Above: Photo Courtesy of Melanie Heaney Photography
By Paige Feigenbaum
Since its founding 13 years ago, Harmony Theatre Company of Michigan’s senior team has won six National Theatre on Ice titles, making them the winningest team in the nation. At this year’s competition, which took place at Big Boy Arena in Fraser, Michigan in June, Harmony reclaimed gold after placing second in 2022.
“It was sort of like an uprising of an apocalyptic world that is rebuilt into something that we’re proud of, which sort of felt like our season,” said senior team member and choreographer Piercyn Hunt. “We really wanted to regain that title back and it felt like we were going to war. Nationals is probably the best that we skated that program all season.”
The routine’s choreography evolved as the season progressed, making tweaks along the way to see what clicked. They choreographed chunks of the routine out of order and eventually pieced the sections together.
“We draw inspiration from everywhere from dancing to TV shows to movies to things that we’ve done in the past,” said Hunt, adding that a teammate recently saw a cool formation in the Barbie movie.
Harmony’s novice and adult teams also stood atop the podium and their intermediate squad took silver.
Harmonizing Off the Ice
Every team member also has a special role off the ice. Behind the scenes, senior team member Ashlee Pantano, 34, of Linden, Michigan is the mastermind of their costuming, even making a hat out of a cereal box and turning a winter hat into a shirt. She works closely with Piercyn, her cousin, and coach Michelle Hunt, her aunt (Piercyn’s mom), to conceptualize the costumes and create a color palette that suits their storyline. To go along with their apocalyptic theme, they selected sage and olive green, burnt orange, and brown and gravitated towards tattered clothing and textiles such as sweaters and waffle weave wool. It was very much a DIY craft project.
“We cut a lot of things up. Piercyn and I cut four sweaters and made 17 outfits out of them,” said Pantano, who referenced the internet and Pinterest for ideas. “We wanted it to feel like this was your last day and this is what your outfit looks like. Our costume closet is very helpful because we keep all of our costumes and store them all in this big room, so we can pull from the stash to create new costumes constantly.”
As a former Sephora employee, Pantano also knows a thing or two about hair and makeup, and she recruited her mom, a cosmetology school graduate, to do Harmony’s theatrical face painting at competitions. Different team members have their own niche talent. One specializes in applying fake eyelashes and senior team member Paige Bartholomew is a whiz at winged eyeliner.
“We have figured out some pretty impressive things with our limited knowledge,” Pantano said. “We’ve done those crazy Pippi Longstocking braids. We do bun mohawks. We use hair glitter.”
Longevity in the Sport
Theatre on ice has no age limit and many skaters use it as an outlet to skate well into their golden years. Each Harmony team only skates for two hours one day per week, so it doesn’t require athletes to dedicate as much time as other disciplines. Skaters can pursue an education and career and raise a family.
Pantano has two daughters, one who is on Harmony’s novice team and another who is enrolled in Learn to Skate USA classes. The program is truly multi-generational with several mother-daughter combos. Harmony’s introductory level team has skaters as young as seven and their adult team had a 59-year-old this year, but had a skater retire at the age of 80 during a previous season.
“If this didn’t happen at our rink, I don’t think I’d still be skating. I think a lot of people would have moved on with life,” said Hunt. “[Our coaches] decided our program needed a way for kids to succeed outside of triple jumps and going to the Olympics. That’s not in everybody’s plans.”
Planning For Next Season
Harmony’s production team, which is an ensemble of skaters of all ages and levels, competed at the 2023 National Showcase this month in Norwood, Massachusetts. Once they wind down from that competition, they’ll focus on selecting themes and music for the next theatre season, which will kick off when they host Michigan Showcase from March 15-17 at their home rink, Ice House Skating Academy in Hartland, Michigan. They expect more than 20 teams to register.
“We have reached out to some of the French judges to see if they’ll come and judge the theater portion, which would give teams that are going to Nations' Cup an opportunity to have a critique,” said general manager Heather Olson.
U.S. Figure Skating has selected Harmony’s novice, senior, and adult teams to represent Team USA at Nations' Cup, an international competition, next April in Bordeaux, France.
Harmony Theatre Company of Michigan is not resting on their laurels. Hunt said the team will focus on “continuing to grow to set the bar a little higher on ourselves every year and to not get comfortable with where we’re at right now and to just stay hungry and stay competitive and keep our title.”
