Disney skates into Taiwan

Having skated their way around packed arenas in Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Daffy and countless other Disney favorites will be delivering their brand of Disney magic to audiences in Taiwan over the coming weeks.

From next Tuesday, Jan. 29, until Sunday, Feb. 17 Disney on Ice will be bringing Mickey and company to life at the Taichung Harbor Sports Arena (台中港區體育館) and at the Chungshan Soccer Stadium (台北中山足球場) in Taipei.

While cramming the best of the world's most famous cartoon production house into a 90-minute show is a pretty daunting task unto itself, doing so in countries where temperatures rarely, if ever dip below 10 Celsius creates its own set of problems.

Which explains why Chris Vancey, regional vice president of Disney on Ice and his crew have been a very busy bunch of people since the current year-long Asian tour hit the road in July last year.

"It's always a challenge, but because we've been touring in countries where ice skating is rather a novelty for so many years we've gotten the routine pretty much down," Vancey told the Taipei Times earlier this week. "Even when we only get a couple of days to transform venues into fully functioning ice arenas the professionalism and dedication of the crew always pays off."

Although this is not the first time Disney on Ice has traveled to Taiwan, this years' Taipei shows have left organizers facing a unique set of problems.

It appears that the rigmarole of installing huge Freon-filled pipes over a soccer pitch measuring roughly 100m by 70m, covering it with a layer of water and waiting until the entire floor area freezes over is only a minor inconvenience. Instead, the real problem lies with the need to transform Taipei's rather ratty Chungshan Soccer Stadium into a classy indoor arena.

"When you are performing at outdoor venues like the Chungshan Stadium, creating the ice rink is easy as we're well practiced in that field," explained Vancey. "Because we have to cover the entire stadium with a huge tent and transform the terraces into something other than slabs of concrete, however, the process is going to be a lot more time consuming."

According to Vancey five to six days is the perfect time frame in which to ensure each venue is as complete and as faultless as is possible. This time around, however, they will only be getting three or four days in which to cover the stadium and turn the drab concrete terraces into a colorful seating area befitting Disney's high standards.

"Obviously we'd like more time to ensure that we bring the full Disney experience to Taipei, but it's just not possible this time around," continued the regional vice president. "Thankfully we've got two crews here this time. So, while one will be based in Taichung, the other will be preparing Chungshan Stadium."

Not that the hard work is finished once the huge marquee has been installed. In order to create the Disney magic in both Taipei and Taichung, a 17-man Disney on Ice crew will be needed to unload props from 12 trailers. These include an 11m tall castle which has a total weight of 9 tonnes when erected, an 11m long whale and four motorized floats fitted with a total of 32 life-size dolls.

And as if all this wasn't enough, the crew will also have to lay roughly four miles of electrical cable, install 10 computers, set up 900 amplifiers and ensure that 600 lighting fixtures are pointing in the exact direction and are fitted with the correct filters.