A FORMER British champion figure-skater, who takes to the ice in Snow White with the Russian Ice Stars, found his own fairytale romance with the company.

John Hamer met his wife Renata Araslanovia when he joined the Russian Ice Stars company, and the pair wed last year.

The 2005 to 2007 British figure-skating champ takes on the challenging role of the evil witch in this show which is at Swansea Grand Theatre until Saturday.

He said it is a real crowd-pleaser.

"I think the high point for the audience is the high point for me as a performer too — the opening scene of Act Two — where the seven woodcutters skate together for a 15- minute routine.

"There are lots of tricks in the scene and I always go up in the wings and watch the action for that one. So, if I still love it having seen it 100 or so times, it can't be bad."

Adjusting to sharing the ice with a full cast as well as to acting has been a challenge, which, said John, continues to stretch him.

"There is no narration with this show, so there is a lot of acting involved to put the story across. Also in show-skating you are using a much smaller stage so you have to be aware all the time of being on your mark, because there is that element of danger when you have other people around you.

"But if anything I think I am a better skater now than I was when I was British Champion because of the shows.

"Figure-skaters do skate in shows as well, where they choose the music and perform in front of an audience, but within the first month after I joined this company I skated more in front of an audience than I did in my whole figure skating career."

John said that although representing Britain as a sportsman was an honour, it was impossible to continue with it.

"I didn't leave it because I wasn't earning enough money to buy a fancy car or make payments on a house — I was living with my parents at the time — but there isn't the support there in skating to make it possible to continue, and there aren't enough opportunities to skate and to compete."

So for now John's future is in show-skating, and he seems to be relishing it.

"One of the things you learn very quickly in competitive sport is that there is always someone better than you, and I have learned and I am still learning so much from the other skaters in this company. It is very good for me.

"If you look at the current Olympic pairs champions, the male skater is 36. I am 25, so I hope to be doing this for some years yet," he said.

Caverliere Giuseppe Arena, a former principal dancer at La Scala Milan Ballet Company, worked with producers Wild Rose to interpret the Brothers' Grimm classic fairytale and an original musical score from Silvio Amato provides a musical backdrop for the show.