was a solo ice show by Japanese figure skater and two-time consecutive Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu in 2022, organized by his management company Team Sirius in partnership with CIC and . The show was held in two cities at Pia Arena MM in Yokohama on November 4–5 and Flat Hachinohe in Hachinohe on December 2–3, and 5.
It was the first solo ice show in the sport of figure skating and served as a prologue to the Yuzuru Hanyu Ice Story series, produced and directed by Hanyu himself in collaboration with Japanese choreographer Mikiko. Each show had a duration of 90 minutes and featured eight to ten programs performed at the athletic level of skating competitions, opening with an unconventional six-minute warm-up session and a challenge of Hanyu's winning free skate program Seimei at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Koki Nakamura, the 2022 world champion and virtuoso on the , co-starred as a guest artist.
Prologue was sold out by lottery with a total of 24,800 spectators in attendance. The final show in each venue was screened live at cinemas in Japan and aired live on the subscription channel . The broadcast of the Hachinohe show was awarded the Grand Prize in the category "best relay broadcast" at the 13th in June 2023. A compilation on DVD and Blu-ray was released in July 2024.
Background
Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater and ice show producer who competed in the men's singles discipline and turned professional on July 19, 2022. Regarded as one of the greatest skaters in the sport's history, he is the first two-time Olympic men's champion in 66 years with back-to-back gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics and the first male single skater to complete the Super Slam, having won all major international senior and junior titles in the course of his career.
Prologue was the first solo ice show to be produced and presented in figure skating, with Hanyu as the only scheduled skater, which was an unusual approach compared to established show formats. The first major era of ice shows, headlined by Ice Follies and Ice Capades from the 1930s to 1980s, typically featured large skating ensembles inspired by ballet and theater. In the late 1980s, the ice show landscape experienced a shift towards smaller casts and individual performances by elite international skaters, including multiple Olympic and World champions. However, the production of a solo ice show was considered impractical due to the physical limits of skating and performing. As remarked by Russian world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, even three programs in one show are physically very challenging to skate.
While in high-profile sports like soccer or tennis professional players are expected to be superior to amateurs in terms of athleticism and technical skills, in figure skating it is the opposite—skaters with amateur status participate in elite sports competitions, professionals perform in exhibitions and ice shows. The transition usually comes with a decline in athletic fitness and a shift in focus from the execution of technically difficult elements to the development of performing art skills. Hence, it is common practice among skating experts and journalists to talk about "retirement", when skaters announce the end of their competitive careers, regardless of their future plans as professionals. With Prologue, Hanyu hoped to trigger a change in perception of professional figure skating and produce an ice show that could match the athletic merit and tension of major skating competitions like the Winter Olympics or World Championships.
Show dates and venues
Prologue was scheduled to be held in late 2022 at Pia Arena MM in Yokohama on November 4–5 and Flat Hachinohe in Hachinohe on December 2–3. Due to the small venue capacity and high ticket demand for the Hachinohe shows, a third performance on December5 was added to the initial schedule.
Though the choice of venues was not intentional, Hanyu expressed his gratitude to skate in the two cities again. In March 2011, he experienced the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster (commonly referred to as 3.11), the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan, which cost more than 19,000 people's lives, as well as the following aftershock known as the April 2011 Miyagi earthquake. Forced to leave his severely damaged home rink in Sendai, skating facilities in Yokohama and Hachinohe offered him a place to practice and prepare for the 2011–12 figure skating season.
+Chronological list of show dates and venues of PrologueDateVenueLocationImageNov 4–5, 2022Pia Arena MMYokohama 7,90012,141Dec 2–3, 5, 2022Flat HachinoheHachinohe 3,0005,000
Promotion and ticket sales
Prologue was officially announced on September 30, 2022, at 11:11 local time through Hanyu's newly launched profiles on Instagram and Twitter. Hanyu, who consequently stayed away from social media during his competitive skating career, eventually decided to run accounts as the main communication platform for future projects. The show's announcement was reported by various national and international news outlets, such as Japan's major daily newspapers and the Olympic Games' official website, with large resonance among journalists and fans, who had been eagerly anticipating the two-time Olympic champions' debut on social media and his first performance as a professional skater.
Known for his preference to surprise his fans and hold back information until the last minute, Hanyu only revealed the title, logo, and broad topic of the show, stating: "For my first time, I will be performing a one-man ice show. I hope to make it a show where people will be able to get a feel for what my skating career has been like." One month prior to the opening performance in Yokohama, a skating video of his junior exhibition program "" and a new, self-choreographed program to the music piece "" by MoppySound was recorded at his practice rink in Sendai and uploaded as a teaser to his YouTube-channel.
Ticket sales were handled by the show's official organizer and staggered into two application rounds, with the pre-sales periods having started about one month prior to the respective show. All tickets were sold by lottery, with prices ranging from ¥15,000 for stand A seats to ¥25,000 for premier seats (US$100–170 as of October 2022).
Production
Prologue was produced and directed by Hanyu himself, who was responsible for the global conception of the show as well as the selection of music, skating programs, costumes, video footage and more. He received professional advice and support by renowned Japanese choreographer Mikiko, who served as a director for two programs. Mikiko is internationally known for her collaboration with the J-pop trio Perfume and her involvement in the Tokyo handover segment at the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony among other works. Upon the success of Prologue, she directed all main installments of the Yuzuru Hanyu Ice Story series, including the large-scale solo ice show Gift at Tokyo Dome in February 2023.
Prologue was organized by Hanyu's private management company Team Sirius in partnership with TV Asahi, Japan's most viewed television broadcasting network alongside in 2022, and CIC, an event organization company that has successfully produced a variety of ice shows, such as Fantasy on Ice or Dreams on Ice. The event was sponsored by the Japanese multinational cosmetics brand Kosé, the food and biotechnology corporation Ajinomoto, and the domestic bedding manufacturer . The Yokohama shows received special sponsorship by .
Conception and making Prologue was designed as a flashback-performance, reflecting on Hanyu's competitive skating career, which spanned a total of 19 seasons from 2004 to 2022, and was based on the revival of past programs, presented in a new shape with a fresh, professional approach. The show also served as a prologue and test event for Gift, a solo performance of 150 minutes length, which was already in the making by late 2022. Hanyu selected the title "Prologue" to underline that his transition from competitive to professional skating means no end but the beginning of a new chapter in his career. He also stressed that his challenging mindset has not changed and that he still feels like an athlete preparing for competitions.
In order to fill a 90-minute solo show with a sufficient amount of skating, Hanyu had to increase his training workload, both on and off the ice. The preparations included a significant improvement of his stamina and physical endurance as well as a new approach to commitment and pacing, stating: "I'm used to emptying the tank for one skate. I've never thought about heading back out immediately after. But I managed to add the strength and stamina I needed to get through it all." Hanyu presented eight to ten programs per show, preceded by a six-minute warm-up session, which added up to near half an hour of net skating time—almost tripling the individual performance duration at a conventional ice show. Some programs were trimmed in length and technical content, taking care that their athletic quality and artistic appeal did not suffer.
The show was structured in a way that Hanyu had enough time for costume changes and physical recovery between his skating performances. The remaining 60 minutes were bridged with video segments shown on screen and an interactive Q&A-session, moderated by TV Asahi's sports reporter Momo Ando. The selected video material included private recordings as well as official broadcasting footage, provided by the International Skating Union (ISU), the Japan Skating Federation (JSF), and domestic television networks.
Music, programs, and costumes
The music selection was a balanced mix of Hanyu's former competition and exhibition programs from novice to senior level, covering a wide range of genres, such as classical pieces, pop, blues rock, swing, traditional Japanese music, film and video game soundtracks. Hanyu was actively involved in the music editing and collaborated with Japanese sound designer Keiichi Yano, who served as a music director for the show. Koki Nakamura co-starred as a guest artist who was the reigning world champion on the , a traditional Japanese instrument with three strings similar to a banjo-lute.
With the program selection, Hanyu paid tribute to his former choreographers, among them his Japanese coaches and Nanami Abe, Russian figure skaters Natalia Bestemianova and Igor Bobrin as well as Canadian skaters and elite choreographers Jeffrey Buttle, Shae-Lynn Bourne, and David Wilson. Three of the five presented costumes were reused from Hanyu's competition days without any further adjustments, which was a testament to his stoic training regimen. The oldest one dated from the 2011–12 season and was made for his free skate program to Craig Armstrong's movie soundtrack Romeo + Juliet. The other four costumes were made by Japanese fashion designer Satomi Ito, who created two pieces exclusively for the show.
Ice rink, installations, and technology
While the Hachinohe venue was fitted with a permanent ice rink, the multipurpose arena in Yokohama required the installation of a mobile rink, provided by the Tokyo-based company Patine Leasure. With an area of 55 m × 24 m, the ice surface was larger than usual for ice shows and measured about 73 % the size of an Olympic figure skating rink (60 m × 30 m), which allowed Hanyu to perform at competitive level with little to no limitations in skating speed or ice coverage. At the rink's main entrance, a decorative, clock-shaped archway was erected, matching the show's concept and logo in design. For the video segments, a big screen was placed on the rink's short side in Yokohama and on the long side in Hachinohe, supported by a smaller, cubic screen on the ceiling.