The Shawville Figure Skating Club rolled out the red carpet on Friday evening for its final performance of the 2024-2025 season, themed “Skating through the Silver Screen.”
The evening featured 28 performances, each choreographed to the theme of a different movie, including everything from Annie to to High School Musical. There were solos, duets, trios, quartets and large group performances by the CanSkate groups and the Junior and Senior Stars.
Coach Haillee Hamelin-Dorzek, who’s in her fourteenth season of skating and started coaching in the fall, said that the idea for the theme started with a conversation with her co-coach, Marissa Lang.
“Marissa and I have been really wanting to do Disney on Ice as a theme, but we decided that there are so many movies that we really would love to skate to,” Hamelin-Dorzek said. “The theme came together with a red carpet and all the stars and costumes.”
Lang is in her eleventh season skating and received her CanSkate certification last summer. She said the coaching is her passion when it comes to figure skating.
“I used to do competitive and it wasn’t the route I wanted to go, so I chose coaching instead,” Lang said. “I fell in love with it, I love skating with the kids and it doesn’t feel like a job at this point.”
At Friday’s show, awards were handed out to a number of performers for their improvement and dedication to the sport.
One of those winners was Nora MacKechnie, 12, who took home the most improved award for the senior star group.
“At the start of the season, I was not doing any double or single rotations,” MacKechnie said. “Compared to the end of the season where I’m doing doubles and axels, I have gotten a lot better. I really felt proud.”
MacKechnie also helps out with some of the CanSkate groups as a program assistant. She said it was nice to see all their friends and family come out to pack the arena.
“I think that all the little kids got a lot better from the start of the year when some of them couldn’t even skate,” MacKechnie said. “Now, they’re pretty good skaters. It was nice to see them all come and try their best.”
The CanSkate most improved award went to Evelyn Tracy; the CanSkate champion awards to Shay Senack and Taylor Cross; the CanSkate “Mighty Might Award” to Odin Black; the CanSkate advanced most improved award to Mackenzie Drouin; the Junior most improved award to Layla Beardsley; the team spirit award to Anabelle Côté; the sportsmanship award to Gabrielle Keller; the most dedicated program assistant award to Morgan Tracy; the tenacity award to Vail Dubois; and the leadership award to Chloe Trudeau.
Both Lang and Hamelin-Dorzek said that getting to see the show come together made them emotional.
“I enjoy my skaters so much and I was so happy to see them pull everything together,” Hamelin-Dorzek said.
“I just felt really happy and it made me emotional.”
“It was breathtaking,” Lang said. “We were so proud of the skaters and how well they’ve done. They bring their enthusiasm and passion to the sport every day that they come and it all paid off.”
