Diane Parkes talks to two dancers in one of the most spectacular skating shows.

Melody Le Moal turns over her hands on which the fingers are hatched by scars – a hazard of the job when you ice skate with fire.

The 23-year-old performer says she hardly notices the burns any more but admits that she does have to take care when she hits the ice with fellow performers, in case she catches them.

Melody is one of more than 40 skaters who come to Birmingham this weekend in the ice spectacular Energia. Created by Holiday on Ice, the show is an extravaganza of colourful costumes, whirling bodies and amazing special effects.

And nobody who sees the show will forget Melody’s act as both a skater waving flaming wands and a clown on stilts.

Brought up near Lyon in France, Melody first picked up her ice skates 15 years ago.

“I started skating when I was about eight and I knew really early that I wanted to be an ice dancer rather than a competitive skater,” she says.

Spending as much time as she could on the ice, Melody perfected her talents and was keen to be part of the Holiday on Ice team. Joining the company four years ago she has worked her way through the ranks – and taught herself a few extra tricks along the way.

“I am always wanting to try new things and then you see what works,” she says. “I thought it would be fun to see if I could skate on stilts. But no-one had done it before so I had to create my own skating stilts.

“When I first started I did fall quite a bit but you learn how to fall so that you don’t hurt yourself. I have knee pads to protect them and you learn there are ways to fall so you don’t get injured. The worst problem is, if I do fall over on the stilts, I cannot get up on my own and I need someone to help me up.”

Melody also developed an act which sees her skating around the rink at super speeds trailing flames – which is a lot easier when she is alone on the stage.

“With the fire you have to be very careful of the other people,” she says. “If you get too close to a clown there could be a problem as they have very flammable wigs. So when you are skating you know what you are doing but you have to keep looking for everyone else as well. Sometimes they have to tell me to be careful because I am too close to someone else.”

Energia, which premieres its UK tour in Birmingham, aims to take the audience on a journey through space and time, taking in the creation of humanity on Earth, the worlds of Neptune, Mars and Venus, the interplay between Sun and Moon and a festival of light celebration.