Brant Figure Skating Club (BFSC) held its 73rd annual Flashing Blades show on Saturday, March 14, 2026.
The show, which is held each year at the end of the season, featured well over 150 skaters.
“Today is the Brant Figure Skating Club’s 73rd annual Flashing Blades event, which is an ice show that highlights all of our skaters, from PreCanSkate three to five-year-olds, right through to our Olympic Paris team and everyone in between,” said Karen Bocskay, Skater Development Chair for the BFSC.
Following the national anthem, the show opened with a number inspired by the Olympic Winter Games. The skaters made their way across the ice depicting a variety of sports including skiing, hockey, curling, and luge sledding.
Afterwards, the BFSC’s program assistants joined the club’s youngest skaters on the ice for their Trolls World Tour performance.
Dressed up as classical, country, funk, neon bubble, pop and rock trolls, Brantford’s next generation of figure skaters took the ice for the lively production.
“The first half of the show is our junior production, and it’s based on Trolls World Tour, the movie,” said Bocskay. “So that features all of our littlest skaters from CanSkate, up to our Star 1s, 2s and 3s. It’s really fun, and so they’ll be showcasing the different musical genres of trolls.”
The second half of the show was focused all around the Olympics and the many different countries who participate. From Ireland to Germany, Italy, India, China, France, Japan, Africa, Britain, South Korea and, of course, Canada, there were plenty of international-themed performances.
“Our second half is the senior production and that features skaters ranging from Star 1, right through to our Olympic pair level,” said Bocskay. “The whole second half has an Olympic theme, so they’re highlighting different countries that skated in the Olympics this year.”
Featured in this year’s show were 2026 Canadian National champions and Olympic team members Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud. Having recently returned from competing in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy last month, the pair took to the ice alongside the rest of the BFSC’s performing skaters.
Noting that the club was happy to be back performing at the TD Civic Centre, Bocskay said the two shows pulled in a great crowd.
“It’s fantastic to be back here at Flashing Blades and as far as this venue goes you can’t beat the Civic Centre. Between the jumbotron, and the sound system and the lighting…it really makes the show a whole spectacle,” she said. “And the turnout has just been great. It seems like we’re on the upswing from the low crowds we experienced right after the pandemic. It seems like people remembering Flashing Blades and coming back.”
Bocskay added that she’s always impressed with the club’s skaters, noting that the sport teaches them that even when you fall, you get up and try again.
“You know, I’m not a skater myself but it just fascinates me what they can do on the ice, and on those blades. Figure skating is such a spectacle, but it also teaches them resilience; sure, you may fall 15 times, but on that 16th time you’re going to nail it. The determination and hard work of every single one of those skaters, from the little ones to the big ones, is amazing,” she said. “I just love this show. For a lot of them, this is their big year-end performance and it’s just so much fun for them because they basically get to go out there and play for two hours. You may see some falls, but they always pop right back up again. The whole production is just entertaining, but to me, it’s really about resilience.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
