The Albert Lea Figure Skating Club will present its 49th annual show, “Blades on Broadway” at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 13, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 14, at the Albert Lea City Arena.

The skaters chose the theme for the show themselves at their annual banquet last spring. According to Anne Jerdee, Albert Lea Figure Skating Club board president, members are urged to submit an idea. The board then goes through the submissions and narrows them down to those that could work with the number of skaters the club has.

“The skaters vote on the theme at the banquet. Then we have to come up with a name for the show. This one was mentioned at a board meeting and the rest was history,” Jerdee said.

Club members will be skating to music from Broadway shows. Some of the songs people will hear are: “One,” “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “It’s a Hard-Knock Life,” “I’ve Had the Time of My Life,” “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” “Supercalifragilisticexpilaidocious,” “All That Jazz,” “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” “Dancing Queen,” “Mama Mia,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” “Louder Than Words,” “Popular,” “Here I Go Again,” “On Broadway,” “Without You,” “Legally Blonde,” “What You Want,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Fame,” “Good Riddance,” “Summer Nights,” “Roxie,” “Putting on the Ritz” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.”

There will be all kinds of acts, including solos, features, duets, quartets and groups. The club has 50 skaters this year, coming not only from Albert Lea, but also Alden, Clarks Grove, Emmons, Glenville, Hayward, Hartland, Hollandale, New Richland, Fairmont, Lake Mills, Iowa, Scarville, Iowa, and Garner, Iowa.

This year, the club has two high school seniors, Katie Cope and Samantha Jerdee. Each will perform a solo as well as a senior showcase number, “Seasons of Love,” from “Rent.”

New this year is a number featuring the “Tiny Tots,” who are preschoolers, as well as an alumni group of skaters to kick off the club’s 50th year.

Also back this year after a few years’ absence is the boy-girl number. “We have had a group of hockey boys step up and help out,” Jerdee said.

Skaters actually began practicing show routines in early January. The skaters are entering an intensive week of rehearsals and learning the finale, which brings them all out onto the ice. Each coach — Carol Colstrup, Suzanne Olson and Alesia Riker — choreographed numbers for both groups and solo performers in the show.

“The coaches cut music, choreograph numbers, teach routines and basically hold everything together,” Jerdee said.

Planning for the show begins in May with setting the date at City Arena and coordinating with the sound, light and video technicians.

The show could not happen without dedicated volunteers, all of whom are skaters’ parents. Current ALFSC board members are: President Anne Jerdee, Vice President Tanya Hemmingsen, Secretary Mary Beth Heimendinger, Treasurer Michelle Thompson, Past President Becki Nielsen and directors Bart Berven, Nancy Cope, Linda Crom and Kari Wulff.

Board members and other parents do everything from designing the program, backdrop and props to setting up the show, picking out music, lighting, writing the script, helping in the locker rooms, doing publicity, selling programs and flowers and taking down the show when it’s all done.

“The props are always a highlight and should be again this year,” Jerdee said. “Holly Mortenson has been working with a group of parents to pull all the props together.  It is going to be a New York skyline at night. We are working on a Statue of Liberty and an entrance into Central Park as well.  The boards around the rink will highlight the logos from the Broadway musicals our skaters will be skating to.”

The show will again feature a guest skater. Tess Trejo is an 11th-grader at Century High School and is a junior freestyle skater with the Rochester Figure Skating Club.  Trejo started skating when she was 7, and skated with the Rhythm and Blades Synchronized team starting when she was 9 for two years. She was the Open Juvenile Minnesota State Champion in 2007, and has also competed at regionals several years.

Trejo also volunteers her time coaching the Junior Club skaters every Saturday. She is involved in the Key Club and Save Club at school. She also plays the piano.

She hopes to join the Disney On Ice company after she graduates from high school before going to college for a physical therapy master program.

“If you have never been to a skating show, come on out and see what it’s all about,” Jerdee said. “It’s fun to watch and with the Olympics just finishing up everyone should be in the winter sport mindset.”