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Get ready for ‘One Enchanted Evening’

Ian Cropp
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VAIL – If you ask Dawn Ristow what she’ll be doing after this year’s winter skating show, you’ll get a glimpse as to how much work goes into the show. “I’ll start planning next year’s show a day or two after this year’s show ends,” said Ristow, who directs the show and the Skating Club of Vail. “We’ll get our idea and start the process of putting everything together for the new show. I’ll get the music and have it mixed in a studio, and then I have to start tinking about costumes.”Today and Friday, the skating club will perform this year’s show, “One Enchanted Evening” at Dobson Ice Arena in Vail.The Disney-themed show will feature two hours of numbers from movies such as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Beauty and the Beast.”Between the castle set built around the entire rink, authentic Disney costumes and a cast of 75 skaters, this year’s show aims be just as impressive as years past.

“The hardest part is trying to top the year before,” Ristow said. “So we try to do different things.”Even with the diverse numbers in the show, Ristow strives to make the show as audience friendly as possible.”There’s quick flow,” Ristow said. “The numbers intertwine with each other, so we don’t stop.”SkatersDressed in costumes ranging from pirates to princesses, the skaters will perform in group numbers, duets and solos.

And the skaters, ranging from 4 to 41 years old, are just as diverse as the costumes.”It doesn’t matter if you are a national-level skater or just beginning,” Ristow said. “We can all work together.”In the electrical parade number, all of the skaters will don unique costumes as they glide around the ice.One duet features 6-year-old Generose Angarola and seven-year-old Lainey Bailey. Despite their age, the two girls boast a combined seven years of skating experience.Angarola, whose entire family will be in the audience, is anything but nervous for the show. In fact, she even helps Ristow keep other skaters in line during rehearsals.”I’m not bossy,” Angarola said in defense of Ristow’s claim that she tends to direct a bit.



A skater Ristow is glad to have helping direct some of the younger kids in the show is 17-year-old Mackenzie Boras. This year will be Boras’s ninth show.”For me it’s gotten harder each year,” Boras said. “I’ve progressed and the numbers are harder.”This year Boras’s most technically difficult move will be a double-flip.”It doesn’t go this way,” Boras said, pointing up and down. “It goes around.”

The chefWhile some skaters go through their youth skating, others are able to live out childhood dreams on the ice.”I wanted to skate as a kid, but never had the chance to,” said 41-year-old Derron Schronce. “Hopefully I can inspire someone in the audience to say, ‘If that guy can go out there and do that, then so can I.'”Schronce has a solo called Maitre d’ in which he’s dressed a chef from “Beauty and the Beast.”So will Schronce be holding any food on the ice?”I’m holding myself up,” he joked. “The hardest part for me will be the spins. I’m pretty comfortable on the jumps, though.”

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Along with the Vail skating club performers, there will be guest skaters from around the country, as well as Canada and Mexico.The show is at the Dobson arena and begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for kids, $10 for adults and $25 for a family of four.Staff Writer Ian Cropp can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 14631, or icropp@vaildaily.com.Vail, Colorado


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