» Holiday on Ice – Mystery
In a few weeks time Mystery the new Holiday On Ice show will open at the Brighton Centre. Latest 7 talked to fans and performers to find out what makes this the city’s most popular annual show
Holiday On Ice returns at the start of January with Mystery for a massive four-week season. Proof indeed that The Brighton Centre is the UK home of the world’s most popular ice spectaculars. Each year they bring us a new, more exciting, more lavish and more demanding production.
Co-director and choreographer Robin Cousins, Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion together with Anthony Van Laast pool their vast creative and technical resources to create an evening of spectacle, excitement, glamour and fun. Mystery has all of this – in spades!
But, rather than tell you what this year has in store, we caught up with a group of people who are real Holiday On Ice officionados: skaters, fans and the people behind the scenes.
A family affair
Former ice dancer and Brighton resident Jean Akers on her time with Holiday on Ice
Jean Akers lives in Saltdean and from time to time works as an usher at the Brighton Centre, HOI’s south coast home and probably the company’s favourite venue. Jean started on roller skates at 13, but progressed to ice when she moved to London from Southend. At Queens she made lots of skating friends and one day one invited her to go along to an audition for an ice production of Rose Marie. ‘‘It was a massive affair at the Harringay Arena with a chorus of 80 skaters and off-the-ice actors and singers. I skated with HOI from 1953 off and on until 1963. Back then HOI was a much smaller family show and a family business, but there was still the same commitment to providing a spectacular entertainment. I worked with choreographers Teddy Shuffle – who was Mr Showbiz and Stephanie Andross. Later on they introduced me to Robin Cousins who has become so much a part of Holiday On Ice. When he won gold at the Olympics he came back and did Holiday at Wembley Arena which was great for the company.’’
‘‘Now I go to see the show each year and love to see that the standards are as high as ever, although the expectation is for the principals to perform ever more difficult jumps and lifts. Some people tell me they miss the comedy elements of the old-style show, but I prefer it now without the clowning.‘‘
I asked Jean about touring. ‘‘Touring was an amazing way to see the world and the company is like one big family so it was always fun. Last year a lot of us old timers met up in Prague for a reunion, which was wonderful. I would never miss a Holiday On Ice production. I will be there on the opening night in The Brighton Centre as usual.
Love in a cold climate
Ice dancer Natasha Sierra recalls how her love of skating led to her meeting the love of her life
Natasha Sierra joined Holiday On Ice 11 years ago and stayed with the company until last year, when she married and decided to settle in Brighton – the company’s favourite touring destination. Natasha started to skate at the age of eight and both her coach and his wife had been principal dancers with the Holiday On Ice company.
‘‘They took me to see my first Holiday On Ice show when I was 14-years-old. By that point I was already skating competitively, at both a national and international level. I immediately fell in love with the show and when I decided it was time and I was no longer competing I went along and auditioned for the company, Within a very short time I had been offered a place on the team and after that I stayed with the company until I decided it was time for me to settle down.’’
‘‘Being with HOI is very much like being a part of a big family. When I started I would stay in hotels when on tour, but once I had met my partner, now my husband, We moved into a caravan and toured in that way. It was for many years a part of the tradition, but now all that is changing.’’
‘‘Over the years I saw a great deal of change in the style of the shows. There is certainly far more sophistication now but never at the expense of glamour and I am sure there will always be a fair amount of glitter, sequins and feathers involved – I loved all that. The company always has several shows touring at any one time so somewhere someone will be wearing a spectacular sparkling costume’’
I asked if Natasha had a favourite role from her time with the company – ‘‘I have loved all of the shows, but if I had to choose one it would almost certainly be Celebration. That was one of the shows that Robin Cousins choreographed and it was wonderful. In it I had to do Lady Marmalade with two of the other principals, a brilliant piece to skate.’’
So does Natasha miss skating? When she joins the audience at the Brighton Centre will she be craving to be out there on the ice? ‘‘Of course I will, I love to skate, but it was the right time for me to make a change. Sitting in the audience is still strange for me, but ice dance is a very demanding discipline, I know how hard the whole team work to maintain the standard of excellence that is expected, not only by the company but also by the audiences around the world. Since leaving I have returned to the company on many occasions to dance for them, just not as part of a major tour. I was also lucky enough to work with Kyran Bracken, when he joined Holiday On Ice and I have worked with him since.’’
Do you think that your future lies in choreography? ‘‘No, I don’t think I have the right qualities for that. Ideally I would like to become a show director, watching each performance and making sure that we maintain the standards at every show. Right now though I am enjoying being settled down and married to the man I met in the company. Holiday On Ice gave me the best 11 years of my life and helped me find the man of my dreams.
Fan-tastic
Holiday On Ice fans are passionate, but none more passionate than Betty Hornsey
Holiday On Ice provokes a passion that goes way beyond that of most other entertainments. And the age range of the fans is huge, from the tiny children to more recent converts, won over the by the brilliance of TV shows like Dancing On Ice. But the most passionate have been making their annual pilgrimage to see Holiday On Ice year after year for as long as they can remember.
Betty Hornsey lives in Hastings and each year she makes the trip to The Brighton Centre to see the show. She even remembers shows at Brighton’s much missed ice rink in West Street, behind what is now the Odeon.
Now she makes her visit with Clive Richardson Tours and last year she was declared their 5,000 customer. As a prize she had a presentation at the show and a meeting with Dancing On Ice champion, former International Rugby star Kyran Bracken.
Kyran took the UK by storm when he won the TV competition, but few would have guessed that he would develop a passion for ice dance that has continued since. That year he appeared in the UK Holiday On Ice Tour to huge acclaim and Betty met him after the show. ‘‘He was lovely. There was a journalist there and he asked if she had seen the show the night he had fallen. He said that he told the other skaters that if he fell again they were all to fall over so that it looked intentional. He asked me if I was ready to do a few turns and a couple of lifts. I said yes, I was ready, but not on the ice.’’
So what is it that brings Betty back year after year? ‘‘Well I love it from the moment I arrive, the atmosphere in the hall as the excitement builds, the beautiful costumes and I admire the talent and the sheer hard work that the skaters put into every performance, the way they make it all look so easy. I also love the choreography and aerial acts.’’
Asked if she has any favourite moments, she struggles to choose. ‘‘I loved a sequence danced to music by Rondo Veneziana, music I love. The skaters danced towards us in black male costumes, very severe, and then as they turned the costumes were crimson and female. It was magical. I was also there when Robin Cousins made his final performance and he did his famous back flip. I have watched him since he started in competitions, won Olympic Gold and became World Champion – now he is a brilliant choreographer working for Holiday On Ice. He is such a charming and talented man.
And what has been Betty’s funniest memory? ‘‘Definitely the show where a press photographer was being a nuisance by the ice, flashing away and annoying the skaters. In the end a skater snatched him onto the ice and smashed his camera. It took a moment to see that the photographer was a plant and it was all part of the show.’’
When I mention that I have already seen the new show Mystery, Betty is clearly envious, but very quickly she makes it clear that she does not want to know anything about it. The surprise of a new show is all important and for that she is prepared to wait.
Betty expresses the same passions about Holiday On Ice that I enjoy, the exuberance, the professionalism, the beauty, the musicality and the humour. But above all it has to be that a Holiday On Ice show is simply brilliant entertainment.
Mystery
The Brighton Centre
9 January – 1 February
Box Office: 08448 471538
Tickets from £14 to £28 with all children at £10 (subject to a booking fee). Group discounts available
