ICE SHOW

professional skating spectacle that combines the colourful movement of huge casts of skaters with all the arts of the theatrebrilliant lighting, gorgeous costumes, special musical scores, and careful direction. Among the features of an ice show are big production numbers, clowns, skating chimpanzees, and a pas de deuxa showpiece dance for two performers, male and female, who are usually champion figure or freestyle skaters. One of the earliest ice shows was staged in 1915 at the Hippodrome in New York City. Featuring a German ice ballerina, Charlotte (Oelschlagel), and an ice ballet imported from Berlin, the show, called Flirting in St. Moritz, created a sensation in New York City, ran for 300 days, and inspired The Frozen Warning (1916), the first motion picture centred on skating. Another pioneer ice show, The Ice Follies, was first produced in 1936 by Oscar Johnson, Edward Shipstad, and Roy Shipstad. In 30 years it played to more than 60,000,000 people. Later prominent shows in the United States were Ice Capades; the Hollywood Ice Review; Sonja Henie Ice Revue, produced by the Norwegian skating star Sonja Henie; and Holiday on Ice Shows, presented on ingenious mobile rinks, complete with portable refrigeration equipment that could be set up indoors or out. In northern European countries, especially in Great Britain, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries, elaborate pantomimes with stories portrayed on ice have been popular.