The Stettler Figure Skating Club showed off its skills on Sunday with a year-end performance of Wicked on Ice.
Sixty skaters, ranging from ages three to 17, brought different scenes from the Broadway musical to life over two hours.
“They did amazing,” said coach Lisa Johnson.
Wicked is the story of Galinda (Elisha Pederson) and Elphaba (Chassidy Gish), or the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch, as they’re better known. The two meet at university and immediately hate each other, but soon grow into friends. It chronicles Elphaba’s journey to becoming the wicked witch, and shows how she crosses paths with Dorothy.
The skating club performed The Wizard of Oz two years ago, and Johnson said Wicked was “kind of a sequel.”
The performance wasn’t just a straight-up series of skating performances: the students had to learn to lip-sync the songs and some dialogue and dance - all while skating. The level of talent on display, especially from the older students, was astonishing (speaking as a non-skater who never even learned how to stop).
“The two leads are graduating…they were given the main parts in the carnival and they did awesome,” Johnson said.
The performances ranged from solos to duets to large group performances, all choreographed by coach Cindy Savage.
Johnson said the students had been practicing almost every day since March, and the leads practiced three to four hours a day in that time. She added that this didn’t deter the students, since the club does a large production every other year.
“They’re used to the schedule of rehearsing and learning lines,” she said, although she added that for some of the younger skaters, the costume changes were a challenge.
The costumes were bang on for the characters, and the cutest by far was Toto’s adorable dog costume. When Dorothy (Hannah Shepherd) skated into the rink, it was immediately apparent who she was supposed to be – you can’t miss the blue checked dress and ruby slippers. Sophie Shepherd as the Wizard did a wonderful job skating while avoiding any mishaps with her long cape.
The club has one more competition in Olds before it wraps up the year.
Practice begins again in September.