I awkwardly, slowly skated my way out toward center ice under the Amelie Arena roof. By my side, I’m sure Jackson Stevens chuckled to himself.
“So, first we’re just going to open up to the side and you’re going to look up majestically,” the life-long skater explained. “Then straight up with both hands, then off to the left.”
My choreography didn’t match his instructions. In short, it’s not easy to perform on skates. It’s something Stevens learned quickly after joining Disney On Ice six years ago.
“Since birth, maybe,” he joked when asked how long he’s been skating. “I grew up in Canada. Hockey is something so deeply engrained in our culture that I played at 3 and then grew up playing all the way to 18. Drastically difference. It’s elegance in figure skating and brutality in hockey. To kind of make that transition has honestly been the hardest part.”
Stevens will portray the role of Flynn Rider from "Tangled" during the "Frozen On Ice" stop in Tampa this weekend. The once-rough and tough hockey player made the switch to skating in shows after following his heart – and a girl – to the performance world.
“As any 20-something-year-old man will do, he’ll follow a girl to the end of the world and that’s basically what I did,” he said with a smile. “It’s worked out well for me. I’ve been doing his six years now and never been happier.”
The "Frozen On Ice" show plays seven performances from Friday to Sunday.
“Never in a million years, up until the moment that it happened, would I guess that this is where I’d be,” said Stevens.
The show is put on by FELD Entertainment.
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