Figure skating requires both athleticism and artistry, and Vancouver School of Arts and Academics eighth-grader Haley Van Nortwick is working on both. Through dance classes at Metropolitan Performing Arts Academy, she’s improving her grace and coordination. Running track for Discovery Middle School helps with power and speed. Both those arenas collide when Van Nortwick, 14, skates during half-time at Winterhawks ice hockey games in Portland. It’s something she’s been doing for the past three years.
“It’s really fun to go out there and perform in front of a big group of people and mix my athletic and artistic abilities,” she said. “It can be kind of scary at first, but once you get out there and get the audience involved, it’s fun.”
Van Nortwick has been ice skating for 12½ years. She trains with Vancouver coach Tonya Gustafson at Mountain View Ice Arena. She skates competitively; her next competition will be in Seattle in early June.
Van Nortwick is interested in doing Disney On Ice shows someday, and in pursuing musical theater. She recently played Ursula in Metropolitan Performing Arts Academy’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie.”
“Musical theater is my passion,” Van Nortwick said. “I someday would actually love to be on Broadway.”
Middle-schooler takes second turn on high school stage
Tristan Reese is only 11, but he’s about to appear in his second high school musical. Tristan, whose full legal name is Tristan Reese Fisher but who goes by his first and middle names professionally, will appear as Kurt von Trapp in Mountain View High School’s production of “The Sound of Music.” The show opens May 13.
Tristan, a Camas resident and sixth-grader at Canyon Creek Middle School in Washougal, is one of eight local youths in the high-school show (they are double-cast in the roles of the four youngest von Trapp children).
Tristan has been acting since kindergarten. He’s appeared in community theater productions, as well as with Northwest Children’s Theater. He’s also a print and television model, working on ads for such companies as Scientific American, Fred Meyer, Nordstrom and Norm Thompson.
Tristan last acted with Mountain View High School several years ago when he played Little Jake in “Annie Get Your Gun.” He’s enjoying his turn as a member of the von Trapp clan.
“I think it was very fun to hang out with all the high school kids,” he said. “I really like the role because I get to act a lot like myself because the character is close to my age.”
Teen overcomes obstacles to pursue interest in theater
Longtime Columbian readers might remember several articles from 1994 about Vancouver infant Katelin Wight receiving a heart transplant at 41 days old. Now 16 and going by Katie, Wight leads a normal, healthy life and is about to have her first starring role in “The Sound of Music” alongside Tristan Reese Fisher and the rest of the cast. Her Portland cardiologist and the former transplant coordinator at the Southern California hospital where she had her surgery plan to attend.
Wight, who is primarily home-schooled but takes musical theater production at Mountain View High School, plays Maria von Trapp in the musical.
“It’s so much fun,” Wight said. “(Musical theater’s) really what I’m passionate about and love and want to do for the rest of my life.”
Wight said she appreciates Maria’s positive attitude in the face of adversity.
“I love Maria because she’s very optimistic,” Wight said. “She’s also a really spiritually led person, and I like that because my faith is very important to me.”
Bits ’n’ Pieces appears Mondays and Fridays. If you have a story you’d like to share, call Features Editor Elisa Williams, 360-735-4561, or e-mail elisa.williams@columbian.com.<I>
