- January 21st, 2007, 10:08 am
#54764
Magic on the icehttp://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 8373&path=
By Casey Gillis
cgillis@newsadvance.com
January 20, 2007
Gabbie Clauser is a ham on the ice.
As she skates across the ice at the LaHaye Ice Center, Gabbie, 7, shows off for her mother, Rebecca.
First, she’s gliding by waving. Then she’s spinning, with her brown ponytail flying through the air, and making up moves with friend and fellow skater Rach Whitney, 10.
“You can do lots of fun stuff,” says Gabbie, who’s been ice skating for two years.
Until the LaHaye Ice Center opened on the Liberty University campus a year ago, Rebecca Clauser had to haul Gabbie and her older sister, Arielle, 13, from their home in Amherst to Charlottesville for ice skating lessons.
But once the center opened, Clauser approached skating director Rena Leone about starting a figure skating club and later, a Theater on Ice team, both of which are now up and running.
“We really enjoy what theater is really about,” Clauser says. “It’s for everyone. It’s not just for high-level skaters.”
LaHaye’s Theater on Ice team had its first show, a holiday performance of “Toyland,” in December and will soon take it on the road to various competitions, ending with the Worlds Competition this summer in Chicago.
Theater is actually a category included in regular Ice Skating Institute (ISI) and United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) competitions, but the scoring is done differently than regular skating categories.
“They’re looking (more at) your costumes and props and are you having fun,” Clauser says. “There’s no technical score.”
But they are under some constraints: before their set begins, theater teams have two minutes to warm up, set up their props and get into place. Once the performance is over, they have 30 seconds to get off the ice with all the props. And then they’re scored as a team.
“It’s starting to teach them responsibility and what it’s like to be a member of the team,” Clauser says. “… The team is the winner, not one individual person.”
That team spirit is what makes Theater on Ice fun for Yvonne Nelson-Reid, who joined the group with her 10-year-old daughter, Jimmi.
“I like how everyone supports each other,” she says. “They cheer each other on, no matter what level or age.”
That’s the beauty of Theater on Ice - it brings together people of all ages and can be a great bonding activity for families, participants say.
“I just wanted to do something fun with my daughter, Jill, who wants to be an ice skater,” says Janet Walton, explaining why she and 9-year-old Jill got involved. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
Clauser says members’ ages range from 4 years to over 50, and for about half of the children and adults involved, ice skating is new to them.
“We have one boy who never had a pair of figure skates on before,” she says. “Everything he’s learned, he’s learned through theater.”
Kate Whitney, 14, has been skating with the Theater on Ice team for close to three months now.
“It started out being just a fun thing after I quit speed skating (on roller skates),” she says. “… It’s a good way to meet new people and a good way to get started in skating. For me, it’s just relaxing.”
Chris Lowes, general manager of the LaHaye Ice Center, says theater isn’t the first thing people think of when they see a skating rink, but it does draw crowds.
“Now we have the second thing we know we can pull people to the rink with,” he says, with the first being Liberty University’s club hockey team.
The Christmas show in December sold out a month ahead of time, and Lowes says they’ll probably do three shows next year to accommodate the crowds.
LaHaye is open for public skates every day, and on certain nights, they’re open for Freestyle skates, which gives advanced skaters time to practice their programs for competition (see www.lahayeicecenter.net for more information).
“We’ve had a strong response from the community,” he says. “We wanted for it and hoped for it, but I don’t know if we really imagined it would be this great. … Rinks struggle, especially in small markets. If it wasn’t for Liberty, there would be no way (this rink would’ve opened).”
Some of the Theater on Ice skaters have participated in LaHaye’s ISI-certified Learn to Skate classes, which go “from teaching tots how to basically walk on ice and how to fall properly right up into competitive skating,” Lowes says.
Those who are a little more serious about the sport, like Clauser’s daughters, have paired Learn to Skate with private lessons.
And Theater on Ice itself is a good way for skaters to develop their skills.
“It helps skaters to move up levels,” Clauser says. “They’re on the ice more, so they’re practicing what they learn. … The more you’re on the ice, the better you get.”
And the more confidence you get.
“Performing in front of big crowds of people (is something) my kids never thought they would do,” says Burks Harkins, whose two daughters Holly, 8, and Anne, 10, are members of Theater on Ice.
She also likes that it’s not as serious as solo competitive skating.
“If you fall in theater, it’s OK,” she says. “It can be lighthearted and funny. It’s a whole different realm.”
Clauser says new people can join the figure skating club or the Theater on Ice team at any time.
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