Lucas Punkari
Members of the Border Skating Club only had a couple of weeks to put the finishing touches on their annual ice show, but last weekend’s “A Night at the Museum” left an awful lot to be impressed with.
But as coach Penny McComb explained, there’s a lot more work that goes into the show prior to when the rehearsals get underway following March Break.
“We try to get things organized as early as possible,” she explained.
“If we are lucky, we can sometimes have a theme picked out prior to the summer, so we can start to work on the numbers that will be in the show and make any changes and tweaks to that so it’s perfect.
“But a lot of the time, we don’t decide on what we will be doing for the show until we start skating in September, and then we can start to get the costumes organized and everything like that,” McComb added.
The “Night at the Museum” theme, based from the novel and movie of the same name, actually had been talked about a couple of years ago.
“At that time, we began to start talking about the set designs and the costumes that we would need, and we decided this year to go with that theme,” McComb noted.
“And it turned out fantastic,” she enthused.
The one issue that comes with picking a show theme early, though, is what to do as a routine for the little CanSkate skaters, who just are getting used to getting onto the ice.
But that proved to be no problem at all for this year’s groups, which included skaters dressed up as dinosaurs and Vikings, as their routines went off without any major hitches.
“They were absolutely amazing,” McComb smiled. “To see how quickly they have progressed is something that has been great to see, and we’ve have had an amazing group of little kids here this year.
“They are fun to work with, they are well-behaved, and they are always happy and cheerful,” she noted.
However, last weekend’s performances were bittersweet for three members of the Border Skating Club as Kelli Cole, Alexa Kadikoff, and Kiela Ford skated for the final time in their home rink.
“It’s nice to finish up with the ice show but it’s sad, as well, with this being the final event that we do,” Cole said.
“However, it’s also good in a sense as we are all heading off to new beginnings,” she added.
For the club’s three graduating skaters, who all plan to continue on with figure skating, the ice shows always have proven to be memorable events for them, along with their competitions and test days.
“One that really stands out for me was a couple of years ago when we had a Disney theme,” Ford recalled.
“We working on a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ routine for our opening and I ended up getting ‘attacked’ by Avery Wilson-Hands, which was pretty fun,” she laughed.
“It’s been such a treat to know these skaters that I’ve coached since they were seven years old, and to say goodbye to them now at 17 and 18 years of age is always a hard thing as you’ve built a strong friendship that will last forever,” McComb said.
“However, we have the new little ones here now that are just as eager as they were 10 years ago, and they will be the next group of skaters that we will get to see progress,” she reasoned.
After the final test day for skaters next Saturday, the Border Skating Club will wrap up the season with its annual awards banquet on Tuesday, April 17 at 6 p.m. at the local Legion.
