Gliding graciously across the ice Cinderella looks far more at home than her traditional depiction sweeping the floors at her evil step-mother's house.

The re-incarnation of this famous fairytale as a theatrical performance by ice skaters has been brought to the Royal & Derngate this week, along with four tonnes of ice.

The Imperial Ice Stars is the only production company in the world which brings ice rinks into theatres, rather than performing shows in large scale arenas.

It is a mammoth technical task and the ice rink takes 12 hours to set up on each theatre stage before the 25 strong cast can skate across it.

But with celebrity television show Dancing on Ice finishing just two weeks ago ice skating in the UK is on the forefront of audience's minds and crowds are expected to flood the Derngate auditorium this week.

Tony Mercer, artistic director of the show, said it was great that ice skating was finally getting the recognition it deserved in Britain.

He added: "Dancing on Ice has brought attention to ice skating. There are far more people going to ice rinks and having ice skating lessons. For such a long time ice skating has not been seen, not since the days of Torvill and Dean. Now there is potential for the future and potential for another Torvill and Dean.

"It is a great pastime and is a healthy family activity."

The lack of British ice skating talent has led to the international and Olympic champions being born out of countries such as Russia from which the cast of The Imperial Ice Stars are from.

The company previously toured with Sleeping Beauty and the award winning Swan Lake and have now revisited the traditional story of Cinderella.

Tony explained why they chose Cinderella as their next storyline.
"The idea with Cinderella was to take a popular tale. We see it as a panto or a Disney fairytale but it has its roots 1,500 years ago. Cinderella is a dancer and there is still the step mother who is the ballet mistress. There is no fairy god mother.

"This story has not been done for a long time. Cinderella is the person who you could meet on a shopping trip , it is not a twee fairytale."

In this new interpretation of a classic tale, the story follows
Cinderella, a humble chorus dancer who is thrust into the spotlight as a prima ballerina and captivates the handsome Lord Mayor's son, the most eligible bachelor in town, with her graceful performance. Despite rival attempts by her stepsisters to steal his heart, the kindly Watchmakers and Gypsy Fortune Teller ensure that true love triumphs.

The show features skating moves never attempted before together with lavish sets, special effects and over 70 opulent costumes.

The production is midway through its UK tour before going on to Asia, Africa and Australia.

Tony said: "The UK is probably the least exposed to ice skating. The European and Asian audiences have a better idea of the technical aspect of the show."


Lily takes to the ice


Having grown up close to an ice rink and still managing to skate every now and then as an adult, I felt fairly confident stepping onto the frozen stage at Derngate auditorium this week.

My masterclass was headed up by Olga Sharutenko star of Cinderella on Ice and figure skater since the age of six.

In 1995 she became Junior World Champion before joining the Russian Senior National team and then going on to join a theatrical skating troupe.

With this background behind her, I felt confident that she could show me a trick or two.

"What do you want to learn?" said Olga as I started slowly circulated the ice rink. "How to stop would be good, I have never mastered that," I replied.

Olga showed me a few techniques after quickly realising teaching me to stop might be too tricky to learn in a few minutes. Instead I mastered skating on one leg and raising the free limb, whilst also trying not to constantly stare at the moving floor.

However despite my previous experience what I hadn't factored in was that skating on 12m square stage is vastly different to whizzing around in a full size arena rink.

You are always turning corners which makes you constantly dizzy and it is difficult to build up speed for fear of falling off the edge of the stage into the audience.

Nethertheless Olga reassured me that it was possible to build up great speed simply by skating in semi-circles on the edge of your blades.

Another mind boggling part of the show is when skaters jump and dance on the tips of their ice skates, but I figured I was a long way off from learning this technique.

My short spin made me realise the technical precision of performing on such a small stage and I now have far more admiration for the stars of theatre ice rinks than their arena counterparts.