Christmas is typically a time of red and green, but this year the ice skaters of The Cube decided to celebrate with black, grey and orange with their performance of, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” for their third annual Holiday Show on Saturday.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the Disney clay animation film, was brought to a new form by all of the skaters at The Cube.
Jack Skellington was defying gravity with axel jumps.
Sally poured her heart out while performing a camel spin.
Oogie Boogie taunted his enemies whilst in a sit spin.
Each of the skaters brought their characters to life through their expressive facial features, sweeping hand gestures and smooth skating.
“It’s really fun, you don’t feel like yourself, it feels like you’re your character on the ice,” said Callie Haban, who played the Narrator.
Linda Storh and Kimberly Tompkins were the primary educators for the show and worked together to choreograph numbers for skaters of all ages.
The skaters were ecstatic for this year’s production after last year’ production of “The Grinch’s Holiday.” Haban said that immediately after that they had their eyes set on doing “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for the 2023 Holiday Show.
“The kids had a lot of freedom with the numbers this year,” said Storh. “It’s not traditional Christmas music.”
Avery O’Brien, who played The Grinch last year, said that taking on the role of Jack Skellington this year was quite different.
“It’s a totally different character with a different tone,” said O’Brien. “I expected it to be hard, but you are practicing for so long you kinda figure it out.”
The audience was taken on a journey into Halloweentown and Christmas town to watch the events of Jack Skellington’s plot unfold.
Moments such as Lock, Shock and Barrel kidnapping Santa Claus came alive on the ice, allowing for skaters to inject their own creative twists.
The performance, however, was not just glued to “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and expanded its horizons to other Halloween movies and shows such as “Hocus Pocus” and “Wednesday.” Christmas jingles were performed as well while skaters wore red and green with light-up tulle skirts.
Professional guest skater Anabel Wallace performed a solo to a remixed version of “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child which was choreographed by Wallace.
She also joined in on a few of the group numbers that she learned the day before and without having seen, or hearing much about, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” prior.
“It was a bit stressful,” said Wallace. “I’m not used to acting.”
Jack Skellington’s cheeky laugh extends off the ice as well because behind the bedazzled costumes and layers of face paint, the skaters are friends at the end of the day.
“I love it so much and we are all friends,” said O’Brien.
“It’s really fun hanging out with friends and going to dinner afterward,” said Haban.
Stroh was extremely grateful for the sold-out audience as it showed testament to their efforts to highlight the skaters more after the ice rink was nearly gone in 2020, having closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently being bought by the city of Santa Clarita.
“It’s great, we did so much to bring the rink back when it closed,” said Stroh. “It’s very rewarding to see the people come back.”
