Yes, she falls.
It goes with the territory of breakneck dancing on slick ice in spiky metal heels.
And it even happens to a beautiful, graceful princess.
No big deal.
“You get up and move on,” said Soniah Spence, who is Princess Tiana in Disney On Ice’s “Let’s Celebrate!”
“You do something amazing and the audience totally forgets about it.”
She and the cast of “Let’s Celebrate!” will perform this weekend at Xfinity Arena in Everett.
Spence, 26, pairs up with Prince Naveen from “The Princess and the Frog” in the multicultural show of global holidays. China for Chinese New Year. Brazil for Carnival. Japan’s Cherry Blossom festival.
A large video projection screen displays vivid images from fire-twirling Hawaiian luau dancers to the zombie-like movements of the ghoulish groupies to feathered frolickers and a 20-foot dragon puppet.
“It’s a big variety show,” Spence said. “There are 16 different stories.”
She can skate them all.
“We learn every single number on the show so we can jump into a spot,” she said.
She’s also a quick-change artist.
There are 155 costumes and each cast member changes about four times in the show.
It’s a sensory smorgasbord with more than 100 props, 550 feet of lighting truss, 120 movable lights, 38 speaker enclosures and 22,800 watts of power for the sound system.
“The show is not just for little girls,” Spence said. “Or for little boys. There is something for everybody.”
Spence, who is from Springfield, Tennessee, was encouraged by her parents to skate as a girl.
“I came from a family of gymnasts. I was a frail kid. My mom was afraid I’d break all my bones,” she said. “Just for fun I took a skating class.”
It became her passion. She was a competitive ice skater for eight years.
She was majoring in athletic training at Tennessee State University when she joined Disney on Ice for a one-year tour in Europe.
“This is a reason why, seven years later, I am still here,” she said. “It’s exciting. We do one city a week for 10 months. We’re always doing something new. I’m a busy-body. I’m not one to sit still.”
There are drawbacks. “I haven’t been home for the holidays in years.”
There are also perks. In real life, she has two princes. “My partner and my boyfriend,” she said.
Her boyfriend is a sound engineer.
“He’s not good on a pair of skates,” she said.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
If you go
Disney on Ice’s “Let’s Celebrate” is at Xfinity Arena, 2000 Hewitt Ave., Everett.
Shows are at 7 p.m. Nov. 20 and 21; 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 22; 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Nov. 23. Tickets are $12 to $72. For tickets, go to www.xfinityarenaeverett.com, charge by phone at 866-332-8499 or in person at Xfinity Arena. For show information, go to www.disneyonice.com.
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