Ex-ice performer seeks stability in Eugene
Photo by lames Marks
Liz Screechfield spent four years traveling through Europe and South America with the Holiday
On Ice International show.
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"Traveling with the show, I went away from everyday reality
and into the performance life,” says Liz Screechfield, former ice
skater in the Chorus Line of the Holiday On Ice International show.
"I lived, ate and worked with the same people. My outside
contact came from friends made outside the show and from the peo
ple I met in the cities we toured,” says Screechfield, who moved to
Eugene this year.
Screechfield skated for Holiday On Ice International from 1979
through 1983. She joined the show at age 20. two years after Tom
Robertson, an ex-barrel jumper from the Ice Follies show,
discovered Screechfield at an ice arena in her hometown, Santa
Rosa, Calif.
Screechfield says that Robertson helped her improve her
techniques and. introduced her to people that opened the gates to
the international show.
Holiday On Ice International toured in South American and
European countries.
"The first year of show, life was the most difficult: You had to
stick up for yourself when you’re in the show. You have to be for
ward and aggressive and say what you think," Screechfield says.
The troupe traveled in four groups. Each group was made up of
75 to 80 individuals, including 50 Chorus Line skaters, 10 soloists,
five skaters in animal and comedy acts, and five managers. The rest
of the people in the division were crew members.
Professional skating is an exciting education, but it's also a
tough life filled with demands and pressures, Screechfield says.
Directors strictly enforced thinness. Girls who exceeded their
required weights were fined between $2 and $20. They were
weighed every two weeks, but those on the "black list" were
weighed every week.
The competitive atmosphere often created tension among
"backbiters and rising newcomers.”
But working in the show offered more reward than the approx
imately $200 a week in earnings, Screechfield says. The experience
widened her outlook on life and was a lesson in getting along with
others. Although many of the skaters were catty, others were
friendly and helpful, Screechfield says.
Screechfield adds that performing and making people happy
was rewarding work. "It feels great to have the audience appreciate
your energy on the ice. I loved going out into the audience during
the animal numbers. It was a time where the skaters in the number,
dressed in their costumes, went out into the audience to shake their
(the spectators) hands.”
Screechfield says the highlight of her international career was
meeting friends and families from different cultures.
“In Germany I went to a family get-together in the countryside.
It was great,” Screechfield says.
The ice show toured from September through June. Tour
breaks varied between one and three months, and during the breaks
Screechfield always returned to Santa Rosa to visit her family.
In 1983, at the end of the production, Screechfield decided to
leave the show. “If you stay in the show for long, you become ad
dicted to it,” she says.
Screechfield says she was ready to return to a more stable life.
She remained in Genoa, Italy for a year and a half and taught
aerobic dance classes before returning to the United States.
Screechfield says she wanted to see her family and was in
terested in studying languages, an interest developed while travel
ing with the ice show.
Currently, she is sitting in on a few University classes and is
interested in instructing aerobic classes. She says she would like to
eventually start an ice arena in Eugene.
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