MUMBAI, Feb 21: Mumbai will roll out the `ice carpet' next week to witness the artistry and aesthetics of ballet on skates. Billed as `Hot Ice', the spectacle will see Russian Igor Bobrin's team of ice-skaters performing a series of figure-skating shows after capturing Indian hearts in Bangalore and Delhi.The 25-member Russian troupe includes Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin (both five times European champion, four times world champion and Olympics champion), with Bobrin as the director-cum-choreographer of the troupe. Lack of financial support has hit the sport hard in Russia. Bobrin's troupe is one of the few survivors, carrying on determinedly, approaching sponsors directly and touring the world.The money, says a diplomatic Natalie, depends on individual outlook. She thinks it's good enough, but maybe others don't. All the artistes are professionals, trained by ``the best coach in the world - Tatiana Tarasova'' as Andrei puts it. The sport is their full time pursuit.Daily aerobics andexercises are as important in ice-skating as natural talent. ``Skating is the basic here, with dance coming in later. In Russia, children learn to skate on ice by the time they are four and five. Later, these are roped in by us and given training in ballet dancing. But we avoid taking anyone below 16 years of age as school and other hassles czome into the picture,'' explains Bobrin. But once in, there is no upper age limit.Reveals Bobrin: ``There is a 71-year-old professional figure-skater in Russia. But then there are some who even retire at the age of 30.''Natalie and Bobrin are married. ``I would love to have kids. But for a woman who skates, it's difficult. But even if I do have kids, I'll get back to the sport in a year's time after that,'' she explains.The same goes for fitness levels. ``We take great care of our fitness and health. If someone is sick or has a sprained ligament, they still try to go on. Only when it's absolutely impossible are they rested temporarily from the troupe,'' sheadds.The skaters have different dress designers and lycra is the basic costume for the shows. They dance to different kinds of music from rock `n' roll, `disco' to western classical tunes. In fact, they troupe will perform to a special sequence of Indian music.``I've seen Indian dances, it's beautiful and too difficult for us to pick up. It'll surely take us some time.'' says Natalie.``This is our first time in India and to actually see it something else. We have Indian films running back home, but the actual experience is so amazing. The Indian audience is so watchful and attentive, it makes us feel appreciated,'' she says.For the Mumbai shows, Sky Entertainment, the people who have got them here, have slashed the rates of their tickets. ``In Bangalore, we realised too many passes were going out as complimentaries. So we decided to cut rates and bring it to the masses in Mumbai,'' says Mr Sabir Rashid, Chairman and Managing director of Sky Entertainment.Talking of complimentaries, he saysthat about 1000 passes went out to the police force itself. ``So we had an amazing show in terms of crowd response, but had major set backs financially. We lost a lot of money in complimentaries and forceful gate-crashing. I just hope it doesn't happen here,'' he says.The dates for the Mumbai shows are tentative, but Sky Entertainment is looking at 30 shows - one during the week and two on weekends at Worli's Vallabhai Patel Stadium.Sky Entertainment is looking at bringing ice-skating to India in a major way. The plants used for the show, (each ice floor is made at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore) are lying waste at Delhi and Bangalore. Something similar is bound to happen after they finish with the Mumbai's shows and they hope for monetary from the government and public sector to start ice-skating rinks here to throw open the sport to the public. The sport may well become the country's next new passion after pool, bowling and go-karting.
