is an annual touring ice show in Japan produced by CIC Co., Ltd. The show emerged from the "Philippe Candeloro Japan Tour 2001", named after retired French figure skater Philippe Candeloro, and was held under the name "Fantasy on Ice" the following two years. After a seven-year break, the tour was revived in 2010 and got expanded to larger venues in the metropolitan area of Tokyo in 2014 and Kobe in 2015.
From 2015 onwards, Fantasy on Ice was held around June, lasting one month and generally involving four stops in different prefectures across Japan. The cast includes active and retired competitive figure skaters, acrobats, and guest artists. Each show features a series of exhibition performances, including multiple live music collaborations between skaters and artists. The professional male single skaters Yuzuru Hanyu, Stéphane Lambiel, and Johnny Weir are the lead cast members of the show, having been scheduled for all Fantasy on Ice tours since its revival in 2010. In 2023, Weir announced his retirement from the show, attending his final tour after 12 participations.
History
Beginnings
The Fantasy on Ice tour traces its roots back to 2001. Kikuo Makabe, representative director of CIC Co., Ltd. and producer of the show, took inspiration from another event held in Lyon the same year. He was impressed by the unconventional concept of combining circus, stage illusion, acrobatics, and other entertainment beyond the confines of a usual ice show. Two-time Olympic bronze medalist Philippe Candeloro from France was the chairman of the event.
Makabe was contacted by Candeloro's agent and they exchanged emails about a potential collaboration project in Japan, which eventually resulted in the "Philippe Candeloro Japan Tour 2001", held in Yokohama in September 2001. Among the guest skaters, besides Candeloro, were five-time European champion Surya Bonaly from France, 1992 Olympic champion Viktor Petrenko from the Ukraine, the 1998 Olympic champions in pairs, Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, and the ice dance team Maya Usova and Evgeni Platov from Russia.
The show returned in the following years, in November 2002 and March 2003, under the new name "Philippe Candeloro Fantasy on Ice". Makabe and the production team had a "deep attachment to this name", so they registered it as a trademark in 2002 and planned to develop it as its own brand. However, due to financial deficits of another ice show project in France and disagreements between Candeloro and his agent, the collaboration came to an abrupt end and Makabe was forced to start the production of Fantasy on Ice from scratch. In 2006, he brought Champions on Ice, a touring ice show in the United States, to Japan for the first time. In the course of this event, Makabe teamed up with two skaters who would later become an "indispensable part" of Fantasy on Ice; two-time world champion Stéphane Lambiel and 2008 world bronze medalist Johnny Weir.
Revival of the show in 2010
After a seven-year break, Fantasy on Ice made its return in 2010. The first tour stop took place in July in the Niigata Convention Center at Toki Messe in Niigata. The show was hosted in partnership with Niigata Sogo Television, who had already worked with Makabe's production team on Champions on Ice and other events in the past. For Makabe, it was important to add live music collaborations with vocalists as a new facet of the show. He invited the Japanese a capella group The Gospellers who performed together at the show with Johnny Weir, 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko from Russia, Japanese skater and commentator Junko Yaginuma, and two-time European ice dance champions Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat from France. Among the special guests was Spanish flamenco dancer and figure skating choreographer, Antonio Najarro, who choreographed the opening and finale of the show.
There was a two-month break between the first and second tour stop, which was held in September at the Sun Dome Fukui in Echizen. The invited guest artists, Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton and Russian singer Dima Bilan, performed with Evgeni Plushenko their winning song "Believe" from the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. It was the only occasion in the history of the show that the guest artists were not domestic performers from Japan.