The Shawville arena was buzzing with anticipation on Friday evening as family and friends of the Shawville Figure Skating Club’s 105 members filed through its front doors and packed the bleachers for the club’s year-end show.
This year’s performance, titled “Under the Big Top”, saw skaters of all ages execute 24 circus-themed routines they had been rehearsing for several months.
There were trapeze artists and magicians, fire jugglers and acrobats, clowns and showgirls, not to mention the CanSkate lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, zebras and pandas that each took a turn showing off their skating skills.
Club coach Marissa Lang has been working with the skaters to choreograph and rehearse each of their routines since early January.
She grew up skating with the club and has been coaching the young CanSkate members for four years, but this year she joined coach Haillee Dorzek in coaching the junior and senior skaters as well.
“It’s my favourite thing,” Lang said, explaining that while there’s a contingent of skaters who participate in competitions in the Outaouais and beyond, many of the club’s members stay closer to home and focus on their end of season shows, one before Christmas and the other in March.
“So the show is the only thing they train for all year,” she said, emphasizing how much work goes into every element of the event, from the costumes to the decor to the routines themselves.
The event opened with a performance from the club’s senior skaters, designed to introduce the audience to the roster of circus characters that would be taking the ice over the course of the evening.
“Each skater at one point did a different move, whether it was a jump, a spin, those donuts, or a lot of them did lifts,” Lang said, noting some of the members even performed the difficult move known as a “death spiral” in which one skater holds another by the wrists and spins in circles.
“It was really impressive. They just told me their plan and I was like, okay, you go ahead and do that. [ . . . ] I told them this part is to show off your favourite move. I want you to show them who you are in skating. I just gave them the freedom to do that.”
From there the show moved through a series of group and solo numbers, and concluded with a piece that had every skater out on the ice for a final bow, after they emerged from under a makeshift circus tent held up by the senior skaters.
“It’s the most rewarding thing,” said Lang of seeing the skaters’ hard work pay off. “Everyone is just so happy at the end of it, it’s so bittersweet. It was a lot of work the past few months.”
Senior skater Brayleigh Barr performed her last show after 13 years with the club, as next fall she will be moving to Pembroke to study pre-health at Algonquin College.
“Skating is really rewarding. It takes a while to get a jump or something, but once you get it, you get so much credit for yourself,” she said. “Having supportive coaches always helps.”
Twelve awards were given out in recognition of the dedication from several of the club’s skaters.
Molly Dowe received the Most Improved Senior Skater Award; Maxime Boisvert-Emond the Team Spirit Award; Blythe Russel the Golden Blade Award for sportsmanship; Kenzie Smith the Helping Hand Award for most dedicated program assistant; Grace MacKechnie the Guiding Blade Award for leadership; Madison Lemay the Grit and Grace Award for tenacity; Reagan Mantha the Most Improved Advanced CanSkater Award; Eleanor Swenson the CanSkate Champion Award; Shyann Roy and Amélie Gabie won the Most Improved CanSkater Awards; Dutton James won the CanSkate Mighty Mite Award; and Macy Lance won the Most Improved Junior Skater Award.
And the skaters weren’t the only club members recognized for their efforts throughout the season. Both club president Shelley Heaphy and executive member Stephanie Shoobert received Volunteer of the Year awards.
Shoobert, who is usually responsible for organizing the CanSkate programs, also took the lead on all of the costumes used in Friday’s show.
“She worked day and night for these costumes and had amazing ideas,” Lang said, noting the elephant trunks out of her curtains as an example of Shoobert’s innovative approach to bringing the circus theme to life.
As for Heaphy’s special recognition, Lang said while she may not have wanted the attention, it was overdue.
“She always comes in with a smiling face and positive attitude, she’s just a ray of sunshine,” Lang said.
Heaphy extended a big thank you to all who contributed to the show’s success, from local sponsors to volunteers and parents.
“A huge thank you to the community for coming out to watch and cheer them on, and for everyone who helped make the show happen,” she said.
The Shawville Figure Skating Club will be taking its spring and summer break, with practices beginning again in the fall.
