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Blade runners
Disney’s ‘Princesses’ take to the ice
BY SALLY CRAGIN

In a constitutional democracy, the title "Princess" should have no value. We have presidents, not potentates, senators, not sovereigns. Yet the folks at Disney have, once again, put a white-gloved mitt on the pulse of a nation and detected a yearning in the collective heartbeat. Yes, we need "Princess Classics," a Disney on Ice extravaganza complete with three-story castle. This pageant of professional skaters showcases 40 performers, some of whom play Disney characters like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, and Ariel the Little Mermaid.

There is skating — lots of it — but "Princess Classics" is also a carefully wrought selection of vignettes. For husband-and-wife choreographers Tom Dickson and Catarina Lindgren, the challenge was making sure the narrative came through along with the gravity-defying jumps. "With the type of audience that is at Disney on Ice‚ they know these characters really well, so they know exactly how each one should act," Lindgren explains. "A bunch of triple toe loops isn’t going to cut it." Sometimes the skaters aren’t even skating, as in the case of Robyn Sudkamp, a 25-year-old Denver native who plays Ariel. First, she skates a solo in her mermaid incarnation (which includes shell brassiere and fish tail). Then the skates come off. Lindgren continues, "When Ariel gets transformed into a human being with legs, the director thought the effect would be interesting to show her feet. Jonathan Poitras, who’s the lifter, has to be incredibly strong to keep her in the air for the entire number. It’s an unusual break to all the skating."

Sudkamp enjoys the opportunity to skate by herself but feels more at home with a partner. "I’ve been a pair skater since I was eight, and Jonathan is perfect for me. We get along on and off the ice. I trust him 110 percent. The most important thing about anyone you skate with is that you can trust them, because they have your life in their hands."

Yet when this pair skate together, they’ll be doing moves that draw from a different Olympic event: ice dancing. No surprise, since Dickson and Lindgren toured with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who were the pinnacle in that field. "We wanted to introduce a lot more ice dancing in the show," Dickson offers, "instead of just set-ups for tricks like a pair lift or a throw double axel." Ice dancing also means the skaters are always face to face and working, he says, from basic ballroom dance steps "like foxtrot or waltz. In pair skating, the skaters tend to work more side by side."

For the choreographers, developing moves for so many distinct personalities was also enticing. "Some of the princesses are really women of the new millennium, like Ariel, who has the independence to do what she wants to do with her life and not what her father, King Triton, says," Dickson points out. "She’s a little bit defiant. Or Mulan, who dares to disguise her own identity to get what she believes in. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are a little more innocent, and Cinderella is someone the audience needs to feel this great empathy for. She’s this beautiful girl in rags who never gets a shot at anything. We try to get the audience to root for her."

In many regards, an ice-show performer’s career is the most highly concentrated of all performing opportunities. Skaters spend days on the road and just minutes on the ice, though there’s rink time before and after the show. But it’s all worth it, Sudkamp says, especially when "you become the character. The children are not there to see Robyn playing Ariel, they’re there to see Ariel. I actually feel like I become her when I go out on the ice — I’m not just a girl in a costume."

"Princess Classics" is presented by Disney on Ice at the FleetCenter February 12 through 23. Tickets are $12 to $60; call (617) 931-2000.

Issue Date: Febraury 6 - 13, 2003

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