Ryan Santee has been skating since he was 2 years old.
Now in his mid-20s, Santee is still on the ice, now as a lead character — Kristoff from "Frozen" — in "Disney On Ice Presents Mickey's Search Party," Wednesday-Sunday at North Little Rock's Simmons Bank Arena.
"Both of my parents are former 'Disney On Ice' performers," and were his early skating coaches, Santee says. In fact, they met and married while skating together in a "Disney On Ice" show.
"My whole family [skates]," Santee says.
His Uncle David, also one of his coaches, was a figure skater. A cousin played Division I hockey for West Point.
His two younger sisters also skate for Disney — Sarah as Ariel the mermaid, a principal role, and Jessica as part of the ensemble — in another show.
"Ice is our life," Santee says simply.
In "Disney On Ice Presents Mickey's Search Party," Kristoff and his "Frozen" co-stars (royals Anna and Elsa) are among a team of Disney sleuths (Mickey Mouse and his friends Minnie, Donald and Goofy and characters from "Moana," "Coco," "Toy Story," "Aladdin," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid") seeking to rescue Tinkerbell, who has apparently been nabbed by pirates. (The cast doesn't include Kristoff's reindeer companion among the rescuers. "Sven was unable to make it," Santee explains.)
What's to look forward to in the show?
"You'd expect it would all be ice skating, but it isn't," he says. "There's lots of really cool stuff, not just the ice skating — there are acrobatics and aerial [acts]." Some of the sets incorporate ramps, for example, making it possible for skaters to jump and do tricks.
The show puts new twists on Disney classics and on some newer Disney films, he says. "We do a good job of reinventing and creating new stuff."
Santee joined Feld Entertainment, Disney On Ice's parent company, in 2015, having been a competitive figure skater and coach. (Among his leftover superstitions or pre-performance rituals? "I have to put my right skate on before my left.")
Santee says that enacting Kristoff on the ice requires a considerable amount of character work, although he admits he has to enhance many of his character's attributes. "It's a lot more like a stage play on a bigger scale," he says, but he admits that subtleties and internalizations are pretty much wasted on an arena audience of 18,000.
The idea, he explains, is to convey the character's innate heroism: "You don't want to just be an average Joe in liederhosen."
Santee closes out the current leg of the tour with the Little Rock shows; he gets a five-week break before the tour resumes in August in Philadelphia.
He can't predict how much longer he'll hold onto this job.
"How long can somebody do this?" he says. "It depends on the person," as well as how well they handle injuries; "a handful of folks I know are still skating above the age of 50."
‘Disney On Ice Presents Mickey’s Search Party’
- Where: North Little Rock’s Simmons Bank Arena
- When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; noon and 7:30 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday
- Tickets: $27-$67 (plus service charges); 8-ticket limit per transaction; costumes aren’t permitted for patrons 14 and older.
- ticketmaster.com