'Disney On Ice' performer looks forward to visiting Buffalo

By Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Visiting Buffalo for the first time is something “Disney On Ice” performer Sabrina Marshall has been eagerly anticipating.

“My nephews play hockey, and my sister actually lives in Buffalo, so I’m excited for them to come to the show,” Marshall said.

The production, titled “Disney On Ice presents ‘Frozen’ and ‘Encanto’ ” offers audiences a combination of two very different Disney stories.

“ ‘Disney On Ice; invites families to step inside the magical adventures of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ ‘Frozen,’ the No. 1 animated feature of all time, and Disney Animation’s ‘Encanto,’ the 2022 Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winner for Best Animated Feature, as they come to life like never before,” said Lindsey Hoverter, Feld Entertainment senior public relations account manager. Feld Entertainment is producing and managing the “Disney On Ice” production.

“This adventure on ice transports fans into two of the most popular Disney films as audiences can sing along to their favorite songs while embracing world-class ice skating, aerial acrobatics and more when ‘Disney On Ice presents Frozen and Encanto’ skates into Buffalo playing from Oct. 17-19 at KeyBank Center,” Hoverter said.

“We are so excited to be in Buffalo,” Marshall said. “Buffalo is a city not a lot of us have been to yet with the shows. One of our favorite things to do as a cast is to go out and explore the city: eat at the restaurants, go to all the local favorite places. We’re very excited to experience Buffalo. We do have a lot of international skaters in our cast, as well, so this is a brand-new experience for them. We have a couple of girls from Japan. We have a couple of people from Thailand, a couple of people from England, all over the place.”

Seeing the audiences is also something Marshall looks forward to: “We’re excited to have all the families come in. We’re really excited to share our talents and our love for the company, Disney and ice skating, as well.”

Marshall, 28, has been skating with “Disney On Ice” “for about six years now,” she said.

“I actually grew up in Las Vegas,” she said. “It was a family tradition every year. We would go see ‘Disney On Ice.’ One year, my parents put me on the ice, and I never left.”

Marshall said she loves this production: “Currently, I am on my favorite show. ‘Frozen’ and ‘Encanto’ is fairly new. It will be new to Buffalo. Nobody in Buffalo has seen it yet. It’s very contrasting between our first act and our second act. In the first act, we have ‘Frozen,’ which is a classic story that most people still know to this day. With ‘Encanto,’ the emphasis is on something completely different. Bright colors, bright lights, and a different story. I am one of the ensemble characters, so I get to support our main characters, such as Anna, Elsa and Olaf, as well as Mirabel and her sisters.”

“Disney On Ice presents Frozen and Encanto” (Image courtesy of Feld Entertainment and PinckneyHugoGroup)

“Frozen” is a loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s story, “The Snow Queen,” about a faithful girl named Gerda, who was willing to follow her friend, Kai, to the frozen north so she could sing hymns to warm his heart, which was frozen by a fragment of an icy mirror. In the adaptation, the two main characters are sisters Elsa and Anna.

“We have two stories that we touch on during the show,” Marshall explained. “The first act follows the story of ‘Frozen.’ We can follow Elsa and her journey, and we also get to see Anna a lot and Kristoff. We might also get to see Sven. We get to explore sisterly love together and the journeys they take, as well.

“In our second act, we have totally different vibes. We have bright colors, bright lights. We have aerial acts. People flying in the air, and it’s very different.”

Isabella, one of Mirabel’s sisters, will be seen flying through the air and landing on skates, Marshall said. “It is spectacular. It is a little frightening, but it’s very cool to see.”

“Disney On Ice presents Frozen and Encanto” (Image courtesy of Feld Entertainment and PinckneyHugoGroup)

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“After a very ‘Frozen’ adventure, audiences will journey to a vibrant town in the mountains of Colombia where they will meet the Madrigals, an extraordinary family who live in a magical casita in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto,” Hoverter said. “Mirabel tells the tale of her amazing family and her journey to save the casita, her enchanted family home, alongside her sisters: Isabela, whose perfection radiates with her ability to make plants grow and flowers bloom with every step; and Luisa, with the gift of super strength that she uses to help her village move buildings and reroute rivers. For the first time live, fans can witness Tia Pepa, who can control the weather with her emotions; her husband, Felix; their daughter, Dolores, with her gift to hear; and Bruno, the mysterious and misunderstood Madrigal family member whose visions foretold the future.”

“This show focuses on the magic that we hold for ourselves,” Marshall said. “Just like Anna does not have the powers that her sister does, and Mirabel does not have the powers that her sisters do. It’s about finding the magic in ourselves and being proud of what we have and being proud of ourselves as we are. It’s very empowering, especially to younger people who come and watch the show.

“That is definitely a big thing about this show: believing in yourself and learning to love yourself as you are. Finding your own talents is also very important. Distinguishing yourself from the crowd to provide something different for your community.”

The show is “honestly, very lovely,” Marshall said.

Marshall said the thing she likes best about being part of the ensemble is developing a relationship with the crowds who come to the shows: “We get a lot of time to interact with the kids and the families who are coming to watch us. It’s a lot of fun to play around to them and to have those interactions with them.”

As a member of “Disney On Ice,” Marshall said she enjoys traveling with the show: “The travel is incredible. We’ve been to a lot of places in the country and outside the country that we normally don’t get to see on our own. It’s really nice to spend time in different communities and different cities. I would say, in Europe, my favorite place is Prague. We were there in the wintertime. It’s gorgeous. And, currently, in the U.S., I think my favorite is Savannah, Georgia.”

Marshall said skating has been a part of her life since she was very young: “I grew up figure skating. It was always my goal to be a figure skater to some extent. I love to skate, and I decided this was the path I wanted to take. It was a lot of work. You do grow up doing a lot of training, on and off the ice. You come into your show experience to be prepared. But I did also go to school. I went to school for history. It was a nice balance between my education and my sport.”

Marshall said she loves skating and that she plans to continue skating for a long time: “I think I will stay until my body says I can’t anymore. Even if I’m not on the ice for the rest of my life, which I’m planning on doing, I will always be going to school and learning something new.”

She encourages young people to try skating and recommended a program called “Learn to Skate.”

“It’s all across the nation,” Marshall said. “You can go to any local rinks that you can find. You can find “Learn to Skate” classes. They start you from the bottom, and they take you to the top. It is fabulous.”

Acting, however, was something she had to learn in the process of performing in shows.

“That was something that we had to learn on the go because we are all very much trained in figure skating,” Marshall said. “There is a big acting aspect of this job, as well. We had to grow and learn as we went.

“As a competitive skater, it’s not something you have to experience as much because you are focused on the skating elements. But, when you have a crowd, like the crowds that come to our shows, it’s very important that they are immersed in the story. It’s so much fun.”

Upcoming “Disney On Ice presents Frozen and Encanto” performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 18, and 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Oct. 19 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

“Family-friendly ticket pricing is available,” Hoverter said. “Tickets can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com and in-person at the venue box office. Ticket pricing is subject to change based on market demand.”