This year's Excellence on Ice at Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena will have it all, including a homecoming of sorts.
"I just got back on Monday," said Warren Area High School graduate and Jamestown Skating Academy alum Ryan Coombs. Her second eight-month tour with Disney On Ice is over in time for her to perform in this year's production, "The Pride of Jamestown," on Saturday, May 8.
Performers from Disney on Ice, including Coombs and Carl Linamen, also formerly of Jamestown Skating Academy, competitors from national championships and future stars will show off their talents in the Jamestown Skating Academy's 12 annual "Excellence on Ice."
Article Photos
Photo submitted to Times Observer
Excellence on Ice
Warren County skaters performing in Excellence on Ice, The Pride of Jamestown, on Saturday, May 8, include, from left, in back, Ellie Elchert, Kirsten DiPierro, Becca Hummel, Jaylyn Orwig and Bekah Casey, and Stephanie Hice in center. Missing from photo is Julia Bauer.
"The Pride of Jamestown" will feature 75 students of JSA co-directors Kirk Wyse and Lenel van den Berg. Performances are scheduled for 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, May 8, at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena.
"The skating will be awesome," said van den Berg, also the show's choreographer. "Our skaters have grown up performing in Excellence on Ice. They look forward to it and their love for performing is so evident."
Coombs has already grown up.
"It's good to be back home on the home ice," said Coombs, who will sign on for her third tour in Disney on Ice beginning later this year.
The Disney on Ice tours go eight months with eight performances a week in a different city every week, and Coombs, the daughter of Tim and Karen Coombs of Warren, has performed in Disney on Ice's Princess Classics as Arielle, Belle, Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella as close as Buffalo, N.Y., or as far as Brazil.
She said she was prepared for the tour because of van den Berg, Wyse and the Jamestown Skating Academy.
"I've been skating for 13 years now, so, basically, I had to take everything that Kirk and Lenel taught me from competitive to (entertainment)," said Coombs. "I'm living the dream."
Now she's back where she started - for one day.
Performing with Linamen, also a Disney on Ice skater with a different tour, "our first day back we already got our number together," said Coombs, and there's time to hook up with family and friends.
"It's great going from just phone conversations and skyping and e-mails," she said, "and sleeping in my own bed.
"And the show looks great," she said.
Production numbers include: Dance 2010; Join the Circus, featuring the JSA's junior members; This Is It; West Side Story, and; It's Too Darn Hot.
"Every year a new star is born in the junior production,'' Wyse said. "This year's 'Circus' production will provide a great opportunity for our young talents to shine."'
Talent will be on display throughout the show, which stars Wyse and Katie Walker as the "grand champions of ice dancing." Appearances will also be made by Disney On Ice performers Linamen and Coombs and national competitors Jordan Bauth, Ellie Elchert (of Eisenhower High School), and Deanna Baudo.
"The theatrical lighting for the show is amazing,'' Wyse said. "Designed by Casey Nellis of APG, Fredonia (N.Y.), it will equal or rival any skating show on the road or on television, and so enhances the overall production."
JSBIA general manager Mike Ferguson can't wait to take it all in.
"We look forward to this show each spring," he said. "Not only does it put big numbers of people in the seats, but it also always delivers on its slogan 'America's most spectacular community ice show.' You will not want to miss this show."
The Excellence on Ice box office is open at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena. Purchase tickets online at JamestownSkatingClub.com or reserve by phone at (716) 484-2624.
Sponsors include Lyons Den, Cummins Jamestown Engine Plant, SE93, The Post-Journal, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Jamestown Skating Club and the Warren Times Observer.