Rink master to the stars

It’s not so surprising that Christopher Dean chose “Time” as the title and theme of this year’s edition of “Smucker’s Stars on Ice,” the highly theatrical figure-skating show that comes to Southern California next weekend. Twenty years ago at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, Dean and Jayne Torvill set a new standard for ice dancing with their mesmerizing interpretation of Ravel’s “Bolero,” a study in subtly increasing dramatic tension.

Ten years after that, the British duo returned to competitive skating, and at the Lillehammer Olympics, while other ice dancers skated through dramatic agonies and ecstasies, they highlighted the virtues of clarity, craft and sophistication with a deftly musical number, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” in the style of Astaire and Rogers.

Such milestones may have made Dean particularly sensitive to the passage of time, but as the newly appointed director-choreographer of the 18-year-old “Stars on Ice” tour, he also saw the motif as a way of creating a more integrated production, as well as exploring whimsical possibilities inspired by the many connotations of “time.”

“It has such a wide scope that it gives us a lot of leeway. The goal is ultimately to have almost a book show, which in our realm is always quite difficult because of people’s expectations that you go from one number to the next,” Dean, 45, explained recently by phone from his home in Colorado. He and associate director Jef Billings, he said, “wanted to try and have a show without any blackouts, so a lot of the show is driven by transitions from one piece to the next, which are all based around time.”

Indeed, time may be more on Dean’s mind than on any stage-based choreographer’s: A major difference between choreographed skating and choreography created for the stage is the speed at which the performers can move. “It’s kind of like trying to choreograph marbles!” he said. “You throw them out and try to guide them where they’ve got to go, to manipulate and maneuver them.”

Still, because the choreographer, skaters and creative team behind “Stars on Ice” come together for a four-week rehearsal period every fall, working much in the manner of a dance company, their program can include far more than just individual skaters’ solos or pair numbers.

In past years, the show often began and ended with rock music (a recent NBC television special looking back at previous editions spotlighted finales skated to Queen and the Rolling Stones), but this year it starts and winds down on a gentler, more lyrical note. The opening is set to “Sunrise,” a section of Ferde Grofe’s 1931 “Grand Canyon Suite.”

“I thought it was totally appropriate to our theme: It’s the beginning,” Dean remarked. “Everything in the show has a symmetry or a sense of coming full circle. If you look really closely, as with time, it’s always moving onward, but you’re coming back to where you were as well. The opening costumes are in morning pastel colors, and we go back to their design for the finale, when it becomes all white.”

Speaking from his Los Angeles-area home, Billings, who had long been the “Stars on Ice” costume designer before taking on his additional responsibilities for this year’s tour, said that the Grofe “reminded me of early figure skating, beautiful classical pieces. I thought it was a great way to open the show. Then at the end, a new day is beginning, you’re starting fresh, and it’s all clean -- all the opportunities are ahead of you.”

Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, founded “Stars on Ice” in 1986 to create opportunities for skaters who had moved from competitive skating into the professional arena. He himself had initially hooked up with “Ice Capades,” one of the few performing opportunities then available, only to be unceremoniously let go by the powers that be, who claimed that “only female skaters sell tickets.” He then assembled some of his colleagues for a five-city tour.

In the years since, the show has grown to include a regular schedule of 60 U.S. cities and has also spawned a Canadian edition. Hamilton -- always an extremely popular skater (Dean calls him “Mr. Entertainer”) whose numbers often showcase his flair for humor -- performed regularly on tour through 2001. Now he’s the show’s producer and is making guest appearances in 19 cities, including in San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles along with 1994 Olympic gold medalist Oksana Baiul.

Using a quirky approach

For more than 10 years, “Stars on Ice” was directed and choreographed by Sandra Bezic and Michael Siebert, who played an important role in expanding its artistic horizons and strengthening its ensemble choreography. Dean’s association with the tour began in 1997, when he and Torvill joined it to perform and contribute choreography. (They brought with them years of experience creating and headlining their own tours.) With Torvill for a couple of years and then on his own, Dean began to specialize in offbeat, quirky production numbers.

One deft musical-hall-like piece featured a red bowler hat that was continually passed among the ensemble. In fact, Dean often worked with props, sending five robotic dancers seated on chairs through intricate patterns across the ice, and creating a tango for three men with tables as their “partners.”

This year’s Act 2 opens with a piece that’s pure Dean, certain to confound spectators whose image of skating is based on the numbers they see in competitions. Four guys in workmen’s jumpsuits punch a time clock (another variation on the theme) and skate with long industrial brooms to high-tech percussive music by Art of Noise.

Given the tight time frame for assembling the two-hour show, Dean and his assistant choreographer, Jamie Isley, constructed much of the movement in advance of their rehearsals with the skaters. “We would choreograph the steps ourselves for the 13 skaters and try to be each of the individuals, thinking about how you move the ensemble around,” he said.

This year’s show still features many individual turns for the various singles skaters (former world champion Yuka Sato, six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge and 2002 Olympic gold medalist Alexei Yagudin) and pairs (Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier -- the teams embroiled in the 2002 Olympic judging controversy that resulted in both receiving gold medals -- plus two former U.S. champion duos: Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, and Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman).

But Dean and Billings also came up with a series of brief, at times quirky, transitional vignettes influenced by 1920s vaudeville routines -- thus giving free rein to Billings as costumer.

“A lot of them were Scott’s ideas, and when Scott described them to me, I felt they all sounded like vaudevillian sketches,” Billings said. “I came up with the idea of costuming them as a cross between vaudeville performers and skaters. I had some books of old English music hall performers.”

The results are a wide range of fantastical black-and-white outfits that suggest everything from Bauhaus ballerinas to an 18th century town crier.

In short, the show’s structure keeps the skaters busy going from individual pieces to roles in the transitional bits and into the group choreography as well. “Most of the skaters have told me it’s the most choreographed show they’ve ever done,” Billings said. “They’re working hard -- it’s wall-to-wall skating.”

Says Hamilton: “A lot of skaters who care about having a professional career want to go in this direction. They know they’re going to work a little bit more, they’re going to be on the ice a lot more in a night. They’re going to be a better skater at the end of the year because of that development.”

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‘Smucker’s Stars on Ice’

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: San Diego Sports Arena

Price: $27-$82

Contact: (619) 220-8497

Also

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim

Price: $30-$100

Contact: (714) 740-2000

When: Sunday, 6 p.m.

Where: Staples Center

Price: $30-$100

Contact: (213) 480-3232