The Cochrane Skating Club’s took figure skating enthusiasts to Hollywood this weekend with its annual Winter Skating Carnival at the Cochrane Arena.
The carnival held Dec. 2 featured the club’s youngest skaters, who are just learning the tricks of the trade, all the way up to the senior skaters. The theme for this year’s carnival was A Night at the Movies, where members of the club dressed up as characters from movies such as; Shark Tale, Harry Potter and Lion King over the course of the event.
In addition, the club also welcomed some exciting guests to the show, with the Black Gold Synchronized Skating Team from Calgary and Skate Canada Junior pair skaters Marin Ono and Kurtis Schreiber.
“We do a bi-annual carnival, so every other year we typically rotate a winter and spring carnival within that,” club head coach Karen Allison said.
“The carnival is just a really great way to showcase our littlest skaters to our top skaters, just an opportunity to perform and show their wonderful skills to family, friends and community members.”
Allison was also really impressed with how the carnival turned out, highlighting that all the groups ran smoothly throughout the course of the carnival.
“It was really great. All of our programs ended up really smooth, we didn’t have any technical difficulties, as those happen sometimes … and our guest skaters were a real treat for us this year,” Allison said.
“We were really pleased to have a pairs team and a synchronized team come out and add to the enjoyment of our show.’
“We want the skaters to feel proud of what they accomplished. The littlest skaters sometimes get stage fright, so I think it’s a good opportunity for them to get out in front of an audience to perform. As a figure skater, that’s … the reason of your career, is to go out and perform programs in front of an audience and a judging panel. But really it was about fun and having the skaters feel proud of what they accomplished.”
Next up for the club is a Calgary invitational Dec. 15 to Dec. 17, where the Cochrane team will have 21 skaters competing at Winsport in Calgary.
