br>
Russian figure skaters were welcome guests at ice shows around the world. This started back in the 90s, when our champions were invited to entire tours in America and Canada, and invited to Christmas performances in Europe. With the rise in popularity of women's singles skating in the '10s, the focus shifted to Japan, where skaters are treated like gods.
Over the past two years, the geography has narrowed significantly — European, North American and Japanese shows have been cancelled. They were replaced by performances in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. The Magic On Ice project was held on a grand scale from October 1 to 3 in Beijing at the Ice Ribbon Arena. A year and a half ago, Anna Shcherbakova became an Olympic champion here, Alexandra Trusova performed five historic quadruple jumps in one program, and our skaters eventually took six medals, including gold in the team competition.
Among the participants in the show are all the triumphant “teammen” of the 2022 Olympics, with the exception of Kamila Valieva. Apparently, at the last moment they decided not to invite her, so as not to aggravate the international situation around the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearings on the doping case. But they called Alina Zagitova.
br>
The show was widely and successfully, although not a complete sell-out. For example, the most expensive tickets for the VIP grandstand were not sold out. Even the marketing ploy in the form of exclusive joint photographs did not work. The Chinese public is still just learning to spend money on entertainment and figure skating. But once you learn, you can imagine the economic impact of this huge market.
What Chinese fans are willing to spend money on is gifts. Trusova was given so many toys that it would be possible to open a large children's store with them. One of the bouquets was approximately the size of two Sashas.
Shcherbakova was greeted like a rock star, from the airport to the arena. She was inundated with gifts, souvenirs and surrounded with such attention that at some moments it became creepy — as if no one had gotten hurt.
Do you remember how at the Moscow Sports Day in Luzhniki the security service canceled a fan meeting between Shcherbakova and fans? Then the organizers were afraid of a stampede in which children and teenagers could get hurt. In China, in order to avoid a crush, the escalators in the building were turned off in order to somehow control the flow of people.
When performing abroad, athletes often try to please their hosts by choosing music that is close to them. In Mongolia, Mark Kondratyuk, for example, performed to the song “Genghis Khan”. This time, almost no one did any special curtsies in the form of themed oriental numbers. Only Alina Zagitova staged the premiere of a number based on the music for the film “House of Flying Daggers.” Staged by Daniil Gleikhengauz, a new bright blue dress with long ribbons hanging beautifully in the air.
Trusova performed to “Cuckoo” — the intersection of the cultural codes of the two countries. After all, this cult song for Russia is quite popular in China.
Shcherbakova unexpectedly chose Madonna’s song Frozen for the new number. The dress is sewn to match — blue and white with a frost effect, with a scattering of shiny stones.
In Absolutely all participants in the action benefited. Chinese spectators saw the strongest athletes in the world. Our skaters were able to earn extra money, performed at the international level, and felt that they were still loved and welcome not only in Ufa and Sochi. In addition, we looked at Beijing with new eyes — on our last visit, due to Covid restrictions, no one could go beyond the skating rink and the hotel.
There is only one nuance — some social networks are blocked in China. Therefore, the telegram circles that our stars used to communicate with fans were present in minimal quantities. Zagitova complained that it took an hour to upload one small video, but she recorded a rare voice message. Both Zagitova and Shcherbakova apologized for “disappearing from the radar.” They promised to improve their activity on social networks immediately when they returned to Russia.