Coins for Cares Avatar Program

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I haven’t blogged much this year but I have been skating! Coach Gary helped me brainstorm a new dramatic showcase program. For music I was considering a beautiful Enya song used in Lord of the Rings or orchestral music from ‘Avatar.’ Gary suggested the song “I See You” from Avatar which he’d remembered loving when one of his skaters used it years ago. I liked it and took his suggestion.

In April we spent several days together and he helped me finalize the cut of the music (with my husband emailing us several drafts) and set the program. I visited again two weeks ago and we fine-tuned it. Both times we had a lot of fun working together.

Friday I skated at Coins for Cares, an event to benefit the Scott Hamilton Foundation. I had a great time! Coach Kim has told me she thinks Gary did a great job choreographing toward my strengths and that this is her favorite program of mine. It’s my husband’s favorite too, and mine.

My costume has been a whole lot of work but I think it’s been worth it. I ordered it from Amazon and it came from the UK. There were various problems. They sent me a medium instead of a large, it had a white zipper which really stood out, and the loincloth was only string on one side. The size works well enough, though it’s a little scary since it’s not stretch fabric and I’ve already popped it a bit, resulting in the zipper not zipping all the way down.

With three trips to fabric stores, two to a tailor and one to Bohemian Crystals in LA, I’m now happy with it. This is the first time I’ve stoned my own costume and surprisingly, I enjoyed the process. I don’t sew and I don’t think of myself as crafty, but it only took me about four hours to put on the stones and it was relaxing and not tedious. I even have a batch of smaller stones coming to add on.

One thing I loved about this performance is how enthusiastic everyone was about the costume. When I came into the rink a bunch of the littlest skaters were waving and tapping on the glass in our ‘warm room’ to get my attention. They waved a lot when I was skating and came up to talk to me afterward. It was really cute.

I’ll be skating this again next weekend at National Showcase in Wenatchee. It was a lucky break that I was able to skate at Sectionals and qualify for National Showcase, and with the competition being in my own state I couldn’t resist. Coaches Sharon and Steve Baker will be at the competition and will help me out. I’m glad for that, I vastly prefer having someone put me on. I’ve never skated in spotlight so that will be a new experience. However that goes, I know I’ll enjoy being with the other adults and watching everyone skate.