Chatham Siblings Win at Michigan Skating Competition
Madelyn and Ben Alexander - Submitted Photo
Madelyn and Benjamin Alexander of the Chatham Skating Club competed this past weekend at the Michigan State Showcase Championship in Brighton, Michigan.
Showcase is a competition of theatrical skating. It fuses creativity and artistry with figure skating. The skaters compete under spotlights in three different genres. Dramatic (a serious emotional artistic interpretation), Light (a cheerful or humorous performance that emphasizes light entertainment), and Improvisational (a performance choreographed by the competitor, unaccompanied and unassisted, to music supplied by the organizers).
Madelyn Alexander, 12, won the gold medal for her Light entertainment piece skating to Popular from the musical Wicked. She then went on to win Gold in Juvenile Ladies for her Dramatic piece, “This Woman’s Work.” This dramatic piece about cancer had the judging panel and members of the audience in tears. Members of the judging panel were amazed at the level of complex emotions that Madelyn Alexander portrayed at such a young age. Since she won both of her events, Madelyn qualified for the Parade of Champions event for both programs. There were 22 different programs from all levels in the Parade of Champions and Madelyn’s dramatic piece overwhelmingly won the Gold Medal and she was proclaimed the overall Champion for the event.
Benjamin Alexander, 8, won the Pre-Juvenile Improvisational event. This was Ben’s first time competing in Improv and he competed at a level higher than his actual group. In this event he was given a piece of music, and after listening to it 4 times, he was required to perform a program to it for a panel of judges. Ben wowed the judges and the audience with his program to the music, “Teach me how to Shimmy.” Ben had the audience roaring with his attempts to “shimmy.” He won the gold medal and qualified for the Parade of Championships for Improv. In the parade of champions, he was given a piece of music called “Captain Hook,” and as the youngest competitor by far, he won the silver medal against the champions from all the other levels in Improvisation.
Madelyn also competed in the Juvenile Improvisational event. The music she was given was “The Hand Jive.” She placed a close 2nd in a split panel decision ( she has 2 first place votes and 3 seconds from the panel of judges) and won the silver medal.
Ben also won silver Medals in both the Preliminary Light entertainment and Dramatic programs. His light entertainment was a piece called “I eat more” from the musical Willy Wonka. His dramatic number was The Nutcracker Prince. These two pieces showed Benjamin’s ability to perform a huge range of expression.
Both these skaters are members of the Chatham Skating Club, coached by Joelle Batten-Daigneau and are also members of Pure Academy’s Triple Threat program. They found the American Showcase events to be very similar to the Musical Theatre training they get at Pure Academy. These events also differ from regular skating events as they are performed in Spotlight. The two Chatham skaters do not have a lot of experience skating in spotlights and while it can be quite confusing as the skater can not see his/her surrounding, Madelyn Alexander explained,
“I like skating in spotlights as I don’t notice anyone watching me. It seems like it is just me and the ice. It reminds me of performing on stage. In fact, for my last performance of Popular, I sang as loud as I could while I was skating.”
This competition was a qualifier for the US National Showcase Championships and both skaters qualified; however, due to a scheduling conflict in August, they will not be able to attend.