Breaking the Ice
The return of the Traverse City Figure Skating Club Ice Show
For 47 years, the Traverse City Figure Skating Club (formerly known as Twin Bays Skating Club) has been producing athletes bound for college teams, national-level competitions, and even the much-beloved “Disney on Ice” show. TCFSC is also the driving force behind the Northern Lights synchronized skating team — in which 8–20 skaters perform in unison — as well as a high school team that contends with 50 teams in the state across 16 competitions.
Despite decades of champions and championships, what the club is most known for — among non-skaters anyway — is the program’s annual centerpiece, its spring Ice Show. Headed to Centre Ice Arena on March 4 and 5 after a pandemic-induced year away, this year’s Ice Show promises to be one kids and their parents won’t be able to resist: The “Sing! High School Musicals” show will showcase songs from classic musicals like Grease and Hairspray alongside those from more recent film favorites like Sing! and High School Musical itself.
“When I chose a show theme, I really just wanted to tap into something that every generation would love,” says the club’s Executive Director Ellie Kolb. “The show’s designed to get you singing and dancing in your seat along to your favorite songs that you know and love.”
This will be Kolb’s first Ice Show with TCFSC, as she joined the club in fall of 2020. But she’s no stranger to the world of performance, having skated competitively her entire youth. It was actually a community ice show in Houghton, Michigan, that grabbed the attention of four-year-old Kolb — a moment she hopes to recreate so she can inspire kids in this year’s audience to try skating themselves.
“So many skaters fall in love with skating by seeing a community ice show,” Kolb says. “And I’m just really hoping that some skaters in the audience this time see it and want to give it a shot.”
When Kolb was seven, she saw her first Disney on Ice performance. She remembers telling her mom that, one day, she would be performing with those iconic characters herself. Kolb went on to make that dream come true, touring with the company for five years as she played roles like Tinkerbell, Snow White, and Dory.
Today, Kolb leads the 60 skaters of TCFSC, who range from age three to adults, including several individuals who have received U.S. Figure Skating’s “goal medal” by passing the organization’s highest-level skill tests.
Among those gold-medal skaters is Anna Rossiter, a junior at St. Francis High School in Traverse City who is playing Danny Zuko from Grease in the upcoming Ice Show. Rossiter has been skating since she was three years old. After attending an open skate at Centre Ice, she got her start in TCFSC’s Learn to Skate program and has gone on to excel in the sport. She has plans to pursue synchronized skating in college or join Disney on Ice but says the lessons she learned in the rink will stick with her even if she hangs up her skates.
“The work ethic and accountability and self-discipline [of skating] transferred over into my everyday life. It’s taught me that if I want to get somewhere, I’m going have to work to get to that point, and it’s not going come overnight just because I want it,” Rossiter says.
Laurie Appier, a parent-volunteer and this year’s Ice Show Co-Chair, echoes Rossiter’s sentiments.
“The dedication, perseverance, and absolute grit of a figure skater is fierce,” she says. “They take some crazy hard falls and get back up even more determined to land it next time.”
Appier has been involved with TCFSC since her daughter joined the club in 2017. To her, the biggest benefits of the program are the relationships formed between the skaters. She notes that the skaters often form lifelong friendships, and finds it “amazing how supportive the kids are of each other and what they can do when they work together.”
She goes on to predict that this year’s Ice Show — No. 46 — will be one to remember, and not just because of the line-up of songs and talented athletes. The 2021 show was canceled for the first time in the club’s history, and the skaters are eager to perform in front of a crowd once more.
“You could ask literally any skater or parent what they are most looking forward to and part of that answer would be the simple fact that we actually get to have a show this year,” Appier explains. “Ellie [Kolb] has put her heart and soul into creating a spectacular event … I believe it’s going to be hard to keep the audience in their seats with all of the fabulous music.”
Sing Along on March 4 & 5
Planning to catch a performance of “Sing! High School Musicals on Ice”? Here’s what you need to know:
Who: The talented skating students and coaches of Traverse City Figure Skating Club
What: A mash-up of big screen and Broadway favorites including Sing!, High School Musical, Grease, and Hairspray
Where: Centre Ice Arena, 1600 Chartwell Dr., Traverse City
When:
· Friday, March 4, at 7:00 p.m.
· Saturday, March 5, at 11:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m.
Why: “These kids have had such a difficult couple of years,” says TCFSC director Ellie Kolb. “Ice Show is always the cherry on top of their years, something they all look forward to, and I know that they’re just so excited to finally get to perform in front of a live audience again. They’re really hoping that the community shows up for them and support them with this.”
Cost: Seating for the event is reserved with most tickets available for $18. Guests can also select VIP On-Ice Seating, which includes complimentary hors d’oeuvres and beverages for a front-row seat to the show. On-Ice Seating is literally on the ice—so dress warmly—and is available for $160 per four-top table. All tickets are available at MyNorthTickets.com.
Mask Up: Because this is a United States Figure Skating Association sanctioned event, masks will be required for all spectators and participants. Skaters will only be unmasked when actively skating.
Join ’Em: Whether you can make the show or not, aspiring skaters can check out TCFSC’s upcoming “Learn to Skate” program, which runs for five weeks beginning April 4. See gofiguretc.org for more information.