Submitted Photos Taylor Garaas, like many members of the Magic City Figure Skating Club, has been skating since she was a young child.

Taylor Garaas, a high school senior, has been skating with the Magic City Figure Skating Club since she was 5-years-old. Now her life has come full circle and she is also coaching young skaters and also giving private lessons.

“I love everything about it,” said Garaas. “The club is such a great atmosphere. It’s like a big, happy family.”

Garaas spends about three hours a week at the Maysa Arena, but said she used to spend even more time practicing on the ice. These days cheerleading practice and school also takes up a lot of her time.

But Garaas also enjoys seeing the kids she’s taught display their skills on the ice. The “Learn to Skate” students might be learning how to glide on one skate.

“Two of my skaters are just learning how to jump,” she said.

Two of her skaters are entering skating competitions and one of them is starting to think about it, she said.

Skaters from beginners to the most skilled will be putting on a show later this month during the Magic City Figure Skating Club’s 42nd annual Ice Show.

The show will be held at the Maysa at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, and at 2 p.m. on March 27. Tickets are $8 in advance from a participating skater or $10 at the door.

The theme of the ice show will be “Wickedly Oz” and will feature guest skaters Artem Markleov and Leah Neset, the 2021 National Ice Dance Champions.

Skaters will do routines to songs with a “Wicked” or “Oz” theme and older skaters will show off their free skating routines.

“It’s going to be really fun,” said Garaas.

Ashley Christ, the Learn to Skate director, said the only year the skate club did not have an ice show was 2020, when it had to be called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year’s show featured some of the routines from the previous year’s ice show.

Christ said the skating club has about 73 kids in its Learn to Skate program and about 20 more advanced skaters. Most of the skaters are girls, but there are also quite a few boys in the club. Skaters range in age from 4 up to adults.

Some skaters compete individually, like Garaas’s students, and others are members of the junior or advanced synchronized skating teams.

Gracie Orth, 13, who has been skating since she was about 6 years old, said her favorite part of the ice skating club is getting to travel for competitions. She also enjoys getting to pick new songs every year.

“Some of the costumes are pretty fun,” she said.

Her mom, Amy Orth, is in charge of organizing some of the costumes for the ice show. Christ said the skating club has a large costume closet and they also try reuse costumes from year to year.

Christ said the skaters will begin rehearsing for the ice show this week. Some parents enjoy watching the practices and others prefer to wait to see the final product and be awed along with the rest of the audience.

The skaters, especially the younger children, are excited about the big show they get to put on and about getting to show the whole Minot community all the things they can do.