Jaimi Tarnow makes 10 costume changes a show.

the famous Radio City
Music Hall "Rockettes."
Her life on the ice, which
started at age 4, took her
into a similar profession,
on a different surface.
She comes from an
accomplished skating
family with two of the
proudest parents, Bob
and Kathy Tarnow, that
anyone will ever meet.
Her sister, Robyn, is a
skating coach, her broth-
er Jon and sister Sara
are both accomplished
skaters, and sister Tami
is training for national

and Olympic skating
competition. Even dad
plays amateur ice hock-
ey.
Mrs. Tarnow, who
doesn't spend much time
skating, has driven to
many an early-morning
practice or rehearsal and
has probably handmade
enough costumes during
her children's lives to
outfit an entire Ice
Capades performance.
But Jaimi wasn't inter-
ested in the competitive
side. She wanted to per-
form instead. From

March 16 to March 22,
the quiet and modest
skater will be giving her
family an arena filled
with naches (pride) when
the Ice Capades visits
the Palace of Auburn
Hills.
During a recent short
vacation from her show,
Ms. Tarnow sat and
talked about her career.
On the walls of her par-
ents' living room are
photos following the chil-
dren's lives on and off
the ice. A skating medal
and colorful plates, some

depicting wintery
skating scenes, are
displayed.
It started for Ms.
Tarnow at age 4,
when she skated as
a leprechaun in the
Southfield Ice Show.
"After that, I
guess I've been in
shows all of my life,"
Ms. Tarnow said.
"In the back of my
mind I thought
about what it would
be like to skate pro-
fessionally. But I
didn't make up my
mind for sure until I
was in high school.
My feeling was that
if I don't do this
now, that 20 years
from now I'd always
have wondered."
Skating for the Ice
Capades means a
different city each
weekend, every
place from Balti-
more to New York to
Duluth. It means 10
costume changes a
show, from an ice
cream cone to a can-
can dancer, and it
means skating the
same show hun-
dreds of time.
But this is pretty much
what Ms. Tarnow had in
mind when she sent an
audition videotape to the
Ice Capades. She was
hired from the tape and
told to report to her first
stop, Green Bay, Wis.
Ms. Tarnow was a
Groves High School sen-
ior when she received
her first contract in the
mail. Later that year,
her parents put her on a
plane, and she became
an Ice Capades member.
"I remember taking

her to the airport," said
Kathy Tarnow. "I was
really frightened. She
had worked so hard, and
this is what she wanted
to do, but a Jewish girl
getting on a plane by
herself to skate in an ice
show? I knew then what
it was like to really miss
someone and to feel sort
of heartbroken."
Now, the Tarnows
make it their business to
attend as many shows as
they possibly can. Jaimi
loves to try to find where
her relatives are seated
while she is performing.
At one show, her brother
surprised her by showing
up unannounced.
"The most important
thing for every one of our
children is that if they're
going to skate, they
should enjoy doing it, not
that they should worry
about national ability or
competition. Skating
should be for fun, and
the kids realize this,"
Mr. Tarnow said.
Jaimi enjoys the skat-
ing and the national
attention the Ice Cap-
ades get. She said the
troupe gets motivated by
a big, enthusiastic
crowd, that the magnet-
ism within an arena is
"unreal" when everyone
is into the show. When
Ms. Tarnow caught up
with the troupe for her
professional debut, she
had eight days of
rehearsal to learn the
entire show. It was then
that she became an Ice
Capette, a female mem-
ber of the chorus line.
Male members are Ice
Cadettes.
Of course there are

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