Above: Juneau, the state capital of Alaska, is one known for its beauty year-round. (Photo by club member Kim Hort)
Sarah S. Brannen
The spring skating show season has been greatly affected by the COVID pandemic, like entertainment events everywhere. In April, the Juneau Skating Club put together a virtual show titled “Seasons of Change,” and organized a special showing of it at a drive-in movie theater for skaters and their friends and families.
Coach Alex Sargent directed the show and coach Ryan Kauzlarich filmed it on the ice as he skated himself, using a phone he bought for the event and a special gimbal device.
“I didn’t think of doing it any other way,” Kauzlarich said. “When we have our shows, typically the audience is so far away from the skater, they just see this little person doing things, and you don’t get a sense of the speed they have and how much ice they’re traversing. Being a skater, I just wanted to be on the ice with them.”
To learn the ropes of filming while skating, Kauzlarich headed outdoors.
“Alex and I practiced out on a lake,” Kauzlarich said. “There’s a glacier over by where I live, and it feeds into a lake which freezes over the winter.”
Kauzlarich also had the idea of renting a drive-in movie theater so everyone could share the show experience, albeit in their cars. The Gold Town Nickelodeon theater had set up a drive-in venue when the pandemic started.
“One of my students knew the people who own the theater quite well and I met the owner while skiing,” Sargent said. “We invited everyone, and pretty much all the skaters came and watched. It was like a final tailgate party — a couple of people backed in with their trucks and set up some lawn chairs. In Alaska the sun doesn’t go down until 9 right now, so we all gathered around and said our hellos and had our snacks while we waited for it to get dark enough.”
In lieu of applause, people honked their horns as each skater finished their program.
“I was a little worried because there’s a hotel across the street,” Sargent said.
“Usually with shows you have some little complaint after, but so far we have no complaints at all,” club figure skating director Pam Leary said. “Parents came up to me afterward in tears, saying how happy they were.”
The Juneau Skating Club was formed in 2004. Their home is the Treadwell Arena, which opened in 2003 after years of effort to bring a skating rink to the city of Juneau, a population of about 30,000.
“Because it’s such a small town, it takes a lot of people to make something happen,” Leary said. “I believe there were a lot of people here who grew up skating on lakes, which would freeze every winter. The motivation was probably for hockey. I mean, Juneau is in Alaska, why would they not have a rink?”
A private organization raised money and obtained grants, and the rink has been a great success.
“The town went crazy! The minute the rink opened it was crazy busy,” Leary said. “Generations had missed being able to skate. People who could barely stand up on skates signed up for hockey.”
Leary noted that because Juneau is so small, despite being the state capital, people tend to have more than one job. She herself is the Alaska state treasurer when she’s not coaching and running the figure skating program.
Leary said the club started with learn to skate in 2004 and developed a Basic Skills program in 2006 with the help of Susi Wehrli McLaughlin, senior director of membership at U.S. Figure Skating.
“In 2009 we started getting skirts and dresses and started private lessons, and 2010 was when we first went to regionals,” Leary said. “We’ve had one skater who passed her senior moves and freestyle, and she made it to sectionals, which is awesome. We have synchro now because one of our coaches was from Ohio. Alex Sargent teaches dance. We kind of do it all in our tiny little club.”
The JSC has had annual shows almost from the beginning, and they often include guest star Keegan Messing, an Olympian and three-time Canadian championships medalist who was born and grew up in Anchorage (Messing is not in the “Seasons of Change” video).
“Keegan has been part of our shows for nine of the last 13 years,” Leary said. “We consider him an honorary member of the club. He teaches our kids; most of our kids have his signature on their skates.”
The best-known skater ever to come from Juneau is probably coach and 2006 World Junior pairs champion Drew Meekins, but his family moved to the “Lower 48” before Meekins started skating.
“It’s so wonderful to know that figure skating has a home in Juneau, with a rink and a club that is offering a chance for young skaters to learn and progress in the sport,” Meekins said. “As someone born in Juneau, I am so happy that young people just like me will have the opportunity in figure skating.”
The entire “Seasons of Change” show, composed of 42 Juneau skaters, is available for viewing on the club’s YouTube channel.
