Dan Falloon
The circus is coming to the Memorial Sports Centre this weekend.
It’s not the Shriners, though, but rather the Border Skating Club, which is set to host its 38th-annual ice show, entitled “Under the Big Top,” with about 90 skaters performing.
The show will take place this Saturday (April 10) at 7 p.m., with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday (April 11).
“We start with a really big line number, and then throughout the show we introduce all of our different levels of skating from three-year-olds right up to our graduates,” explained BSC coach Penny McComb.
McComb is thrilled that the size of the club has allowed the skaters to put on such an ambitious performance.
“We’re very lucky in Fort Frances,” she reasoned. “Our numbers haven’t dropped, the economy hasn’t really hit our little bubble.
“The club is big, it’s strong,” she enthused.
One of the highlights will be the performance of the club’s graduates, including Bailey Whitefield, Dana Drennan, and Christine Cridland this year.
“It’s their last performance for the town, so it’s always an emotional event for them,” McComb noted.
The ice show also is set to feature Sophie Potvin-Begin and Michael Nelson, the pairs skaters who won gold at the recent Ontario Winter Games.
“They do a fabulous job,” McComb lauded.
“The town has been used to watching Mike and Sophie develop over the years, and they can now do lifts where he’s got her right over his head, and he throws her and she lands.
“It’s just like what you see on TV,” she added. “They’re just younger and a little smaller.”
At the younger end of the spectrum, McComb estimated she has about 60 “Can Skates,” ranging in age from three to 12, who are just learning to skate.
She said that the ice show will be colourful—and very much like a trip to the circus.
“There will be lots of animals, elephants and lions, tigers, poodles,” McComb noted. “We have clowns, and motorcyclists, because the circus here always has a motorcycle show.”
While the music for past ice shows generally has been obvious, including last year’s Broadway-themed performance, this year’s production threw a few curveballs at the skating club.
But they’ve dug deep and seem to have found an eclectic mix of tunes to perform to.
“There isn’t a lot of circus-themed music, but we did find some by top bands,” said McComb.
“I have one that’s the German circus music, so that’s your real traditional, right down to covers of Billy Idol . . . a band doing one of his songs, so we have a wide spectrum of music.”
As well, McComb said the entire Ice For Kids Arena will be transformed into a three-ring spectacle—right from the moment the audience enters.
“It’s the music and the colours and the skating, you put it all together,” she remarked.
“We have an amazing group of people who decorate for the show, so the arena doesn’t look anything like it does when you go to a hockey game.
“You walk in and it just looks like a show. It’s totally different,” she stressed.
