Showcase
It's late and I'm physically pooped but my brain is racing away. Got home about an hour ago from Showcase for Skaters, the skating event I mentioned a few days ago. It was held, as it always is, at Pickwick Ice Center in Burbank.
Dumped my stuff to be dealt with in the morning (thank god I don't have to be up early) and then chatted with the boys about their day before they went off to bed. Apparently they had a little excitement when Betty, Andrew's cat, brought a baby bunny in the house. It took a while for them to lure it out from under the furniture and out the door. I'm kind of glad I wasn't here truth be told.
Stephanie and I were there both yesterday and today from early morning. Yesterday we finished up about 7pm but tonight was the finals so by the time the last event concluded, the final awards given and everything was packed up we didn't get out until about 8:30pm which actually isn't bad, I'd expected to be later.
It was extremely gratifying to have so many people tell me how well run this years event was but I can't take all that much credit for that because it's all due to the fantastic people who donate their time year in and year out to make it happen. I'm extremely proud to be a part of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club, they are a great bunch of dedicated families who work really hard to make Showcase the premiere skating event in Southern California.
The LAFSC pioneered Showcase skating competitions 30 years ago. It was a revoluntionary idea at that time to stage a theatrical skating event. It took several years before USFS sanctioned Showcase but it became a model that other regions in the country followed and last year the first National Showcase event was held here in LA.
Showcase is the equivlant of staging a full theatrical production for 12 straight hours, two days in a row. It takes a small army to pull off but it is SO worth the trouble and effort when you get to see how these young athletes respond to the experience.
We had some wonderful guest judges this year. We had three instructors from the theatrical department of Cal State LA, Shiz Herrar, Bruce Zwinge, and Jose Gonzales. From our local high school I invited the dance instructor, Sharon Kipnas. (Sharon's son Greg is one of Steph's good friends) We also had Colleen Williams who anchors the local NBC news, Mark Lund the former editor of International Figure Skating who judged "Skating with Celebrities" which I have to admit I didn't watch. (Thankfully he didn't ask and I didn't volunteer that information.)
Last but not least I invited David George. David is the author of several wonderful Star Trek novels and a really nice guy. David's lovely wife Karen came with him and it was really nice to see them again. I'd meet David briefly and casually a couple of times but first got to know he and Karen at the Jimmy Doohan tribute convention where he was a guest and I moderated the author panel of which he was a member.
All the guest judges really seemed to enjoy the experience and the skating and indicated they'd be happy to be invited back again.
Now I'm ready to go put my aching feet up and read for a little bit to finish unwinding and then I'll probably pass out--but it's a good kind of tired.
Dumped my stuff to be dealt with in the morning (thank god I don't have to be up early) and then chatted with the boys about their day before they went off to bed. Apparently they had a little excitement when Betty, Andrew's cat, brought a baby bunny in the house. It took a while for them to lure it out from under the furniture and out the door. I'm kind of glad I wasn't here truth be told.
Stephanie and I were there both yesterday and today from early morning. Yesterday we finished up about 7pm but tonight was the finals so by the time the last event concluded, the final awards given and everything was packed up we didn't get out until about 8:30pm which actually isn't bad, I'd expected to be later.
It was extremely gratifying to have so many people tell me how well run this years event was but I can't take all that much credit for that because it's all due to the fantastic people who donate their time year in and year out to make it happen. I'm extremely proud to be a part of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club, they are a great bunch of dedicated families who work really hard to make Showcase the premiere skating event in Southern California.
The LAFSC pioneered Showcase skating competitions 30 years ago. It was a revoluntionary idea at that time to stage a theatrical skating event. It took several years before USFS sanctioned Showcase but it became a model that other regions in the country followed and last year the first National Showcase event was held here in LA.
Showcase is the equivlant of staging a full theatrical production for 12 straight hours, two days in a row. It takes a small army to pull off but it is SO worth the trouble and effort when you get to see how these young athletes respond to the experience.
We had some wonderful guest judges this year. We had three instructors from the theatrical department of Cal State LA, Shiz Herrar, Bruce Zwinge, and Jose Gonzales. From our local high school I invited the dance instructor, Sharon Kipnas. (Sharon's son Greg is one of Steph's good friends) We also had Colleen Williams who anchors the local NBC news, Mark Lund the former editor of International Figure Skating who judged "Skating with Celebrities" which I have to admit I didn't watch. (Thankfully he didn't ask and I didn't volunteer that information.)
Last but not least I invited David George. David is the author of several wonderful Star Trek novels and a really nice guy. David's lovely wife Karen came with him and it was really nice to see them again. I'd meet David briefly and casually a couple of times but first got to know he and Karen at the Jimmy Doohan tribute convention where he was a guest and I moderated the author panel of which he was a member.
All the guest judges really seemed to enjoy the experience and the skating and indicated they'd be happy to be invited back again.
Now I'm ready to go put my aching feet up and read for a little bit to finish unwinding and then I'll probably pass out--but it's a good kind of tired.
posted by Booklover at
10:00 PM
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