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Unless you have been watching Suzanne Shaw and Greg Rusedski in Dancing On Ice recently, the chances are you've never seen Beauty and the Beast on skates.

But that can all change next week when Fairfield Halls is transformed into an ice heaven to take on the fantasy fairytale.

With the world's tallest ice skater, 7ft-tall Andrey Chuvilyaev, playing the beast, Olga Pershankova reaches new aerial heights as the beauty.

"Obviously, the lifts are quite high and it is scary for the first couple of days," says Olga, "but, after that, you're fine.

"It is a bit strange, though, as Andrey's higher than other boys, and the time it takes to get to the top is a little bit longer than usual, but for the audience it is really good as they get to see some really high lifts."

Olga has been with Wild Rose, the company putting on the production in association with the Russian Ice Stars, since 1995 after a successful career as an amateur skater where she competed at the World and European Championships for the USSR.

Over the past two years, Olga has seen skating's profile rise to a new level largely thanks to the popular reality TV show which aims to turn celebrities into top-class ice skaters.

And, although the 36-year-old missed out on watching a lot of the series, she thinks it has only done good things for ice skating.

She said: "I wanted to watch it but I didn't really have time. When people watch our show now, they can understand what it takes because of Dancing On Ice.

"They were showing all the behind-the-scenes stuff with the falls as well.

"There are always accidents, it does happen when you practise new moves, but you try to be very careful and, because we have been skating so long, we know how to fall."

Beauty And The Beast On Ice, Fairfield Halls, April 2-5, 7.30pm, Thurs and Sat mat 2.30pm, £24.50/£17.50 (children half-price). Call 020 8688 9291, visit fairfield.co.uk

8:22am Thursday 3rd April 2008

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