2025-01-15 - Ice Palace Winter Opening Night: Swan Lake on Ice!

The Ice Palace in in its full splendour for the show where the many are brought in to enjoy the season spectacle of the Swan Lake on ice show. Tonight's opener bringing live rinkside music from a small orchestra assembled, and projection lighting cast down to leave the edges of the ice covered in the shadows of winter branches. Around the auditorium there are translucent winter trees that can be seen through but are placed throughout the back of the crowd, a living illusion, creating more of the forest atmosphere. There is also a bit of a cool breeze, but that might be the aircon in the ice arena.

It is after everyone is seated that the lights come down and a Canadian-French speaking announcer, some might recognize Jack, does the announcement in French then English to greet, "Good afternoon visitors to the Mystic Mountain. We are glad to have you here with us in the Ice Palace to celebrate the story of Swan Lake. At this time we will ask that there be no flash photography for the safety of our performers, and as a courtesy to other patrons."

"The lights come on and the music swells to a start. "Our store begins triumphant on the 21st birthday of the gallant Prince Siegfried. His mother gives him a gift to hunt with but reminds he me must still choose a bride soon. With the weight of this thought on his head the Prince heads to the wood where he finds an unexpected meeting. A swan, no! It the swan queen, Odette."

The narration fades to the overtures of act 1 for the music allowing the ensemble become the party, and others to become the other swans in the forest when the Prince arrives.

"Swan Lake"

At Audience:
Savvy's seated in the audience in a flowing black maxi dress a thick knit shawl tucked around her for warmth in the chilly audience seats of the icy palace. She's wears flip flops despite the chill, and every now and again she glances around to admire the translucent trees tucked here and there in the back. "Some production values," she murmurs.

Of course the choreographer's gonna show up to a production of Swan Lake set the week she moves to Spellbound! She smiles at the energy of the narrator, particularly because of the accent. Her attention returns to the stage for the cursed swan and hunting prince. "Murder and romance," she murmurs, sitting forward in her seat to watch, a clutch tucked into her lap, thermos of hot tea at her feet.

At Audience:
Auggie is not your typical Swan Lake on Ice customer, but but his roomie happens to be in the performance, and Auggie is definitely your typical supports the roomie type, so here he is, sat in the audience at the ice palace. He raises a hand to cup his mouth and shouts a quick "Woo!" over the crowd when the lights begin to go down, but then quiets and settles in to watch the performance. He's got a large soda cup and a giant-sized bag of Swedish Fish. He's also got a normal-sized bag of dried-out sprats, which he periodically feeds to Bubbles, the otter who periodically pokes his head out of the top of Auggie's hoodie. He's pretty well-behaved beyond some light chittering whenever the music starts up.

At Audience:
Declan slides in next to Sav dressed somewhat nicely for the show. A blue button-up and cream colored slacks with light brown shoes wrap around his frame. "Miss anything good yet?" He doesn't have anything in his hands. No clutch, no thermos...he can woefully unprepared for the show. Settling into the seat next to her, he stretches an arm around the back of her chair while his attention turns to the show, ready for some action!

At Audience:
Fin usually takes photos at events such as this one, but tonight, it appears that is someone else's shift job, as she is seated in the audience, sans camera, poised to watch the show. Leaning over to whomever might be seated beside her, she whispers, "the scenery they have set for this is just gorgeous, isn't it?" She will always give the hardworking behind-the-scenes crews their flowers and make sure people appreciate their hard work.

She's dressed up a bit for the event. If asked, she'll tell a person why. Her jumpsuit though elegant, is simple in design; crimson material that flows over her body with a V-Neck, wide-legged pant, and half-length flutter sleeves. Some think red heads shouldn't wear red. Fin does not live by these rules.

At Audience:
Artemisia is in residence but having found herself settled into a seat next to Declan. She's wearing a fluffy-furry pink coat over a short black dress and a pair of glitter bejewled tights, ending in a pair of big boots. "You don't mind do you?" She checked before she sat down.

At On The Ice:
Lucien is one of the courtiers at the Prince's birthday party. He skates among the ensemble during the celebration prior to the Prince's foray into the woods. His costume is understated, meant to blend in with the other skaters as they revel and cavort around the ice. Today, his ears and eyes are concealed, shapeshifted away so that he doesn't stand out from the other performers, his features purely human. That doesn't mean that he doesn't skate with grace and puts on an excellent performance as he glides among the others, passing between them and executing a few little jumps and twirls along with the other partygoers in the very beginning of the show.

At On The Ice:
Because this is a modern, twenty-first-century production, the role of gallant Prince Siegfried is played by none other than Layla Yousef. She's costumed in a midriff-baring royal navy blue royal jacket and matching trousers, lined with red and gold. Her hair is pulled back in a tight, neat bun, her face subtly painted with glittery eyeshadow.

Prince Layla arrives, skating ahead and leading her ensemble into the forest. Her performance is graceful and curious, leading the party here and there, twirling and swirling. Her eyes eventually find:

There! A swan!

At On The Ice:
There is a swan! The role of the Swan Queen, Odette is played by none other than the Ice Princess, herself, Esme St. Cloud, wearing a lovely white and feathery gown befitting the Queen of Swans.

Before she even realizes that a handsome Prince is in her midst, she flutters around the pond with beauty and grace, not realizing that eyes are upon her.

But then, What was that? Who is there?

Her eyes meet with Prince Layla, drawing her in to investigate with excitement and curiosity.

At On The Ice:
Lucien drifts off the ice as the forest scene takes place with the other partygoers, vanishing off to the side. There's a vague glance back toward the ice, a slight furrowing of his brow as he notices something that wasn't part of the dress rehearsal, but for now, he simply congregates with the other skaters until it is time to return.

At Audience:
Artemisia leans forward in her seat, propping her chin on her clutched hands as she watches Esme gracefully dance around the ice. Her outfit is a 10/10. Are those real feathers? Is that ethical? She pulls out her phone to google.

At Audience:
"A tense setup, a curse, a hunt, and impending romance," Savvy murmurs to Declan, quiet and mindful of the performance and the experience of others around her, even as she gives the new roomie a sitrep. "Don't worry too much about the crossbow," she adds, just in case the gymnast gets nervous in situations such as these.

She says to Fin, hearing her nearby, "It's gorgeous and I'm gotta find out who did their set deco. Love the red, by the way." She smiles, crimson lips a near match for the color of the photographer's jumpsuit. She catches the sparkle of Artemisia tights and does a double take. "Girl, I gotta know where you got those tights," she whispers. She watches the skaters and her attention is immediately drawn by three in particular: Lucien, Layla, and Esme. She has an eye for talented athletes, and her eyes are now locked in on the choreo. She's watching their feet for a series of moves, and her attention sharpens, then seems to drift. She's looking at something that's not the performers, gaze following shapes under the ice.

The light snowfall doesn't distract her, even, because it's not cold when it touches her skin. Yet. She glances up at the lights, then back down to the ice's surface. How the hell is something moving under that? She sits forward a little more.

At Audience:
It may not be the latest summer (winter!) blockbuster, but colour Auggie hooked by the ice dancing! He and Bubbles are munching away on their respective fish and slurping at their soda, occasionally bursting into a polite amount of applause (and an occasional unrestrained hoot!) whenever one of the dancers does something particularly impressive. Which, honestly, as far as Auggie is concerned, it is all impressive, so he is not exactly a quiet theatregoer. Glancing about at the end of the first act, Auggie notices that there is snow beginning to fall in the ice palace. "Sweet! Cool effects!" Auggie enthuses down his sweater to the curled-up otter, napping against his stomach. He's just in the process of trying to catch one of the snowflakes on his tongue when his attention gets drawn back to the skaters and the ice, which he watches with growing curiosity.

At On The Ice:
Oh there's certainly things that are suddenly there that wasn't part of the dress rehearsal.

As the Swan Queen, Esme, tells Prince Layla of the curse, an aura of frost begins to swirl about her lithe form, giving her this chilly aura. And once the good Prince reaches to take up her hands in this promise, it leaves a gentle icy frost on Layla's own hands now. An illusion, that lingers for a moment before fading. Perhaps, Esme, truly is turning into an Ice Princess.

Nevertheless, as she's giving the performance her all, it's not quite something that she's noticed, herself, and perhaps Layla hasn't either. And soon, their hands release and she draws back to look on the Prince wistfully, hoping that he keeps his promise.

At On The Ice:
As Prince Layla meets the Swan Queen for the first time, she swirls and leaps, playing out their conversation in physical terms for the audience. She mirrors Esme/Odette's every move, graceful yet strong and controlled.

The ice that lingers on her hands actually makes Layla pause halfway through a move, eyes wide. After a moment, though, she resumes, hitting her stride again and gliding away from the Queen. She glances over her shoulder at Esme, a mixture of real and feigned curiosity in her eyes.

But then the Prince skates on, headed back to his Palace, leading his group back.

At Audience:
Declan sits next to Sav and Arte, very much enjoying the show and not seeming to mind the additional commentary at all. He may be looking at different things from the rest of folks, so it's always good to be reminded of the other aspects of performance. "You mean, no one out there is in any actual danger? Ugh..thanks. Way to ruin the illusion..." That arm behind her bends a bit to let his hand squeeze Sav's outside shoulder while he merely grins playfully.

At On The Ice:
Despite being certain that some of these things were not part of the planned show, Lucien is focused entirely on making sure that this is the best opening that he can possibly help it to be. When the Prince returns for the celebration, announcing the discovery of his true love, the ensemble of friends liven up the party with an impressive display of leaping and cavorting around Prince Layla. They dance and glide in harmony about the space. Lucien even pulls off a couple of aerial spins that are perhaps, just a little bit more than was strictly rehearsed as well. Look, if the special effects can be extra, he can be just a tiny bit extra, too, but only for a few moments.

At Audience:
Auggie is having a fabulous time! He's mostly finished his candy and his soda, but he is totally caught up in the dancing, which he watches with great appreciation, clapping and cheering whenever his favourites make an appearance, or happen to do something that looks especially impressive. He is certainly an engaged and appreciative audience member!

At Audience:
The hunt for whether or not feather are ethical has been ruined by AI nonsense, so rather than focusing on that Artemisia lets herself fall back into the love story. She beams as she watches Layla dance across the ice in the role of the Prince and the beautiful Esme her counterpart. Her phone is flipped to camera so she can snap a few pictures.

At On The Ice:
As Prince Layla returns home for her party, she gleefully skates into the celebration, arms outstretched wide as she dances with Lucien and the rest of her ensemble of friends. Her face is lit up in a wide grin, white teeth visible even from up high.

When she spots the woman in black, apparently her true love returning again, Prince Layla glides and leaps over with the physicality of a young stallion, overexcited and eager. She bows first, before beginning to dance with this Black Swan, leaping into a few enormous spins that look almost dangerous.

The conditions of the ice are definitely noticed, but Layla adjusts by watching her footing carefully, making sure to avoid a dangerous slip or something.

At Audience:
Lucien's smooth moves (slick as ice, baby!) have Savvy sitting back into her seat, turning to Declan to say, "The ice is going all weird or I'm having an aura or something," she mutters. "Damn that kid can skate." Even in the potential visual hallucination portion of the evening, Sav still has the presence of mind to both be a little worried about what she's seeing under the ice and also appreciate Lucien's skating chops in particular.

And then then Prince Layla's showing out too and it takes her a little longer than it might otherwise to focus on the cracking sounds. There's a lot going on here, and she's not aware of the unique attributes of Spellbound. She wasn't. She is now. But her reactions are a little slow because of it. It's a shame there's so much going on, because Auggie is currently in possession of one of her favorite candies. In any other social situation, she'd certainly strike up a conversation. The arrival of the black swan is a tense moment in production, and is the ice cracking? She moves to get to her feet, with the intent of moving down the aisle to the walkway. She touches Declan's shoulder as she goes. "I'll be right—"

At Audience:
Fin is thoroughly enjoying the performance thus far, not taking her eyes off of the skaters, until it begins to snow. One lands on her eyelash, making her blink rapidly a couple of times before it drifts away.

"Oh, thank you," she whispered to Savvy about her jumpsuit, petting a hand on her knee as if admiring the color herself. "I love your dress as well." The talk is quiet, and brief, as she watches the story on the ice play out. Though, the otter does grab her attention a couple of times. Fin presses her lips together to not let out a squeal of delight at the sight of the cutie August is holding.

"Ooh.." she murmurs as Lucien pulls off an aerial spin. "Watch out..." she quietly warns the Prince about dancing with the Black Swan. "I thought I heard cracking but thought I imagined it...you are noticing it too?" FIn turns to Savvy now.

At On The Ice:
The handsome Prince Layla had invited her to the palace and the Swan Queen, Esme couldn't wait to meet him there in her excitement. She skates twirls and spins with grace as she excitedly makes her way to the castle, before peering in through a window to see.... what? the ice cracking in the middle of the floor? That looked quite dangerous, if you asked her.

So of course, there was a look of concern on the Swan Queen's face as she's peeeeeeeeeeering in on the celebration, all the while that swirl of frost continued to float around her form as she leans forward with curiosity. 

At Audience:
Declan hadn't really been paying all that much attention to the sounds of cracking or anything unusual, nothing that coulnd't have been simply chalked up to simply being elements of the performance in so way. Sav points it out and his brow knits, still most unconcerned though, until she mentions an aura. He briefly looks around, but catches all of those amazing jumps from the group.

It's not long after that then things start to go crazy. More little critters, seemingly akin--at least in size--to those at the parade manifest and start scurrying about. Savvy eases by him and one races over her toesies. He laughs softly, not frightened because he's assuming that these are just as harmless as stuffed, animated unicorns.

At On The Ice:
Suddenly there are little ice critters erupting out of the ice in the middle of the party and Lucien does his best to not only dodge them, but continue on with the ice dancing as though nothing were going on, as though this were all a planned part of the performance. He manages to get to his spot among the other revelers to gather around Prince Layla to witness the kiss. Meanwhile, he can't help glancing out into the audience and the chaos erupting around. Happy faces! Happy celebratory faces! Do not look like you have no idea wtf is going on, Lucien.

At On The Ice:
Poor Prince Layla is utterly unaware of her true love peering through the window, instead finding herself drawn in by the Black Swan, who Layla follows dutifully from place to place as they dance. Their dance is sensual and seductive, with Layla even picking up the Black Swan and lifting her high at one point.

Finally, they draw in close for the smooch...

And then chaos breaks out.

Layla whips her head around, eyes widening as she spots the little critters running around in the audience. After looking, though, she decides that it all seems fairly harmless, so the raven-haired woman shrugs and decides: fuck it.

Prince Layla is the one that turns back and pulls the Black Swan in for a gentle kiss, happening even as they gently slide across the ice.

At Audience:
Savvy's mid-sentence when she rises to walk down the aisle. She's tall, so stepping over things is not a problem. Wearing a maxi dress your legs can tangle in is especially when snowy little creatures skitter by and the floor's slippery under your flop flops which are like hitting the ice on skids. Uncontrolled and unexpected. "Oh, sh—."

Her feet slide, but she just barely stays on her feet, freezing in place, because what the heck is going on right now? She very nearly ended up in Artemisia and Declan's laps right then. But yes, a squeal comes out of her mouth, but it's cut off shortly after she regains control of her body. It was the skittering between her feet thing on the cutie snowballs with eyes.

At Audience:
Fin is one of those happy faces in the audience. She was at the parade when little plushies seemed to come alive, and these little things are kind of adorable. They even make her temporarily forget about the otter. She isn't going anywhere, not yet anyway. But, the chaos also makes her momentarily forget to be quiet when Prince Layla kisses the Black Swan. "Nooo.. Wrong Swan." Tsking, she shakes her head. Poor White Swan.

"Oh shit! Are you okay?" she asks to Savvy who almost falls and squeals.

At On The Ice:
The Swan Queen, Esme's eyes widen when she sees.... well, when she sees all of those little critters running about now, after the ice had cracked in the middle of the show. What were those snowball things?? They were kind of cute, but she couldn't just skate on over there and grab one, now could she? It was NOT IN THE SCRIPT.

Ahem. It certainly looked as if she were aghast, shocked, distraught by what she's seeing right now, when Prince Layla dances and lifts Odile up with athletic perfection before going in for that kiss.

Oh no, she can't look and, in her distress, she flees back into the forest, followed by her swan maidens as they flock around her icy and cold aura, to protect their Queen, knowing full well that they would be spellbound forever.

If one of those ice things comes close though, she might try to grab it as she flees, but oh noooo, she skates away, with her long locks flowing behind her.

At Audience:
EEP. The cold little guy runs past Artemisia's legs leading her to pull them up and onto her seat. She looks around with wide eyes at the general ensuing chaos.

At On The Ice:
At this point in the production, all Lucien has to do is stay upright as he observes the ill-fated kiss and the flight of the swan queen. Oh no! The evil Baron is revealed and the partygoers realize that their Prince has been tricked. It's looks of shock and dismay all around, which you know, are helped to be more authentic by the looks of dismay at trying not to run over tiny upset icekin that are now attempting to chase down the Baron. He tries not to laugh. He really tries.

At On The Ice:
This is not at all how Layla expected things to go.

Everything has clearly gone off-script, as demonstrated by the little ice dudes chasing the Baron off, far earlier than he's actually supposed to be defeated. Layla watches for a moment, slack-jawed, before she decides, once again, to improvise and work with what she's got.

In this case, that means staying on her feet first. Somehow, the dark-haired Prince manages to pull that off, dodging little critters left and right and gracefully skating after Esme, waving to the crowd as she pursues her ACTUAL true love.

At On The Ice:
Okay, that's not part of the script. The Swan Queen, Esme continues if her retreat as she weaves through cracks in the ice and tries her best to subtly crouch down in an attempt to scoop up one of those things, but the icekin have other ideas as they avoid capture. In fact, they seem to wish to protect the poor Swan Queen, something which she doesn't realize until she looks over her shoulder and behind her, after several of those snow creatures had raced under foo... skate, to see that they had gathered and were now hunting down poor Louis.

This was no a part of the script at all, but it does make the Swan Queen and her Swan Maidens turn with a flourish to just watch in awe as Louis... the Evil Nobleman, skates as quickly as he can away from the onslaught of angry ice creatures.

That's when she notices Prince Layla in the distance, swooping in for the rescue. The back-up skaters who form the retinue of Swan Maidens simply look dumbstruck at one another, before taking a hold of their Queen's arms to lead her to her one true love. This is how it goes right? Even if Louis isn't here to watch? So The Swan Queen Esme, skates alongside them, arms outstretched like graceful wings.

At Audience:
Fin is laughing. She can't help it. She's seen versions of Swan Lake before, but nothing like this. The performers, Esme, Lucien, Layla especially do such a good job of improvising that she rises up to her feet to applaud. One of the little icy cuties runs right toward her foot, but she picks it up swiftly enough that it does not touch her skin. Spared from the cold and enjoying a new adaptation of a classic story!

At Audience:
Savvy's laughing too, at the ridiculousness of tiny gremlin chaos, now that nothing's tried to bite her and it's all just cold and slippery. Lesson learned: no flip flops in the park in winter, no matter how much you despise normal shoes. She grabs onto the armrest between Arte and Dec and does her best to slip slide back to her seat where she can be relatively safe. Sav didn't come her today to become part of the performance! "Y'all."