating can be. Spins, loops and jumps executed at dizzying speed; fluid, graceful costumes; clever, even cheeky choreography. And the drama of it all: the joy of a feather-light triple somersault; the horrifying crunch of a sudden tumble to the ice; the ashen faces of the skaters as they await the marks which, by means of a mysterious process incomprehensible to the untutored eye, somehow manage to distinguish between infinitesimal levels of perfection.
From this world of rarefied elegance to the techni-colour razzmatazz of a Disney ice spectacular is, on the face of it, an impossible leap. Disney, for goodness' sake: overgrown animals whose appeal often lies in their very clumsiness; Mickey Mouse, with his ridiculous white paws; Baloo, with his enormous belly; those appalling nasaloid ducks. What perverted imagination could possibly have looked at them and thought they'd be the perfect match for the ice ballet brigade? Yet somebody did: and Disney on Ice is now one of the biggest employers in international figure skating. At any given time, eight different Disney on Ice shows will be touring somewhere in the world, reaching an annual audience - according to producer Kenneth Feld - of some 25 million.
The scale of the thing is mind-boggling. When the trucks rolled into Derry to begin a four-venue Irish tour, some 101 skaters plus a battalion of ice engineers poured out of 16 gigantic containers (12 for the show itself, two for the ice and two, significantly, for the merchandising). The producers make a big song and dance about the fact that this show cost $10 million to stage, but a scarier fact by far is that this is the fifth year of the European section of its tour. Nobody seems to know when - if ever - it will reach the end of this planetary peregrination; but it seems safe to bet that by the time it does, there won't be many children in the developed world who haven't had the opportunity to see Mowgli and Minnie strut their skate-type stuff.
At the beginning of February it was Barcelona's turn to host the show, at the cavernous Olympic Stadium just outside the city. Some 8,000 locals plus a visiting band of Irish journalists were treated to a series of scenes from Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid and The Jungle Book - "Quiero ser como tu-hoo" - in an evening that was as curious a hotch-potch of artfulness and awfulness as you could hope to encounter. Mickey Mouse doing that really annoying hand-shaking thing he does. Cinderella and the Prince burning up the ice with a devastatingly romantic and meltingly beautiful pairs-skating routine. Pluto staggering into the centre of the rink, then falling, accompanied by a crash-of-cymbals clichΘ straight out of second-division circus; a gorgeous sequence of magical creations invoking the four elements - earth, air, fire and water.
Breathtakingly difficult feats of figure-skating were sporadically acknowledged by a smattering of applause; the kids clapped along with the songs, but not all the songs. So is Disney on Ice a something-for-everyone combination of athleticism and animation, or a disjointed mish-mash which satisfies nobody? At a press conference after the show, the company manager and two of the star soloists fielded a series of more or less silly questions with admirable good humour. How many different nationalities among the cast? "American, Canadian, Russian, Austrian, French, South African. Oh, and a Czech Republic dude." Is the evening aimed at kids or adults? "Balance is very important. You have to be able to maintain the interest of both." How do you keep your own interest alive as a performer, night after night? "I do something different every day; a slight change in the routine, a small experiment. That's what keeps me going."
This last from Stacey Shepler, one of a family of four, two of whom are figure skaters and two hockey players. Stacey's comic turn as Sebastian the crab was an undoubted hit with the Barcelona audience, as was the panther-like grace of Axel Mederic, whose solo routines as a skeleton and as the personification of fire were among the skating highlights of the evening. Having represented France at the 1988 winter Olympics, won a gold medal at the French National Championships in 1989 and competed in the European Championships a year later, the fortuitously-named Axel is one of very few black skaters to have reached the highest international level, and well aware of his potential as a role model for a new generation.
"Young black kids see a lot of black athletes playing basketball, baseball and football. But not figure skating. Then, they see me out on the ice and think, `I can do that!' I tell them you just have to try your best. If it's what you want to do - do it. It doesn't matter if it's popular or not." How did he get involved with Disney on Ice? "In France, we only have one professional skating show. We skaters got together to explore professional opportunities for ourselves. I found out about Walt Disney's World On Ice and decided to spend time in America and then travel abroad." For a skater approaching the end of a career, it's a pretty good option - but then Axel has kept plenty of options open for himself, including qualifications in coaching and in sports journalism, and studies in jazz and ballet.
Does he feel he gets enough recognition of his ice-skating skills from Disney on Ice audiences? "It varies. In some countries they're really aware, so that if you do a double or triple jump, they see it at once." There is the briefest of pauses. "In Toronto, for instance. They really know their stuff there . . . "
Disney on Ice runs in Derry until tomorrow; and runs at the Point Theatre, Dublin from April 13th to 24th, in Belfast from April 26th to 30th, and at Millstreet, Co Cork from May 2nd to May 7th. Booking on 01 4569569 or through local agents.
