ROUBLE on the ice literally turned out to be a real show stopper for the Russian Ice Stars during their performance of the fairytale favourite, Sleeping Beauty, at the Alban Arena, writes Diana Machin.

Halfway through the otherwise flawless performance, the show was forced to stop for a 20 minutes after a puddle appeared on the ice rink.

The puddle turned out to be a pool of anti-freeze, which had seeped out after a dancer had severed a pipe under the surface ice with his skates.

Hurried repairs kept the leak under control for a short time but it wasn't long before the hole appeared again in the same spot.

Despite these difficulties the show continued and it soon became edge of the seat stuff.

Every time dancers went near the offending hole the audience would strain their necks to see if the skaters would go over it and what would happen to them if they did.

Although this technical hitch was annoying, it didn't take long for the audience to get back into the magnificent performance by the Russian skaters.

The Russian Ice Stars tour nearly 32 weeks of the year with this ice rink and it is only the third time something like this has ever happened and never at the Alban Arena in St Albans.

However, to the performers' credit this near-disaster didn't phase them one little bit.

They soldiered on professionally, with all the ice dancers highly-skilled. They executed their difficult moves with such precision and ease, it made the whole production addictive viewing.

On occasions, the audience had good reason to break into a frenzy of clapping after being wowed by a skater's complex dance moves.

This choreographed ice skating was so graceful, the production was comparable to a ballet - and if you like ballet you will love ice dancing.

The ice element gave the skaters an advantage, which enabled them to jump higher and perform some spectacular acrobatic feats.

For me, some of the most impressive dance scenes came from the Lilac Fairy and the Lilac Prince, who made light work of difficult and demanding dance sequences.

Each move was sleek and effortless and the couple seemed to have a good dancing chemistry that added an extra sparkle to their performances.

However, one character the audience immediately warmed to was Calabutte, played by Vladimir Kotin. In addition to his expert skating he humoured the audience as the master of cermonies.

At the end of each scene he would announce the title of each scene and offer the audience light relief with quips and jollies.

The set design and dazzling costumes put the icing on the cake and brought a sprinkling of fairy tale magic to the well-cast production.

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