The circus on ice owes its birth to A. Arnold, a great circus production director, Honoured Art Worker of the Russian Federation, who devised and materialized this unusual performance in 1964. A. Arnold at that time organically combined for the first time the customary circus genres with figure skating technique and   presented to the delighted audience of Russia an exceedingly swift and captivating show.

The very first circus on ice tours abroad held in 1965 won the ice circus art universal recognition
and it has taken a befitting place on the world show business market.

   Many talented producers, who appeared later, continued to professionally develop the ice circus art. 

 One of them is undoubtedly Yana Schevchenko, who set up in 1999 a new “Circus on Ice” troupe. Nowadays we can see the new program of this young troupe which, developing the remarkable traditions, continues to amaze and gladden the spectators with fresh creative discoveries.

    As different from the ballet on ice, the circus on ice, apart from choreography and figure skating technique, is sure to have the circus genre. It is impossible to automatically transfer the acts from the circus ring to the ice rink. They are specially prepared by the ice show producing staff, taking into consideration the peculiarities of the genre. The presence of ice and skates raise for the performer additional difficulties in executing stunts, making the performance exceedingly dynamic.

   Therefore many ice ballet troupes willingly include into their programs for the sake of diversity separate circus genre acts.

  In the circus on ice every act represents the circus genre, and the purpose of choreographic compositions is to create a distinctive atmosphere of the act or the program as a whole.
   It is not every professional artist that can work in the circus on ice troupe. To be in the circus on ice troupe the artist needs to have a good command of figure skating technique and as a rule of several circus genres – this is the specificity of the ice circus. Every artist, while being the soloist in his or her act, usually appears in several more acts.

   The circus on ice art is comparatively young; it has been in existence for a period of just 40 years, but it has already won world-wide recognition as one of the most spectacular arts. You will become easily convinced of that being so if you see the new circus on ice program of Yana Schevchenko’s troupe.