Celebrity figure skater and Olympic silver medalist Ilya Averbukh celebrated

the anniversary of his business with a grand gala show at Luzhniki.

In April 2019, the well-known figure skater, producer, and director Ilya Averbukh celebrated the 15th anniversary of his production company. To honor the occasion, Ilya Averbukh’s star team put on a grand gala show entitled 15 Years of Success. Three mega-performances on the Luzhniki ice arena were nearly totally sold out. One could hardly expect something less be-cause the show’s program featured some of the most decorated Russian figure skaters, with each performing at the top of the game.

Spectators saw athletes of different generations, from Yekaterina Gordeeva, who received her first Olympic gold in 1988, to this year’s stars of the world championship. In addition, the au-dience saw young figure skaters that participated in the “Ice Age. Children” project.

The show included the following figure skating celebrities: Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, Alexey Yagudin, Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, Margarita Drobyazko and Povilas Vanagas, Maxim Kovtun, Vladimir Besedin and Alexey Polishchuk, Victoria Sinitsina and Ni-kita Katsalapov, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, Adelina Sotnikova, Elena Rodiono-va, Anna Shcherbakova, Elizabeth Tursynbaeva, Alexander Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, Alexan-dra Trusova, Alexander Samarin, as well as Alla Mikheeva and Maxim Marinin. These cham-pions turned the evening into a true figure skating celebration!

“15 years is a very long time. I can say that this was a happy time. It gave me the opportunity for self-realization and brought me closer to some of the best figure skaters with whom we have become one family over the years,” Ilya Averbukh said. “This is really a great miracle. But now we need to go further. I think that I will find strength and inspiration for the projects that follow.”

The anniversary tour of the new show by Ilya Averbukh 15 Years of Success will be held in al-most 30 cities across Russia this year.

Ilya Averbukh’s production company has become one of the leaders in ice shows, not only in Russia, but also in the world as a whole. All of the company’s projects have tremendous suc-cess with the audience and consistently get the highest ratings from the press.

Since 2004, Ilya Averbukh and his team put on 200 ice projects in different parts of Russia, as well as in many countries of the world. World-famous stars, including Olympic champions, as well as world and European champions, take part in the company’s ice performances. Each per-formance is an interesting synthesis of figure skating and drama theater, live vocals and music, as well as circus numbers, combined with advanced scenographic techniques.

One of the company’s most successful projects is the spectacular Romeo and Juliet perfor-mance by Ilya Averbukh. It was first shown in Russia in July 2017, and over one million people have watched it already. It became the most successful in the history of Russian ice shows.

– Ilya, you were the first Russian figure skater to do ice shows. Is this a good business?

– The ice business is quite complicated. It is very good at New Year’s time. But if you run a company like I do, on a year-round basis, with a lot of shows and two-year contracts, then spon-sors are needed. The guys do about 200 performances a year, and they are booked for more than six months. Plus, there are large expenses for the office and taxes. You need to invest all the time in advertising campaigns, in renting venues, and in tailoring costumes... It is very difficult to survive without the sponsors’ support.

– How many people does your company employ and who actually owns it?

– The company belongs to me, and the staff size is 50 people.

– When did you start making a profit?

– We were making money within three years. We had some difficult years, somewhere before 2014. Our television project attracted many sponsors to the ice show, and we gained enormous popularity.

– When you introduce yourself now, how do you talk about yourself? Ilya Averbukh, and then what? Director, producer, figure skating champion?

– I like to say it like that, “Director and television producer.” The champion title usually goes last.