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The Skating Club of Vail saw a record turnout for its annual ice show April 13-14, with new show director Gretchen Lentz returning to Vail to lead the effort after growing up in the program herself.

This year’s theme was “Under the Silver Screen,” a showcase of Hollywood movies and the songs that helped make them popular, and featured 45 kids from the Skating Club of Vail and the Vail Recreation District’s Learn to Skate programs in Vail and Eagle.

Kids skated to classics like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Overturn” from “The Sound of Music” along with newer pieces like the “Avatar” medley or “Pink” from “Barbie.”

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The kids started rehearsing for the show in February, with some skaters on the ice 4 to 6 hours per day, 3 to 5 days per week, in an effort to get ready for their parts.

Staking Club of Vail cast members Scarlet Ackerman, Harlie Ross, Rafi Ross, Llana Ross, Teagan Deimund and Ingrid Gerdes were part of a group called the Choctaws, which trained in 4-hour blocks, four days per week. The Rockers, featuring Brooke Weaver, Resi Gaxiola, Frida Ascencio, Avery Deimund, Swazy Slott, Allison Joyce and Lea Jewgieniew, trained in 3-hour blocks, three days per week. And the Mazurkas, which featured Myra Street, Laura Recart, Leo Calioglu, Hadley Skinner, Olivia Winkleman, Adriana Koleva, Gabriella O’Gorman, Isabella Fundureanu and Ivanka Jewgieniew, trained in 2.5-hour blocks, three days per week.

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“They were doing this on top of their school work and everything else they have going on,” Lentz said.

During the April 14 show, Lentz made a special announcement to recognize Ingrid Gerdes, a junior at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, who also competed in the International Freeskiers & Snowboarders Association tour while preparing for the ice show.

“Not only did she make it to every single rehearsal, she competed in the IFSA junior free ride big mountain ski championship on Saturday before the ice show, placed sixth at the event and finished fourth overall for the season,” Lentz said.

New role

Lentz came on as show director during a time of flux for the club. The annual ice show goes back decades in Vail, but after historically taking place during the week between the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays, it was recently moved to a springtime slot, creating a new challenge when it came to selling tickets.

And the decision to hire a dedicated show director was another change for the club from last year, when the club used a group of directors to plan and organize the event.

But Lentz herself had participated in the ice show under a single-director format when she was coming up through the Skating Club of Vail program and knew she could take on the role. Most recently, she skated under Charli Kennedy, who was the show’s director from 2017 to 2021.

Lentz finished college in May and moved back to Eagle ¾Ã¾ÃÈȾ«Æ·ÊÓƵapp where she was offered the show director position in October. She said after studying marketing at the University of Northern Colorado, she was able to apply some of what she learned to making the show a success. In addition to show director, she also serves as the club’s marketing chairperson.

Lentz started the season by performing an analysis of the club’s marketing practices and seeing where they could improve.

“I knew we were missing a couple of our major ticket demographics by not having the show in December anymore, and we’d need to make that up,” she said. “So we really ramped up our marketing and did some fundraising efforts which coincided with the show.”

By the time the first of the April 13-14 shows had started, the club had sold about 200 more tickets than last year, making it the most successful show yet in terms of ticket sales.

“I wanted to kids to have fun, but I also wanted the club to succeed with it, because ice is expensive and we have to pay for that,” she said.

Life lessons

In addition to taking on the show director and marketing roles, Lentz herself skated in the show.

Lentz joined her friend Caroline Pellerito for a duet to the song “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” from the movie “The Great Gatsby.” Pellerito just returned to Eagle ¾Ã¾ÃÈȾ«Æ·ÊÓƵapp after spending a year touring with Disney on Ice. They also called in guest skater Lilah Gibson, a member of the U.S. Figure Skating National Development Team, who performed a solo to close out the show.

Lentz said that portion of the program helped showcase a higher level of skating and gave the students something to which they could aspire.

But Lentz said there’s another reason to bring in high-level skaters, as well, that may not be as obvious to those in the audience.

“They fall too,” she said. “And that’s important for our younger kids to see.”

With younger participants sometimes discouraged easily, Lentz said she likes to see the high-level performers make an occasional mistake, even if it creates an uncomfortable moment for the audience.

“The kids see that not everybody is perfect and you’re gonna fall and you’re gonna mess up,” Lentz said. “But that’s part of the beauty of figure skating — the life lessons — and the biggest lesson is that life is going to knock you down but no matter how many times it does, you just have to get back up and keep skating and keep performing.”