A “Birthday Celebration” with British Skaters in Belgium
An Arabian princess in a glittery costume, a mermaid, palm trees, exotic animals such as tigers, Tarzan & Jane: All these things usually to be found in fairytales or far and away countries you were able to witness just around the corner in Belgium if you decided to see the show “An Ice Fantillusion World Celebration” in May. It was organized by European Bronze Medallist Kevin Van der Perren and his fiancée, four-times British Champion, Jenna McCorkell.
The show was almost 3 hours long and took you on a fantasy journey through several worlds: The audience was taken to exotic places, starting from Hawaii to the jungle and to the Arabian desert before heading to an under water world and eventually ending up in outer space. The scenes were put into context by a voice over and some numbers consisted of spoken parts mixed into the music with the skaters acting as well as lip-syncing to them on the ice. Even Jenna did some of her lip-syncing in Flamish.
The preparations for the six “World Celebration“ shows, which were staged in Liederkerke, the home club of McCorkell and Van der Perren, and then a week later in Hasselt, started as early as last October and both Kevin and Jenna put everything together themselves: Choreography, helping with the costumes and even designing, creating and painting of the scenery and decorations such as artificial palm trees, boats and a huge dragon. The big effort which had been put into the shows impressed everybody all around and it was obvious all the skaters had a lot of fun doing the show.
Jenna had already performed in the show last year and now took over more of a leading role in addition to her producer part. “I am in almost every number” she laughed when asked about her music and total time on the ice. “I am on the ice for 24 minutes and Kevin 30 minutes”. And it was risky too! At one point, during her Jungle routine with Kevin which she labelled as “her favourite part of the show”, she was dangling from the ceiling on just a “liana” à la Jane whereas Kevin stood by as Tarzan in nothing than very small, brown shorts. In the Under Sea part she played the part of the mermaid.
Part of the huge cast of over 100 (!) skaters – among them 70% local kids but also the female Belgian Champion Isabelle Pieman and the winning couple of the Belgian “Dancing on Ice”show - were the British ice dance couples Philipa Towler-Green & Philip Poole and Candice Towler-Green& James Philipson who were more than happy to join the Liederkerke shows when Jenna had asked them. James also knows Kevin back from the junior days. “It was no question for us to come here when Kevin called me”, he smiled. For Candice and James the show was also a great preparation for next season which they are really looking forward to after their break in the 2005/2006 season and having finished 6th at Nationals this year. “We hope to finish third at Nationals”, James added.
There weren’t any real solo performances, everything was designed to be embedded into the storyline and by the end of the program and due to the complex and ambitious storyline, there were usually at least two or three skaters on the ice. In addition to the group numer “A whole new world”, Candice and James skated to music of the movie “Tarzan”, Trashing the camp”, whereas Philipa and Philip performed to “Dralion”, music from “Cirque du Soleil”.
For the Towler-Green twins the highlight certainly must have been the show on May 11th in Liederkerke as it marked their 23rd birthday. After the show they were called onto the ice and received a special gift when the skaters and audience sang “Happy Birthday” to them.
So will there be a return of the shows of some sorts who were, by the way, all sold-out in Liederkerke and also had a fancy VIP section? “Definitely!”, Jenna and Kevin exclaimed with a smile. But certainly not next May because that’s when their wedding takes place and sometimes, skating becomes less important even for very dedicated skaters.
Susanne Kempf