‘Jungle on Ice,’ a Whole Different Animal

Who could have guessed that dressing Cher, Bette Midler and Janet Jackson is a piece of cake compared to Simba, Tarzan and Jane?

Costume designer Frank Krenz, who has worked stages from Broadway to Las Vegas, knows firsthand that the creature cast of “Disney’s Jungle Adventures on Ice,” opening Christmas Day in Anaheim, is a tougher assignment than even the dazzling divas, paws down.

Krenz was assigned the task of adapting classic Disney characters from “Tarzan,” “The Lion King” and “The Jungle Book” to the latest ice show produced by Feld Entertainment, which moves to Long Beach and Los Angeles after its Anaheim engagement.

Giving Olympic-level skaters the look of jungle critters while allowing them to move freely was one challenge. Making them recognizable as Disney characters to the core audience--young children--was another.

“The kids will tell you if you got it right,” Krenz said.

Krenz and crew created costumes of all sizes and textures--including four life-size elephants from “Jungle Book” that were made of the same material used to cover car ceilings. The mane for Simba, from “The Lion King,” was woven out of the same materials used to reconstruct lifelike animals in museums, while his “skin” is a painted, stretch-velvet leotard.

“We went round and round trying to get Simba to look terrific and yet be able to achieve a level of skating that [the producers] wanted for him,” Krenz said. “That’s always the battle.”

Getting all the jungle residents to move realistically was the job of choreographer Barry Lather. Lather’s background was originally dance, not skating. As a choreographer for the stage and music videos, he worked with Sting, Prince and Janet Jackson. But about 10 years ago he was drafted to translate dance moves to the ice.

“We’re portraying animals here but I still want to capture the speed and athleticism of the skaters,” Lather said. “If a number is really high-energy or real funny, like the big monkey number from ‘Jungle Book,’ let’s make this five-, six-minute number just smokin’.”

The challenge for the skaters was to move as the individual jungle characters. One minute the chorus was doing the choreography and movements for a monkey routine, the next they were gorillas.

“We’re like, ‘No, you’re acting like a monkey, this is gorillas now,’” Lather said.

Lather’s job was made easier, he said, because of the caliber of the skaters. For instance, Natasha Kuchiki, who portrays Jane in the “Tarzan” segments, placed sixth in the 1992 Olympics with partner Todd Sands.

Although nothing compares to the thrill of competing in the Olympics, said Kuchiki, 25, who grew up in Canoga Park, a number in the Disney ice show has been one of her greatest professional challenges.

“We were sent to Vermont for about six weeks to basically get our bodies broken,” Kuchiki said, joking about the intense training sessions she and Jamie Loper (Tarzan) endured with Russian skater-aerialist Alla Youdina to learn the “Spanish Web” routine.

The “Spanish Web” is an aerial ballet number performed more than 25 feet above the ice. With their skates on, Tarzan and Jane climb a “vine” to take a romantic tour of the treetops (without a net or harness).

“The most acrobatic thing I have ever done [until this] is probably pairs skating,” Kuchiki said. “At times I thought, ‘How am I going to do this: skate a routine for, like, two minutes, then climb right up and do the routine in the air?’”

But the daring paid off, and the “Spanish Web” competes with the “Trashin’ the Camp” number as the biggest crowd pleasers of the show. “Trashin’ the Camp” is based on the scene in “Tarzan” in which the gorillas and their pals get jiggy with the hunters’ camp. While the humans are away, the mayhem includes some circus-like somersaults by a troupe of Russian acrobatic ice skaters.

“It’s fun to choreograph something like this that you can take your family to,” said Lather, a former L.A. resident who lives in Minnesota with his wife and two daughters. “You look at how elaborate the show is and it’s like, ‘Wow, that looked really good.’.... It’s very dynamic, it’s funny, edgy, rock ‘n’ roll-y.... I’m very proud.”

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Disney’s Jungle Adventures on Ice, Dec. 25-Jan. 1 at Arrowhead Pond; Jan. 3-6 at Long Beach Arena, Jan. 10-13 at L.A. Sports Arena. Call or check the Web site for schedule. Tickets start at $10 opening nights; all other shows $14-$50. TicketMaster: (213) 480-3232; (714) 740-2000, or www.disneyonice.com.