On February 2, 2011 Bobrin Ice Theatre turned 25. It is an historic and creative milestone for BIT, its artists and Creative Director, Igor Bobrin, whose name the troupe proudly carries. Innovation, uniqueness and unyielding drive to surprise the audiences have made BIT a universally acknowledged success.

The theatre was founded in 1986 when 9 skaters began touring together with artists of various other performing genres. Yet the skaters’ dream was to create an independent ice theatre, dedicated exclusively to the marvelous genre of performing theatrical miniatures on ice.
From that dream the very first dramatized performance was born, Silent Movie, aka Contemplation on the theme of Charlie Chaplin. Ilya Reznik wrote the libretto for this ballet-burlesque and Natalia Debaddie choreographed the critically acclaimed performance.

From1988 BIT tours the world, earning praise from the press in Holland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Russia and USA. “Fresh ideas” and “nothing ever seen before” are frequently heard and French journalists rename Bobrin Ice Theatre Bolshoi on Ice.

The secret of success, popularity and longevity is not accidental, theatre’s artists star in top rated TV shows in Russia Aerobics on Ice, Dancing on Ice, Velvet Season, Star Ice, Blue Light and in the UK in Dancing on Ice.

From 1989, BIT’s headliners are all Russian skating champions who just won European, World and Olympic Gold – Evgeni Plushenko, Irina Slutskaya, Yelena Berezhnaya-Anton Sukhuralidze, Alexei Yagudin, Tatiana Totmianina-Maxim Marinin, Oksana Kazakova-Artur Dmitriev, Elena Valova-Oleg Vasiliev and many more.

BIT became the very first ice theatre to invite composers to create music especially for dramatic ice performances and many prominent modern Russian composers contributed their talent – Michail Chekalin, Alexander Gradsky, Alexander Rosenblat, Alexander Goldstein and others.

Pallais de Congress in Paris, especially for the 1988 performance of Bolshoi on Ice, laid ice atop their stage, and thus BIT is the very first ice theatre in history to perform on theatrical stage. Years later, in Bombay, India, when outside temperature was +38C or in Harbin, China -30C, BIT set two more absolute records, and on those very days, it was no laughing matter.

The key to Bobrin Ice Theatre’s success is likely due to the unprecedented combination of theatrical performance and ice ballet, which evolved into its own genre, placing BIT into the pioneering position, establishing its flagship role and assuring the fact that it will always be there, paying tribute to the followers of the genre, bringing to them amazement and joy, creating new generations of fans and gathering faithful fans around the world for the premieres.

BIT is honored to be included in the Russian Federation Cultural Olympics which will be preceding Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

There were multitudes of memorable moments during the last two and a half decades: In Holland, a spectator, fighting off others after the show to get an autograph, apologized to the artists “Sorry for wearing jeans to your beautiful performance”. In a far off Khabarovsk, several families who could not get tickets to the sold-out show, brought huge bouquets of flowers and spent the entire night before hidden in the dressing rooms, so that they can get in. In Syracuse, NY at the opening night of Rasputin, Post Factum the audience rose to their feet and applauded vigorously for a long, long time…

BIT opened 2002 Figure Skating World Championships in Moscow. President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, Mayor of the City of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, and most of the leadership of International Skating Union (ISU) were present.
There were benefit concerts for invalid children in Havre, France in 2004 and Geneva, Switzerland in 2006.
In 2010 President of Romania and Prime Minister of Egypt attend BIT performances in Bucharest and Cairo.
In 2009 and 2010, benefit concerts for impoverished families and orphans in Moscow.

There are so many memories, so many lives touched by BIT performances, so many people inspired, but the theatre’s creators and troupe cherish this one above the rest: after the performance of Cinderella, children following Olympic Champion Natalia Bestemianova yell “Look, that is Cinderella! It is the real Cinderella from the show!” “That is The defining moment”, says Igor Bobrin, “we know that we did what we sat out to do.”