Holiday Shows!

[Skate@Delaware]

Thought I'd start a thread where everyone can talk about their holiday show(s), exhibitions skates, etc.. I see that Flo had one (details!!). I had one (still in progress-today is the last day so I'll post later on in case something really interesting happens today :lol: ). I'll see if I can get some pix up asap.

Ours is "Nutcracker on Ice"

[e-skater]

Thought I'd start a thread where everyone can talk about their holiday show(s), exhibitions skates,

Ours is "Nutcracker on Ice"
We had an exhibition skate 12-9, I skated a relatively new program. Made two big mistakes, missed my waltz / loop combo, and zoned out on another part, a three hop sequence, but picked it up again. All in all, I had a great time and it felt great, more importantly.

Our holiday show is tonight, 12-18. I skate at about 8:30 p.m. Haven't skated since Friday and there's no warm up, so.......am just going to hve fun with it! No expectations!

Look forward to seeing any pics....and have fun with "Nutcracker on Ice"!

[mikawendy]

The holiday show at flo's club was great!! The opening act was the tots decorating a "Christmas tree" with the help of flo (the "tree" was one of the club members in a green Christmas tree outfit). One of my friends (another adult skater) debuted her program in the show and did great--she had interesting (and hard!) footwork and interesting hops from BI edge to BI edge. Schoolfigures and a young pal skated a duet (good job on the pull through!). And starskate6.0 wowed everyone with his number on stilts again.

One of the girls skating her program had the wrong music with her, so she wound up skating to Bizet's Carmen instead of de Falla. She was wearing a burgundy dress, so it worked out fine, and she skated with a lot of style and verve. Later she told me that she had improvised the whole number! It had looked choreographed to me, with good ice coverage and a variety of movements (not just jump spin spiral jump spin).

I skated my Bronze FS program (same one I skated at Halloween Classic). It went fairly well--I stumbled a few times, but I had a good time nonetheless. I didn't anticipate I'd be so nervous for skating in a show--but it was my first time skating a solo in a show as opposed to a group number which helps take the nerves away....

flo skated the last number in the show--to live guitar accompaniment of Silent Night. It was beautiful--and great spins at the end!

And the whole while when I was warming up before the show, I couldn't figure out why my LBO edge felt so dull compared with my other edges--then I realized later it was because of all the T stops and (attempted) tango stops I'd been practicing on that foot!

[Terri C]

Mine was today and I survived!
I skated to "The Prayer" (Bocelli/ Dion) version. It's a 5 year old program that I brought back last summer when my mother passed away.
Funny thing is, the music had to be re-cut because when I started to re-work the program for Peach Classic, the tape player at the rink got hungry one day and ate the version I had. When the program was re-cut Coach did it a little differently than what I was used to, so I've been changing that part of the program constantly.
The good news though, is that no matter what I do, both coaches like whatever I come up with.
We had 46 skaters in the show and I'm so glad it's over- now I can go back to the freestyle program!

[NickiT]

I've just returned from my last of eight performances of our club's panto "Aladdin on Ice". I was in the main adult chorus line in which we were lantern holders, plus a small group number with the six better adult skaters. Batikat was in that with me and we were in the Chinese Laundry scene as washer women. It was a mad and fun routine to "Build me up Buttercup". My kids also skated. My daughter was one of the main skaters in the Fireworks routine and my son was a cave monster. The week has gone so fast - I can't believe that's another show over for another year. I'm in need of a well earned rest tomorrow as it's been really hectic this week!

Nicki

[batikat]

If someone can remind me how to get pictures up here I may be able to post a few from 'Aladdin on Ice'. First I have to get son to help me capture pictures off my video camera if anyone wants to see the washer women. I have a few of daughter skating with her partner for the show, as 'Slaves of the Ring'. I'll work on it...........

[Skate@Delaware]

It looks as though some of us have shows on the same weekend!

Ours ended well, although one of our principal skaters fell on her double salchow and sat out the rest of the show with an ice pack. Our "newbies" did great and now they are "seasoned pros!" I told them they can now call themselves show skaters!

We played both nights to a full house, although we don't have seating for very many, it's enough to generate some $$$. This year, we had the wall removed in front of the bleachers and they put the soft foam barriers up. It was strange and a bit unnerving!

I still couldn't spin well...I found out later that the rink manager turned the compresser on all the way so the ice would freeze hard and not get mushy because of the heaters8O (nonetheless, we did have a few areas that stayed wet).

I ended up bailing out of the power-3's about 15 feet early because I just ran out of steam and was getting too far behind (too many detours around the kids), so I stopped doing them and skated up to where I was supposed to be. It worked out fine. We did everything else great. Daughter's part was beautiful!

I can't wait to get the video. My husband didn't video this year, as our son was home sick with a very bad cold (we felt bad even thinking about dragging him out-he was there Thursday for 3 hours of dress rehearsal-poor kid!). Pictures should be out in a few weeks, video a bit longer. I'll see about getting some clips up.

Don't know what we will do next year, as most of our great skaters will be away at college! I don't think we have that many that can move up to fill their shoes. Maybe we will skip a year on Nutcracker and just do a holiday exhibition-type show next year.

[NickiT]

If someone can remind me how to get pictures up here I may be able to post a few from 'Aladdin on Ice'. First I have to get son to help me capture pictures off my video camera if anyone wants to see the washer women. I have a few of daughter skating with her partner for the show, as 'Slaves of the Ring'. I'll work on it...........

I hope you got lots of great pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing them!! Are you tired today? I am!

Nicki

[MusicSkateFan]

:roll: Mine was on Saturday. I had to Skate in the Final Group! I guess I was the Hannukah portion of the show....My program is to the theme from"Exodus". I know, "Exodus" has nothing to do with Hannukah but mine was the only thing even close to Hannukah! lol

I skated ok...I get so stiff right before I perform....UGGGHHH! I did have a 3 min warm up before I skated. The one thing I was proud of:
I did a very sloppy flip jump in the warm up and did not get a chance to do my flip loop combo in the warm up. I pulled off a pretty good flip,loop combo in the program that was placed pretty well with the music.

I did not fall in front of all those people!!!!

Thank God!

[Clarice]

Our holiday recital was Saturday afternoon. After the worst dress rehearsal in the history of the world, it went great! I skated as Snoopy, with a bunch of preschoolers being the Charlie Brown gang. No hard skating, because Snoopy could barely see! I did not fall down; I did not skate into any small children - so I was pretty proud of myself. Inside the head, it was very stuffy and sweaty and very claustrophobic. I have new respect for anybody who works inside a mascot costume! It was a lot of fun, though - I'd do it again!

[sceptique]

I was supposed to be skating tonight and tomorrow, but had to pull out at the last moment because of work. :cry: Now I think I should have called in sick or missed the plane or invented an airport strike or something. Really, how one can be so complacent when it comes to once-in-a-year chance to skate in a Chrismas show?

[Skate@Delaware]

batikat-do you have an account with Casey? If not, you can get one and then you get a ftp program so you can upload stuff on the server; OR-you can do the "you send it" variation, but it will be limited either by time or the number of downloads; OR-you can ask someone to put them up for you on their site and send you the link.
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
We opened with the Party Scene, in which the "new girls" took part. It was mostly a synchro number. We came out in 2's and did partner chasse swing steps, then split apart into 2 parties for pinwheels. Then we rejoined for a pivot line, which was dangerously close to the dolls! One actually moved back! After that, we separated into 2 lines and swizzled down the 2 sides of the rink, spun (2-footed) then skated to the center for spirals down the center to the end. We did a big circle, then skated off.

The next part I was in was called "Iced Delites" which wasn't in the original Nutcracker-our skating directer adds stuff all the time. We do power-3's down the sides, trying not to take out any kids in the Land of the Sweets! Then we do pivots and break off into back crossovers, that intersect (like the back crossover test pattern, but faster and with more people!!!). We break off and try to do scratch spins then we stop, do back chasses and do intersecting waltz-waltz's. Then we join up for a swing roll, chasse line into spirals done around the end (way cool because we are all holding on to each other and I'm on the end because my spiral is the highest :D ). Then everyone else skates off except me and my daughter-we stay on for the Sugar Plum Fairy-we "freeze" with the rest of the Land of the Sweets while she skates around us for about 5 minutes, then we skate off!

I was a bit disappointed that my spin didn't work, however, my waltz-waltz was very good; and many people did notice that I looked like I enjoyed myself (plastered that smile on the whole time!) which I did! I did not get hit with the nerves at all, but I was not soloing. I did try to make eye contact with the audience, which I feel is important.

My daughter had a beautiful routine-Ice Crystals, which precedes the snowflakes. Four girls in icey blue dresses with crystals and the music was beautiful! They were really great! It wasn't synchro-they were just skating the same steps and ended with a pinwheel in arabesque position. What was really nice was my daughter's spins-she was really centered! (she can spin on hard ice while I have a hard time!!!)

We had the cast party afterwards and we exchanged Secret Santa gifts. I got a lovely set of glasses with a layback design etched on them, my gift to a girl was a skating dress that I made (she needed a new practice dress) with a butterfly crystal design on the skirt. I was a bit tired after the party (even though I didn't have a large skating part) but by the time we wrapped it all up and I got home and in to bed it was after 10. I snoozed the alarm and got up late for work (still with glitter in my hair-oh well-it'll come out tonight). I think I'm dehydrated because my hands are puffy 8O (old lady stuff) so I'm trying to drink lots of stuff today. I'm the only one in my office today-goofing off and resting!!

Found out that the videographer is offering a different package this year-he is highlighting the feature skaters and groups. Don't know if everyone else is "excluded" or if this is an additional piece. AND because no general announcement was made during dress rehearsal on Thursday, half of us missed the photo shoot-we were supposed to be there at 3, in costume on Sunday-most of us were arriving at 3 to find some people on the ice! By the time some were dressed, the photographer had gone! Booo! He did come back later to take pictures during the show (we had him last year-they are great photos!)

It was a lot of fun-I'm really tired but I'll do it again next year! Don't think I'll do the spring show (Wizard of Oz) because of the upcoming competitions but we'll see.

[flo]

Hi,
It sounds like there have some great shows this weekend!
I think all our skaters had a good time and did very well.
It's sooo much work to put these shows together, and it's great to see the results when it's done.
Ours went well. I had set a piece for the older faster kids. They skated to a "Christmas is Comming" round and each repeated it with the music. They were great. It was different for them, to skate the same steps as eachother but at different times. The tots were too cute. I got them all reindeer antlers to wear. After we decorated our "tree", they were the flower sweepers and after each skater took their bows, they gave them a candy cane.
Our first timers were wonderful. I had tried to put them in the first act so they would not get too nervous, and I think it helped. I only had to move one skater as her grandmother was freezing!
The live music was really pretty and he did a great job. We had planned for a choir, but they couldn't make it - next year!
Only problem was that I broke a lace as I was to go on. So I had one white and one beige lace.

[batikat]

It looks as though some of us have shows on the same weekend!

Ours ended well, although one of our principal skaters fell on her double salchow and sat out the rest of the show with an ice pack. .


Just curious - do any other rinks do a full blown 'ice panto' like ours does? We have a fairly large audience capacity and so it is publicised to the whole community, not just skaters and this year we did 8 shows over 6 days - Tues and Wed evening, a Thursday matinee for local schools (this was great this year as it was filled to capacity and the kids were terrifically responsive, clapping along, booing the baddy and shouting out where required - this is a UK panto so lots of audience participation is encouraged - I know other countries never quite know what to make of British panto!), another evening on Friday and then an afternoon and evening performance on both Saturday and Sunday. The voices are taped and the skaters mouth the words where required except for the first time this year we had an 'on-ice' narrator who had a live mike for some bits of the show. She did a fantastic job as she is only 14 (but very theatrically minded!)

This year my friend and I got landed with the job of organising the chaperones and chasing up kids performance licences, so on top of performing 2 numbers in 8 shows it was quite exhausting.

One of our principal skaters fell on the 'backstage ice' and ended up with 7 stitches in her chin. She missed the afternoon performance but made it back to skate her number in the final show on Sunday - a real trooper - and she skated so beautifully Sunday night you'd never have known she'd spent the afternoon in casualty!

BTW How do I get an account with Casey? Sounds useful for skating pics.

edited to add:
I have now got a photobox account so pics shoudl be viewable at

http://aol.photobox.co.uk/album/2302346

not sure why it's not linking - you'll have to cut and paste. Only ones of daughter and skating partner for show at the moment but hopefully cleaning ladies will follow!

OOOps - I'll have to make it public viewing until I can find a way to invite people without making it public. Or you can send me your emails by PM and I can invite you

[Skate@Delaware]

Just curious - do any other rinks do a full blown 'ice panto' like ours does?
Not that I know of-sounds like a lot of fun! Maybe it's mostly British/European?
One of our principal skaters fell on the 'backstage ice' and ended up with 7 stitches in her chin. She missed the afternoon performance but made it back to skate her number in the final show on Sunday - a real trooper - and she skated so beautifully Sunday night you'd never have known she'd spent the afternoon in casualty!
Sorry to hear-glad to hear she's ok! Luckily, our casualty is recovering with a bad muscle sprain in her lower back. It hurts but it could have been worse. We have 2 physical therapists and one emergency room nurse on hand (skaters/parents) so she was well cared for. AND-there were no incidents with blade guards left on while running onto the ice!
BTW How do I get an account with Casey? Sounds useful for skating pics.
Just send him an email requesting an account and some info on how to get set up. Ask for some links for an easy-to-use ftp program. He's very helpful! :bow: You can also upload documents and video (of yourself skating so we can see)!!!

[LoopLoop]

Nova and I did a show on December 10. It wasn't at our usual rink (we had chosen not to do that one this year), but the coaches at our rink were putting together a show somewhere else (it's complicated), and they asked us to skate. Since we didn't have much time to put a new program together, we pulled out the music (Jewel's version of "O Holy Night") we used for our very first holiday show two years ago, which was before we even really started pairs! And we adapted our current competitive program to fit the music.

We did a pretty good job, except for the almost-oops on the axel lift, but everything else went well and the audience seemed to enjoy it. Only one other adult performed, plus an adult synchro team; the rest were competitive kids, from juvenile-senior levels.

[singerskates]

Thought I'd start a thread where everyone can talk about their holiday show(s), exhibitions skates, etc.. I see that Flo had one (details!!). I had one (still in progress-today is the last day so I'll post later on in case something really interesting happens today :lol: ). I'll see if I can get some pix up asap.

Ours is "Nutcracker on Ice"


http://clubtecumseh.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/cltecchris8a.jpg.w560h742.jpg Club Tecumseh Holiday Showcase

I didn't skate in the show because I (vocals, rhythem guitar, flute and bass), and my one time band, hubby (drummer/percussionist) and friend (sax, keyboard, lead guitar, clarinet bass) "Tuneshine" were the music before the show started, during intermission and afterwards. We played 45 minute sets. I also didn't have enough room in my van after putting in all the music equipment to bring my skates to the show anyway.

This was our list of songs we performed;

The Order of Songs:

1. Joy To The World
2. Go Tell It On The Mountain
3. Breath of Heaven
4. What Child is This
5. Jingle Bell Rock
6. O Holy Night
7. Angels We Have Heard On High
8. Let It Snow
9. Mary Did You Know
10. Away in a Manger
11. Winter Wonderland
12. We Are the Reason
13. Silent Night
14. I'll Be Home For Christmas
15. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
16. Happy Birthday Jesus
17. Come On, Ring Those Bells

Samatha Merchant skated very well. Although Daniel didn't have much time to put his program together for the show and it showed. It's hard when you're a competitive skater and a coach with little time for yourself to put together a program in less than a week. The kids Daniel coached did an excellent job with there program though.

[doubletoe]

Nova and I did a show on December 10. It wasn't at our usual rink (we had chosen not to do that one this year), but the coaches at our rink were putting together a show somewhere else (it's complicated), and they asked us to skate. Since we didn't have much time to put a new program together, we pulled out the music (Jewel's version of "O Holy Night") we used for our very first holiday show two years ago, which was before we even really started pairs! And we adapted our current competitive program to fit the music.

We did a pretty good job, except for the almost-oops on the axel lift, but everything else went well and the audience seemed to enjoy it. Only one other adult performed, plus an adult synchro team; the rest were competitive kids, from juvenile-senior levels.

Wow, I would love to have seen your program! :)

[twokidsskatemom]

http://s8.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3AFQEI2J7C5Y912CC39CBWDBRG


My skaters holiday program.Her music was from Polar express.
She also did a pairs program with her brother.

[NoVa Sk8r]

Nova and I did a show on December 10. It wasn't at our usual rink (we had chosen not to do that one this year), but the coaches at our rink were putting together a show somewhere else (it's complicated), and they asked us to skate. Since we didn't have much time to put a new program together, we pulled out the music (Jewel's version of "O Holy Night") we used for our very first holiday show two years ago, which was before we even really started pairs! And we adapted our current competitive program to fit the music.

We did a pretty good job, except for the almost-oops on the axel lift, but everything else went well and the audience seemed to enjoy it. Only one other adult performed, plus an adult synchro team; the rest were competitive kids, from juvenile-senior levels.I thought it went well, considering we had only practiced the program ~5 times, we had no practice that day, and it was the first time our current coach had seen us perform any type of program. (And our death spiral had that kind of impromptu nature to it -- 2 spectators asked our ex-pairs coach, "Are they gonna do it?" We did. 8-) )

Another cool aspect to the show was that before each program, the announcer spoke a little about the performer(s). It was nice to have the 3 adult skaters get their glory!

[flo]

NoVa - ex coach???? No more the boy and the girl?????
I still I hope to get to see you adn loops do your Polar Express program from last yeat, I heard it was beautiful.

[NoVa Sk8r]

NoVa - ex coach???? No more the boy and the girl?????
I still I hope to get to see you and loops do your Polar Express program from last year, I heard it was beautiful.Ex-coach, as in our first coach (who is featured, alongside Timmay, on p. 59 of this month's Skating magazine--I'll have to tease him and ask for his autograph. :twisted: ). We're still with Nick. Both coahes happened to be at the holiday show. The other cool thing is that ex-coach had never seen us do a split twist.

I really liked the "Believe" program, so maybe we'll resurrect it for next year when we put in our throw double loop, lateral double twist, and pair camel/sit combo. (OK, maybe not.)

[Casey]

BTW How do I get an account with Casey? Sounds useful for skating pics.
Woo hoo, I've been shamelessly promoted!

Anyways, if you want a sk8rland.com account, just send me the username you want in a PM or email to kc@sk8rland.com. You'll get web space including a photo gallery at http://username.sk8rland.com (videos and web pages welcome too) and an E-mail address of username@sk8rland.com.

[LoopLoop]

...it was the first time our current coach had seen us perform any type of program.

Not quite the first time! He did see our last program a couple of times before nationals.

[NoVa Sk8r]

Not quite the first time! He did see our last program a couple of times before nationals.Really? Did we perform it for him, or did he just happen to see it while he was coaching someone else?

But he still hasn't seen our current pièce de résistance, Oblivion.

[MusicSkateFan]

OOOOHHH NoVA, you are so Multi-Cultural! Throwing around those French catch phrases as if they were a throw double loop! :bow: ;)

lol

[NoVa Sk8r]

OOOOHHH NoVA, you are so Multi-Cultural! Throwing around those French catch phrases as if they were a throw double loop! :bow: ;)

lolHaha. It's a slow work day, and there's a holiday special on 50-cent words and phrases. ;)

[e-skater]

Was so worried about shortened holiday show ice, not having skated since Friday, no warm up, being old and unable to move without my typical hour of skating around prior to a performance......and I ended up having good skate for me. Actually with my music for a change! 8O I decided when I stepped onto the ice to just let everything else out of my mind and enjoy whatever I could do. It was fun.

Our whole holiday show was nice. Even the little ones in their group number were fun to watch. The few adults who skated all had decent skates. It was just a great time.

[mikawendy]

Ours went well. I had set a piece for the older faster kids. They skated to a "Christmas is Comming" round and each repeated it with the music. They were great. It was different for them, to skate the same steps as eachother but at different times. The tots were too cute. I got them all reindeer antlers to wear. After we decorated our "tree", they were the flower sweepers and after each skater took their bows, they gave them a candy cane.

I thought that the Christmas is Coming round looked really good! The kids had really good spacing and timing.

I also loved that the Christmas "tree" wore reindeer antlers, too! :D

[mikawendy]

I was in another show on Sunday. I skated my program (so nervous yet again) and I skated in an artistic ensemble of adults and children. It was so much fun, and the actual show part went by so quickly. My coach skated a pairs number with his former partner (it was GREAT!) and there were a couple of duets and other soloists, all great! Because each program was a separate program not linked to the others, we had never had a rehearsal with all of the performers at once. We didn't really need it, and it was a special treat for all of us to see some of the programs for the first time. We were able to watch it all without peeking through a curtain, which was really nice!

I'll have to do some surgery on my dress--the top part seems to have stretched out and it was feeling a little loose on top. I was worried during my program that I was going to have a "wardrobe malfunction," :lol: so it messed me up a little.

[Skate@Delaware]

I'll have to do some surgery on my dress--the top part seems to have stretched out and it was feeling a little loose on top. I was worried during my program that I was going to have a "wardrobe malfunction," :lol: so it messed me up a little.
Words of wisdom-Always keep safety pins in your skate bag!! I'm the rink mom, so I have to (along with extra gloves, bandaids, tissues, quarters, candy, etc).


They just put up the link for the photos taken during our show----blast it! I'm not in ANY! I'm not vain, but I wanted another picture to give to my mom for Christmas! She got one last year and loved it and now I have to scrounge one from one of the non-skating, photo-snapping moms! :evil: No pictures were taken of ladies from the OPENING ACT (party scene)!!! :evil: None of Clara's parents dancing, and their death spiral!!! :evil:

[sexyskates]

I just skated in our Holiday Show in Great Neck Thursday - did Oh, Holy Night with a live opera singer singing with a taped accompaniment. She sounded awesome. I skated with a battery operated candle for interest (I love props!), and a flowy light blue "angel" dress.
Emily Hughs also skated her short program for everyone - she was terrific!