Robin Cousins - from judge to choreographer
HAVING judged Kyran Bracken during the Dancing on Ice second series, Robin Cousins is now working with him on Holiday on Ice.
HAVING judged Kyran Bracken during the Dancing on Ice second series, Robin Cousins is now working with him on Holiday on Ice.The figure skating legend was called in when the ice show producers decided to include the TV show champion in Romanza and admits he was "a little dubious" about the idea at the start."You get a false sense of security doing the show," he said. "To put someone in the middle of a professional production is quite different.
"There's the question of whether you really want to expose people like that and whether they can handle that exposure.
"But I can see that Kyran is really keen to learn about issues like why the blades work in the way they do.
"He's very focused on the details of what it takes to skate and he wants to know how to make it happen.
"He exudes a confidence to make him improve and I realised we could make it work.
"We need to allow Kyran to be himself in front of the audience, for his natural charisma to come across the way it did on TV but also to let them see the technique he has acquired since winning the series.
"I know he will be working hard to prove himself worthy of being in Holiday on Ice and I have no doubt he will succeed. He wants to be challenged.
"I have to get the material to take him to the next level – he will be performing in the show eight or nine times a week."
Robin was planning a solo for Kyran in the first half of Romanza, to show how he can skate, followed by a romantic routine with partner Nina in the second half to show the audience "another aspect of Kyran they won't have seen".
New viewers should be enticed to the Brighton Centre with Kyran in the show, too.
"People will come to see a celebrity and see he is really good and can skate," Robin said. "Then they will see how good the show is and might go back again."
Robin was in Rotterdam to see Kyran just before the launch of his show Spirit in Germany, which is due in Brighton in 2010.
"It's all about the elements – air, fire, water, earth – with a Chinese festival, yin and yang, underwater scenes... It's all about trying to find a new way to allow wonderful costumes and music to speak."
Robin recently worked on a Peter Pan ice show he called a huge success and has taken to the stage for the Brighton Fringe Festival with a theatre piece and performed as part of a London cabaret – something terrifying, very different and fun to do that might reincarnate itself again at some point.
In January, he will be starting work on the next series of Dancing on Ice.
After winning the Olympic Gold Medal at Lake Placid in 1980, Robin won the World Free Skating Championship Gold Medal three times, along with World Championship Silver and European Championship Gold.
That year, for his services to sport and skating, Robin was awarded the MBE.
A highly successful career as a professional skater followed, appearing as special guest star with Holiday On Ice, setting a new, and currently unbroken, box office record for attendance levels over a six-week season at Wembley Arena.
As well as running his own entertainment and event production company, he has starred in, directed and choreographed numerous shows for Holiday On Ice.
Away from the ice, he has forged a successful theatrical career, including starring roles in Cats and The Rocky Horror Show.
Nikki Jeffery
For show times or tickets, click here
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Worthing
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -6 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.