Holiday On Ice: Believe

In the opening sequence of this years ice spectacular Christopher Dean kicks the camp out of the genre, with a rink full of boys wearing costumes that Sigourney Weaver might have worn in Alien. Don’t worry though, Dean drip feeds the camp back into the proceedings but with a deft touch. Somehow his vision has been realised without the usual recourse to tawdry feathers and sequins, there is a definite air of Vivienne Westwood to the costumes which works wonderfully in contrast to the grimy, hard edged look of the “workers in what is basically a tale of love between the classes, a stripped back Romeo and Juliet.

The set is HOI’s best yet and works well in realising the grimy underground life of the drones and the precious world of the privileged. Dean and the creative team have included some amazing effects, pole dancing behind a veil of choreographed water, a robotic number danced in near total darkness with stunning light covered costumes and an unravelling of red silks for an aerial acrobatic duet to, yes to Ravel’s Bolero (was that word play intentional Christopher?). And this is the best lit HOI show that I have seen and I have seen many, lighting that is considered as a part of the whole and achieves a cohesive vision

But at the end of the day it is the artistry of Dean’s choreography that sets this show apart. He is unafraid of calm, of static moments and a frozen tableaux. The tricks are all there but it is less about speed and daredevil leaps and more about dance and drama. The signs were all there from that Olympic triumph and Dean puts that artistry to great use now! Dean also choreographs his skaters above the waist, something we seldom see as these extraordinary athletes are all too often dashing over the ice preparing to spin, flip or fly. Not here, there is ballet, latin, jazz and modern throughout and I have to say that you can see in the faces of the performers that they are loving every minute of it.

Holiday On Ice is a wonderful thing but of late it has struggled to find the huge audiences that it once enjoyed. I only hope that this amazingly strong show will revitalise the company and bring in a new audience who will see that ice dance spectaculars are more than feathers and sequins, leaps and spins when put in the hands of great creatives as Believe has been.

Brighton Centre

4 January

Andrew Kay

5 stars