CAIRO: Moscow Stars on Ice was spectacularly unimpressive. The traveling group is performing matinee and soiree performances of “Carmen” and the “Nutcracker” at the Cairo Opera House March 23-25. Individually the skaters were mostly talented, but the lack of synchronization and almost garish arrangements made portions their performance at the Opera House painful to watch. The arrangement of “Carmen” was decent, but the group pieces showed a surprising lack of coordination and one blonde skater in the front row consistently stuck out as both an inferior skater and dancer, often lagging a beat behind the ensemble and lacking the precision of the other skaters. Yet when the group managed to pull everything together, the performance was breathtaking. The audience at Wednesday's matinee was half full of school children, who willingly overlooked the idiosyncrasies of the performance to clap and cheer at every lift, jump, or spin. Natalia Bestemianova as Carmen and Elena Pigasheva as Micaela stood out for their spectacular performances. Bestemianova proved herself to be as much an actress as a skater in her role as Carmen, with expressive movements and a flair for attitude. Pigasheva, however, stole the show, capering about the stage on her skates as young Micaela, providing a breath of freshness and gaiety to the performance. Following the intermission, the company returned to the stage with their rendition of a classic Christmas favorite, the Nutcracker Ballet. Pigasheva was once more the star of the stage, this time as Clara. She was joined by Pavel Lebedev as Clara's brother Fritz, and they made quite a pair arguing over Clara's new Nutcracker on the stage. Lebedev's performance was brilliant, light and full of jumps and spins as Fritz and later more serious but equally energetic and well-done as the Russian dancer. The ensemble showed of their skills in pairs or solos, as Herr Drossellmeyer's dolls, as mice and soldiers, or as snowflakes and flowers. The director's choice of arrangement, however, was less magnificent. From an awkward acoustic guitar rendition of “Silent Night” in the middle of the performance to bursts of big-band style jazz clashing sporadically with Tchaikovsky's original score throughout the Arab dance, the arrangement left much to be desired. While the performance lacked precision and the large ensemble scenes could have been much tighter, the show did offer two hours of entertainment and a few skating talents worthy of notice. BM
