Ever been to the Land of Oz? I hadn’t until this past weekend, where I was able to see my favourite characters on ice. Whether it was Dorothy and her crew, Glinda and Elphaba, or the Wizard and his flying monkeys, each performance wowed the audience.

The Nanaimo Skating Club performed 22 numbers with over 100 skaters on Saturday, March 8 at Frank Crane Arena.

This performance starred skaters from all levels, including CanSkate stages 1–7, the Rising Stars pre-juvenile team, and the StarSkate senior team.

All solos, duets, and the majority of group numbers were choreographed by head coach Carrie Hawkes. Hawkes has coached at Nanaimo Skating Club for over 40 years, which has included training her daughter, Chloe Johnson, for the last 18.

Johnson is a second year VIU Bachelor of Arts student with a major in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She starred as Elphaba in this performance, showing off her wicked figure skating skills. She has won gold medal for artistic twice in competition as well as a silver in advanced free skate.

“For my solo, I play the character Elphaba, and the song is ‘No Good Deed’ from the original Wicked Broadway soundtrack,” Johnson says. “My favourite aspect was playing this complex character, especially with this song choice. It holds a lot of different emotions that I love getting to play around with.”

Rehearsals start five weeks prior to the big show. Group numbers vary on rehearsal times, either twice a week for 90 minutes or once a week for 45 minutes. When it comes to solos, duets, or small groups, skaters usually rehearse once a week for 15 minutes per lesson and continue to practice on their own time.

“I believe I got three 15 minute rehearsals with my coach on it and then worked on it on my own time outside of that. The length was around two minutes and 17 seconds, and I’d say around a medium difficulty in terms of my abilities,” Johnson explains.

Not only did Johnson perform a solo, but she was also a part of three group numbers, a duet, and was a Program Assistant for the younger groups.

Despite such a short time frame to host an entire skating show, the costumes, set, and props transported the audience into Oz.

Each skater showed proof of their passion for this sport and their love in performing.

When asked what figure skating means to her, Johnson explained the connection she’s had to skating since she started at age one.

“I’ll never take it for granted for giving me the platform to do what I love most: performing in front of an audience.” 

Each individual performance showed off the skater’s skills, whether it be footwork, spins, or jumps. There were a multitude of twizzles and turns, camel and sit spins, as well as single and double complex jumps such as toe loops, flips, loops, salchows, lutzes, and axels. 

One skill that had every member of the audience on the edge of their seat was a rotating star lift by Kamryn Cox and John Yan. Between Elphaba and the Wizard, this pair’s performance involved lifts, joint spins, and an immense level of trust.

Overall, the Nanaimo Skating Club exceeded expectations with this performance. For more information on the skating club and their offerings, visit the Frank Crane Arena or nanaimoskatingclub.com.