On Dec 15 at the Ramond-Bourque arena, the skating troupe Le patin libre gave a performance in which the audience was heavily involved in.
(Photo: Martin Alarie)
Le patin libre on ice
Skaters of the freeworld
The one-of-a-kind skating troupe Le patin libre entertained children and parents alike on Dec. 15 at Raymond-Bourque arena. Group founder Alexandre Hamel, member of St. Laurent’s ice skating club Sylvain Bouillère and friends presented their newest creation Conte de Noël.
Many young members of St. Laurent’s Club de patinage artistique (CPA) gathered on this day at the arena to celebrate Christmas on ice. Numerous families also took this opportunity to skate to the sound of Christmas carols and meet skating Santa.
After a few laps around the rink, the skating spectators were joined by Le patin libre. As most adults were leaving the ice to watch the skating troupe from the stands, the children stayed on to watch the skilled skaters more closely.
Alexandre Hamel (former member of the national junior team and Disney on Ice), Sylvain Bouillère, Jonathan Pelletier (Quebec team members), Julien Mercier (formerly of St. Laurent’s CPA), Mylène Girard (national team member) and Victoria Bouquet (promising young skater from Boucherville) were the stars of the Dec. 15 show. François Paquin was in charge of the technical set up.
Cool as ice
The show was divided in three parts. All throughout the act, the six artists managed to keep the crowd into it and even invited the younger ones to join them for the main part of the show. Their performance had a lot of rhythm and was brilliantly choreographed. The costumes were well designed and the each number had some nice visual effects. It was also very interesting to see ice skaters perform on songs by Shostakovich, Yann Tiersen (Amélie soundtrack), Daft Punk, Les Colocs and Metallica.
Local ice prodigy Sylvain Bouillère is the man behind Conte de Noël. He also combined his love for ice skating and music by doing a brilliant number where he skates while playing the violin.
Although still young, the group already has an impressive resume, but with each new show comes new ideas and concepts. They get their inspiration from all kinds of art forms like dance, circus and theatre. Recently, they even had roller skates on ice to try on new moves impossible to do with regular ice skates. It’s easy to understand why troupe leader Alexandre Hamel calls his group mates “extreme acrobats”.
During next winter, Le patin libre will be showcasing its talent all throughout the province, including Quebec City’s Carnaval. The group hopes they’ll be able to entertain as many people as possible all year long.
Perhaps they’ll bring their show overseas as last Sunday Alexandre was suppose to go to England to take part in a four-show event with the International School of Skating of United Kingdom. Unfortunately the snowstorm postponed his trip, but Le patin libre will certainly have another opportunity to let the world know what it can do.
(Translated by Pascal Leblanc)
(Photo: Martin Alarie)
Météo: Montréal, 16 mai 2008 / 11°C
/ Ciel dégagé
/ Vents: 13 Km/h / Humidité relative: 47 % 
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Steven Guilbeault - 
