This year’s show theme was “The Little Mermaid,” featuring a full cast of performers skating to the music from the classic musical, as well as a few other nautical and sea-based songs.

The show features the of over 75 NUFSC skaters from Comfrey, Courtland, Fairfax, Gibbon, Hanska, Lafayette, Madelia, Mankato, New Ulm, Searles, Sleepy Eye, St. Peter and Winthrop.

Director Katrina Berbrich said the skater range in age from 4-80. Many of the skaters were school aged, but for a few of the skates they were joined by parents and grandparents.

In this production, Allee Johnson, played the title mermaid Ariel. Johnson has skated with NUFSC for 14 years and was excited to play Ariel. Before the show, Johnson said one of the best part of playing Little Mermaid is she gets to interact with the entire cast of characters.

Mollie Berdan as Flounder skates during an early scenes of New Ulm Figure Skating Club’s “Little Mermaid on Ice.”

“It is fun to seeing all the characters together,” Johnson said. “I also get to skate with the younger club members.”

High School senior Zoe Evers plays an eel minion of Ursula’s in the show. She has been skating with the club since age four. She said the performance offered many challenges. For her she needed to land multiple double jumps, but said overall it was great to skate with all the performers.

“I get to do this with people I’ve been skating with since I was 4” Evers said.

Mollie Berdan, who played Flounder, said she enjoyed skating in all the different musical numbers. She said the greatest challenge with this show were the number of quick costume changes needed for different scenes.

Emma Hoffman, who played Prince Eric, said the performance came naturally for her. She had previously played the lead in last year’s “Toy Story on Ice.” She said one of the unique challenges of “Little Mermaid on Ice” was the number of group skates. Several scenes called for multiple skaters on the ice at once. This was a lot to choreograph, but a colorful experience for the audience.

New Ulm Figure Skating Club’s 2025 Ice Show feature an under the sea theme. In addition to skate performances based on “The Little Mermaid,” the show featured interludes with other aquatic songs. In the above photo, club members skate to Heart’s “Barracuda.”

Berbrich said the production of “Little Mermaid on Ice” took nearly a year of work for the skating club. All NUFSC ice shows take roughly a year of planning to put together. Earlier planning on next year’s show is expected to start later this month.

New Ulm Cable Access Television (NUCAT) filmed Saturday’s performance of the ice show and will be broadcasting the performance later this month.

Emma Hoffman, as Prince Eric, performs a solo skate during “Little Mermaid on Ice.”

Ariel (Allee Johnson) and Prince Eric (Emma Hoffmann) share a dance shortly after Ariel arrives on land.