The Rochester figure skating club hosted their 87th annual ice show, themed around your favorite road trip music during the last weekend in April, with over 250 skaters participating, and guest skaters who previously performed for Disney on ice.
Every year the ice show is put on as a celebration of skating in the Rochester area, with all levels getting time to shine. The ice show committee this year allowed for more flexibility in terms of disciplines on ice, with aerial acrobatics and pairs being added as well as the typical free skate, dance, and synchronized skating. One thing many fans like is how, as the show goes on, the skating gets progressively more difficult, with the second number of the show involving kids who have been skating for under a year.
Haley Rice skates to Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” Photo courtesy of KIMT
The ice show is completely different than skating competitions, as there are no requirements for choreography, meaning that many skaters get an excuse to practice tricks that they hardly ever put in programs. Nadia Pressnall, a sophomore at Mayo, was excited to do a pretzel, a move in which she fits her body though her arm while standing on one foot, while on ice. The show also allows skaters to try pairs and synchronized skating tricks. Often at the first practices, skaters will just hang out on the ice, trying cool things they saw online. Seniors Annalese Corbin and Kiki Johson, from Century, worked on a trick where they hold onto a girl’s leg and arm and then spin her, as she hovers above the ice. They say that they saw a synchro team do it at Nationals; at the event in April, the two were able to execute the trick perfectly.
Preparation for the show starts months before, with tryouts occurring in late October. Then in November the cast list as well as the theme was announced, which tended to be a stressful few weeks, as people either got very excited or dealt with the disappointment of not getting what they wanted. Juniors Clare Fogelson and Tiffany Kung were both very excited to see that they would be doing a duet. “We both have a similar skating style, as we both have an ice dance background,” Fogelson said.
On Saturday night’s show, senior Katarina Larsen skated a clean performance, ending with a stunning pose.
Over the winter, a design for the curtain and set started to get drawn. Then, since skaters may run into the set during a performance, all the pieces are made from foam, as it will brake and cushion a skater’s crash.
During Thursday night’s dress rehearsal, Esme Hogen hands one of the foam board signs, one of the props made for the performances.
This year the prop shop where all of these set pieces are made was demolished, which meant instead of having six months to paint set pieces, the prop team had two weeks in the rec center gym. The Rochester Figure Skating Club has a policy that all skaters volunteer a minimum of 24 hours per year, so props is an easy way for younger skaters to get their hours done. Overall the show could not have happened without volunteers, as they ran the lights, did the announcing, and all the skater wrangling – making sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be at the right times, so the performance would go off without any problems.
The hard work and preparation on and off the ice paid off. All three shows were great successes; they were amazing spectacles on ice of athleticism and artistry.
