This Christmas at Liseberg: Swan Lake on ice

Every year, during Christmas at Liseberg, a spectacular ice show is shown daily. This Christmas, the stunning classical ballet Swan Lake will be showing at the Liseberg ice rink. “It will be a first-class fairytale ballet on ice,” reveals producer Sofia Sjölin. Christmas at Liseberg and the Swan Lake ice ballet open on 16 November.

The classical ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1877. This fairytale in four acts has all the elements of a thrilling love story: A prince, Siegfried, who falls in love with Odette, an enchanted princess, and a wicked sorcerer, Rothbart, who has bewitched Odette to turn into a beautiful white swan every morning at sunrise. Can true love break the evil spell?

Liseberg has been hosting an ice show every Christmas since 2003. This classic love story will come to life on ice to the glorious tones of Tchaikovsky’s music. The show differs slightly from Liseberg’s previous ice shows as it has more classical ballet elements. Besides traditional operatic scenery, dramatic masks and dainty ballet-inspired costumes, the show features four ballerinas.

The ice skaters’ choreography will also be ballet-influenced. Ice skating and ballet might seem closely related, but they are actually completely separate schools with very different body movements.

“The real challenge is to combine acting and a balletic feel with all the technical demands of figure skating,” explains Arvid Smith, who plays Prince Siegfried.

The troupe has been practising ballet for six months to get the right moves and feel, but considerably more experience is needed to perform the skating in the show. Everyone in the troupe has at least 10,000 hours of ice skating under their belt and has trained from an early age. They started rehearsing Swan Lake on ice in early September.

The whole area around the stage will be part of the fairytale. Besides the scenery and decorations at the ice rink itself, the atmosphere will be enhanced with video mapping, a technology used to turn objects into a display surface for video projection and lighting.

“We will create an evocative space by projecting the great castle onto the main stage, followed by the castle fence and the dark lake,” explains Lotta Carlsbogård, Artistic Director at Liseberg.

This year’s investment in Christmas at Liseberg is the largest in the season's 19-years-old history. A sum of SEK 15 million is invested to create that special Christmas-at-Liseberg-atmosphere, in the warm glow of millions of Christmas lights.

Christmas at Liseberg and the Swan Lake ice ballet open on 16 November.

About Liseberg’s production of Swan Lake

Era: 1890–1900

Music: Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake

Production company: VIS Productions

Show duration: 20 minutes

Sofia Sjölin – producer

Johan Karlberg – director

Lina Stenman – chief choreographer

Imi Raabe – choreographer, skaters’ dance sequences

Albin Boudrée – choreographer, ballet sequences

Alexandra Breding – choreographer, team skating

Arvid Smith – Prince Siegfried

Isabelle Olsson – Swan Princess Odette