Competitions

Most professional competitions are invitation-only events. Skaters competing in a professional event have usually passed their senior-level tests and competed at nationals, possibly even at worlds and the Olympics, and they may have medaled at one or more of these competitions. Because television ratings are a high priority, organizers of professional events like to fill their slots with high-profile skaters who made their name in eligible skating, although over the years a few unknowns have been able to break into professional skating because their skills blossomed after they left the eligible ranks.

At professional competitions skaters usually do two numbers—a technical and an artistic. The technical program will often include several triple jumps, footwork sequences, and spins. The artistic number includes fewer triples than would normally be seen at the eligible level, and a higher premium is put on presentation, style, and interpretation.

Professional events may also be team-oriented, so that four skaters from one country or group of countries are pitted against four from another. Scores from all the technical and artistic performances are totaled, and the team with the highest score earns the top prize.

In contrast to eligible skating, where judges must spend years honing their skills at obscure competitions, judges at professional competitions are usually selected from the ranks of international coaches and former skaters. In fact, ISU judges would lose their eligibility if they judged a professional event that was not sanctioned by the ISU. Scoring is much different as well. In eligible skating judges give technical merit and presentation marks after each performance. In the professional ranks only single marks are given for the technical and artistic events, ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 10. Professional skating also steers clear of the ordinal system, generally awarding placement solely on the basis of total points accumulated.

Ice shows

Ice shows are professional skating spectacles that combine the colorful movement of huge casts of skaters with all the arts of the theater—brilliant lighting, elaborate costumes, special musical scores and choreography, and careful direction. Among the features of an ice show are big production numbers depicting fairy tales, films, classical stories, and romances.

One of the earliest ice shows was staged in 1915 at the Hippodrome in New York City. It featured 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 centered on skating. Another pioneer ice show, Ice Follies, was first produced in 1936 by Oscar Johnson, Edward Shipstad, and Roy Shipstad. In 30 years it played to more than 60 million people. Later prominent shows in the United States were the Hollywood Ice Review and the Sonja Henie Ice Revue. The Holiday on Ice shows were 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.

Ice Capades opened in 1940 and dominated the show-skating scene for many decades. At its height the Ice Capades drew millions of fans each year and employed skaters in three different performing companies—east, west, and continental. Its stars have included Peggy Fleming, Dick Button, Dorothy Hamill, Janet Lynn, Charlie Tickner, Scott Hamilton, Kitty and Peter Carruthers, and ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Hamill performed as a headliner in the late 1970s and then owned the Ice Capades herself for a few years in the 1990s. For years the show was successfully staging elaborate Rockettes-style showgirl themes, with gaudy props, comedy sketches, colorful costumes, and animated costumed characters from pop culture. Holiday on Ice and the Ice Follies put on similar variety shows. In the 1990s the big production numbers fell out of favor as the ice show evolved into more contemporary formats. Disney on Ice began in 1981 and signed a number of top skaters to headline. Not surprisingly, it often presents Disney’s animated movie characters on ice.

Stars on Ice was founded in 1986 by Scott Hamilton and sports agent Robert D. Kain. It features a relatively small international cast of elite skaters, many of whom are Olympic and world champions. Skaters perform individual and group numbers filled with sophisticated choreography and triple jumps. The show presents a new theme, individual routines, and original production numbers each year.

Champions on Ice, formerly known as the Tour of World and Olympic Champions, was founded and is still run by World Figure Skating Hall of Fame member Tom Collins. The primary distinction of the tour, now in its fourth decade, is that the cast includes recent world medalists and Olympic hopefuls from around the globe. In addition, the eligible cast is complemented by an impressive slate of veteran American and international stars, including Olympic champions Brian Boitano and Oksana Baiul. The cast performs individual exhibition programs, as well as elaborate opening and closing group production numbers.

Proscenium shows evolved in the late 1970s and ’80s, when skaters such as John Curry, Toller Cranston, and Robin Cousins pushed the creative boundaries of what constituted figure-skating entertainment. Many of their productions were put on in theaters. Cousins especially has distinguished himself in a variety of fields, starring in and producing Broadway-style musical ice shows in his home country of England, including Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.

Other skaters, including dance legends Torvill and Dean, put together innovative productions on regulation ice with spectacular lighting, choreography, and props. Feld Entertainment, which produces Disney on Ice, also made its mark in the 1990s by developing popular stories and stage shows such as the Wizard of Oz, Starlight Express, and Anastasia into on-ice entertainment. Meanwhile, producer Willy Bietak paired with choreographer Sarah Kawahara to produce the U.S. theatrical tour of Broadway on Ice.