Traverse City Figure Skating Club Celebrates 50 Years with Around the World on Ice

Five graduating seniors who have skated with the Traverse City Figure Skating Club their entire youth joined more than 125 younger performers last weekend to close out the club's 50th-anniversary production, "Around the World on Ice," at Centre Ice Arena on Chartwell Drive.

The two-day run on March 6 and March 7 drew audiences to three separate performances, with a Friday evening show at 7 p.m. followed by Saturday matinees at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The production doubled as the club's largest annual fundraiser, with ticket proceeds helping sustain a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) organization that has operated in Traverse City since 1975, when it was still known as the Twin Bays Skating Club.

"It's our biggest fundraiser for the year to help support our skaters. It's a huge production with incredible skating. More than 130 skaters are in this show," said Ellie Kolb, the club's executive director.

The cast spanned an age range rarely seen in a single production: performers as young as 3 took the ice alongside club members preparing to graduate high school. More than 65 club members performed alongside more than 100 participants from the club's Learn to Skate program, which accepts beginners starting at age 3 and runs through adult levels. The show's thematic structure sent audiences on a Disney-driven world tour, with segments drawn from Aladdin, Brave, Coco, Mary Poppins, Mulan, and The Princess and the Frog.

Skater Madelyn Reardon, whose routine featured a layback spin, a spiral sequence, an axel jump requiring one and a half rotations off the ice, and a double salchow with two full rotations, said the show's younger spectators are never far from her mind while she competes. "For me, I always think about the little kids that watch. I was one of them in this sport when I was little was so magical. And I just I want to be that for those little kids watching," Reardon said. She described her fellow skaters as her "best friends" and has encouraged children interested in the sport to embrace falling down as part of learning.

Beyond the ticketed performances, the club hosted a school show for local students, where children were invited to sing and dance alongside the skaters rather than simply watch from the stands.

General admission tickets were priced at $22 and $24, while a VIP on-ice option offered four-person table seating directly on the ice surface for $200, including complimentary hors d'oeuvres and wine for guests 21 and older. The club, which counts 100 registered members and is sanctioned by US Figure Skating, will next host the Cherry Classic competition at Centre Ice Arena, scheduled for May 28 through May 31.