About The Show - Page 1 - Introduction
{Page 2 - The Show part 1} ~ {Page 3 - The Show part 2} ~ {Page 4 - After the Show}

Photographs by Akiko, Marina Semenova, Rumi, Angelika Krylova

After seeing Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas’ Ice Stars 2002 show in Vilnius which was a great success, Chinese representatives invited the production to perform in Shanghai. The show of ice stars was supposed to be the first one of its kind in Shanghai, so Rita, Povilas and their friends’ mission was to introduce professional figure skating to the Chinese audience.

The skaters liked the idea of organizing the show in China. It was planned to be held in 2003 but unfortunately was cancelled because of SARS. However, Margarita and Povilas didn’t give up their dream to perform behind the Chinese audience one day and in March 2004 the Shanghai Grand Stage welcomed the world figure skating stars to perform Dreams on Ice. The show was expected to be a mixture of drama, comedy and athletic programs with varying styles of music, from classical to Latin and even French singer Maxim Rodrigues. A 20x40-meter skating rink temporarily replaced the theatre stage, and state of the art lighting created the illusion that the skaters were dancing on a silver carpet.

March 25th was the last day of preparations for the show. After the morning practice all the skaters took part in the press-conference. It was held in one of the Shanghai sky-scrapers, on the 42th flour. Povilas introduced the performers to the journalists. One of the questions was about Chinese figure skating. Povilas said that Chinese pairs are very strong and make much progress.

When the press-conference was over, all the skaters except Rita and Povilas went to the caf? to have a cup of tea or coffee. Laurent Tobel, Gabriel Monnier and Dalius Barkauskas (team doctor) sat at one of the tables and asked to bring them three cup of tea. But the waitress brought them three cups of coffee. The local girls who helped to organize the show explained to the waitress that the skaters wanted tea and finally she brought them three glasses with green tea. It looked very much like alga. Laurant stirred it and asked smiling: Where are you, Nemo? ;-)))

After this break the skaters came back to the ice rink and had the second practice. There were a lot of reporters. They asked skaters questions and they had time to answer them.