CALGARY – Canmore’s Kirstie Nelson has been doing her dream job for nearly a decade: travelling the world, performing in front of sold-out crowds, and watching tons of Disney movies.
As one of the main characters in Disney On Ice, a popular show-skating musical, Nelson’s portrayal of the much-loved characters from the big screen has recently lit up the eyes of skaters from Nelson’s childhood team, the Canmore Skating Club.
The travelling spectacle visited Calgary in November and Bow Valley skaters had a chance to attend and meet the star of the show afterward.
“It’s so cool to talk to young kids like that and I was once in their shoes,” said Nelson. “They have these goals and dreams and it’s really cool to encourage them to keep working hard for what they want.
“Especially coming from a small town, knowing something like this is attainable and it’s definitely a realistic goal to have.”
Nelson has been portraying Disney characters for nearly a decade. Starting out as part of the ensemble or a background skater, Nelson learned the magic behind show-skating and how the importance of every role is to the audience’s experience.
When she became a main role, or principal skater, Nelson played many of Disney’s most iconic characters such as Snow White. However, so far, her favourite to portray has been Anna from the mega hit Frozen franchise.
“I feel like my personality relates more to her,” said Nelson. “She’s just fun and quirky and I find portraying that character comes really easy to me. I just have a lot of fun doing it.”
Without much acting experience, Nelson said in show-skating actors embody their characters and develop their Thespian craft over the years. For Nelson, that meant watching Disney movies countless times to understand the small details in characters she played to better connect with the legions of fans.
“Once you’re on the stage and have some music going you just have to immerse yourself into it,” she said.
Now performing on her 10th tour with Disney On Ice, Nelson said this was once all a far-fetched dream for the little girl from a small town.
She started at the Canmore Skating Club when she was five years old and was there until she graduated high school.
Growing up, Nelson was a super fan of the Stars On Ice tour, so it was not a surprise that her favourite time of the year was during the annual local showcase, when she got to perform in front of friends and family.
“I specifically remember one year, being behind the curtains and ready to go out, and I was like ‘I would love to be able to do this as a job, but how do I do this as a job?’” she said.
After graduating university, she decided to pursue show-skating. That meant putting together an audition video, and tirelessly emailing Disney On Ice’s casting director.
“Every few weeks, I sent an email and said I’m still interested if anything becomes available,” Nelson said. “When a spot opened up I jumped on it and have been enjoying it ever since.”
Getting to see Nelson perform live, the Canmore Skating Club hightailed it to the Saddledome after a competition in Calgary to the show.
“You could see their faces light up, you could see the inspiration, you could see them feeling like this is something they do that made them feel special,” said Robin Forsyth, coach at the local club.
As a former Disney On Ice performer, Forsyth said skating is a unique sport whereas when a competitive career ends, new options such as show-skating open up.
“I think it was really neat for them to be able to almost see themselves doing it one day as an option,” said Forsyth. “It’s not all just about what medal did you get in the last competition you did.”
