The wonder is not only that they skate with such technical brilliance, but also with such artistry. Any performance by the Russian Ice Stars and it had been too long since I had seen them offers a compelling combination of what can be achieved by years of dedicated practice and what comes naturally. In a way, this can be seen to reflect the blend of brawn and beauty displayed by the performers themselves.

The audience at the New Theatre last Friday, for the second of last week's three evening performances of Snow White, was smaller than I expected, and certainly smaller than this scintillating show deserved. Where were the hordes of youngsters who would have delighted in this timeless tale, with its thrilling choreography (Cavaliere Giuseppe Arena) and lush original score (Silvio Amato)? Presumably at home, glued to the box.

This Snow White presented rather more of the 'back story' than is generally the case putting us fully in the picture over how King Mirabile came to land himself with such a witch (literally) of a wife and Snow White (Olga Pershankova) with so beastly a step-mother in Queen Altea (Svetlana Kouprina). But we were on familiar territory once the famous mirror revealed that Altea no longer was the "fairest of them all" and she began plotting to eliminate her rival. True, we were offered "woodcutters" rather than dwarves (now, could you rustle up seven ice-skating midgets?), and there are a couple of charming comic ducks (Sergei Smirnov and Ekaterina Boki) I don't remember in the Disney cartoon. But, apart from this, the tale followed its traditional course until our heroine awoke in the arms of her handsome prince (Valdis Mintals).

Ice dance fans who missed the show might like to know that it's at The Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa, from June 14-18 (box office: 01926 334418).