A Great Way to Finish a BUSY Week!

I have had a very busy week, but it's been great. I'm back to work at the golf course; it isn't open yet, but because of new ownership at the course, there is a lot of work to do in order to be ready for opening day (which is probably at least two, if not three, weeks away).

So, my days have been spent at the Pro Shop, and my nights have been spent at the arena. And it's been a busy week for skating in Tweed, as we had our year-end ice show today! The theme of this years carnival was 'Here & Now'...so, our numbers were all based on current popular culture.

I choreographed four numbers for the show; the opening number was a Senior STARSkaters number, and I used the popular song 'I Gotta Feeling' by 'The Black Eyed Peas'.



The girls, and Eric, complained about wearing the masks...but I insisted. I thought it was fun, and it made sense with music by 'The Black Eyed Peas'.

My second group was my little Learn-to-Skate group. I have had such a great time with this group over the season; when we started, most of them could hardly stand on their own, and now they move freely on their own and get up by themselves if they fall. Their little carnival number was based on the Disney/Pixar movie 'Up' (which, if you haven't, you should see). The great thing about a Learn to Skate group, it doesn't matter what you 'choreograph'...if you just put them in a cute costume, the audience is sure to love them - they're just so cute!



If you've seen the movie, these costumes make sense to you. I actually had six kids in my group, but only four showed up for the carnival...and I only got a picture of these three.

My third number was one of the CanSkate groups that I have worked with throughout the season. For this group, I chose music from a popular new TV show called 'Glee'...it was the song 'Sweet Caroline' sung by the cast of 'Glee'. I have never seen the show, but I read about it on Wikipedia and learned it's set in a high school, so I went with cheerleaders for the costumes.



The girls were pretty excited about the pom-poms! I was excited that, without really planning it, the girls skated in the right order throughout the number, so they actually formed the word Tweed, most of the time.

And finally, my favourite number, the closing number - it was based on the recent CBC TV show, 'Battle of the Blades'. This show paired famous Canadian figure skaters with famous Canadian NHL hockey players...the pairs choreographed new numbers each week, and a voting process, similar to American Idol, determined a winning pair. So, to make this number work, I had local hockey players pair up with my figure skaters! Some of the boys were a little hesitant to participate at first, but I'm sure they all really enjoyed themselves in the end - even if they'll never admit it! I had twelve pairs in total - and at one point, I had all 24 skaters perform a straight-line pinwheel, and the line was almost too wide for the ice! It was fun to work with such a large group, and the boys were all great!



I didn't get a picture of everyone after their skate today, so this is from a practice earlier this week...I think there is only one person missing from this picture.

So, after a busy and stressful week, I'm glad to say that we had a very successful carnival! I always worry more then I should, the kids always manage to pull things together beautifully for the show!

And, with the carnival over, I'm officially done skating in Tweed for the year. We're having an awards banquet in two weeks...but no more ice time. There were a few sad hugs today, which was sweet, but I know the majority of my girls will be back next year, so I look forward to doing it all again!