Emily Griffiths' long blonde hair is done up in a bun, her lucky peach dress flowing as she skates across the ice.

The 9-year-old executes difficult back spins and beautiful spirals to near perfection, performs a lutz, then flashes a quick smile to her mom standing rink side before going into her sit spin.

Flawless.

"Yes!" screams her proud mother, Kathy Lamping.

A few power strokes later, Griffiths has a second place finish in the Freestyle Pre-preliminary, one of numerous medals she'd win Saturday.

Hers was just one of a mumber of performances at the Last Chance Spring Skate competition in Helena. Clubs from Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls and Missoula came to compete with the Helena Figure Skating Club.

Bozeman won the team points title, edging out the Missoula club by a slim margin. As the host club, Helena is not allowed tp place as a team.

The Helena Ice Arena was filled with parents who admit they get more nervous than their kids and 54 smiling skaters of all ages and sizes wearing dresses of every color.

The competition offered a wide range of musical variety and style. Fake flowers and stuffed animals were thrown onto the ice after nearly every performance. But their was little agonizing over whether jumps were landed perfectly or axels were exact. This was about having fun.

There was no shortage of that.

From little six-year-old Danielle Carella, wearing her little pink sparkly dress her mother spent six weeks sewing, to Kayla Bridges with her little curly blonde pigtails blowing kisses to the judges, the crowd swooned.

There was Kea Normandy, who skated to "Thriller," pulling out all the stops and even tying her costume together with a white glove. And then there was Jessica Griffiths, Emily's 7-year-old sister who was diagnosed with diabetes this past August, wowing the crowd with her "Splish, Splash" performance. Griffiths donned a shower cap, white robe, and pink bunny slipper skates and hopped out of a bath tub. She won gold medals in three different events. Griffiths has been skating since she was 3, after her sister Emily got her involved. Jessica beat Emily in the Shoot the Duck competition.

"Shoot the Duck is her best element," Emily Griffiths, who has been skating for four years, said of her sister.

It wasn't all cuteness and laughter, though. Some performances moved the audience to tears.

Like in the Junior Artistic, the show's finale, when Helena High senior Aislinn Munck skated to "In the Arms of an Angel."

Munck performed with the elegance of a dancer and the poise of a gymnast, looking every bit the figure skating talent she is. One would think after watching her that Munck, who has been skating for 13 years, would have Olympic aspirations. That's not the case.

"When I was little, obviously I wanted to go to the Olympics," Munck said. "But you just realize that those girls, they drop out of school, they get private tutors, they work out five hours a day, and it's not for me. I like performing much more than competing."

Her love of performance skating is what led her to try out for the "Disney on Ice" tour. The audition brought Munck out of her comfort zone.

"They had me do traditional skating, but then they had me do things like act like a monkey and play charades," she said. "It was wild."

Munck received a letter that her file had been placed in the casting call for next season. She should find out in June where she will be headed, as the tour goes through several continents. The travel, she said, is one of the things that piqued her interest.

Although the tour would keep her busy, Munck still has plans to attend college. She has been accepted to Gonzaga and said she has connections at the Spokane ice rink. No matter where she ends up, she said it's important to her that she continues coaching. Currently, Munck coaches six skaters at the Helena Figure Skating Club, mostly young beginners and one adult.

"It's so rewarding to be able to have an occupation teaching the thing you love most," she said. "I adore it."

Maggie Schultz, one of Munck's students was warming up for her skate in the Basic Skills Level 2 competition. Aislinn asked her how she was feeling. Schultz wasn't a bit nervous. Upon completing her performance, she blew kisses to the crowd.

"I've been skating for about a year now," Schultz said.

She said her favorite part of skating is the pretty dresses. Munck was the same way at her age.

"Honestly I just wanted to wear the sparkly dresses," she said.

But eventually, the urge to dress up became the urge to skate, and Munck found herself attending national competitions. She placed third in her first national event in Dallas, and then finished first in one of her events at nationals in Colorado Springs.

Munck also helped organize the Helena club's group showcase, featuring 15 of the club's members skating to "Footloose." Kara Krantz, a Helena High junior who also coaches three of the young beginners, said the group spent two to three months working on the gold medal-winning number. Helena was, however, the only team performing as a group.

"Nobody does group showcase," Krantz said. "Partly because it takes so long, and it's really hard to get all the people together because you have to have everybody there for every practice."

Krantz, now 17, has been skating since she was 6. She became interested in skating when she was younger, following her older sister, Becky Krantz, to skating events. Now, however, she said she prefers coaching the little ones over skating solos.

"It' s much more fun and less stressful," she said. "I'd rather watch the little girls do well."

One of her students she has only been training for two weeks approached her.

"I got a medal," 6-year-old Victoria Carella, Danielle's twin, said excitedly.

"Nice job," Krantz responded, embracing her student in a hug.

Helena's Kaylene Green was busy. Green performed in eight different events, including interpretive, where the skaters hear a song just three times and then have to perform impromptu. Green, 14, has been skating for four years now and said she loves the freedom she feels when she's on the ice.

"It's great to just be able to step on the ice and just have nothing else around you, nothing to bug you," she said.

There was just one mishap throughout the day. Butte's Richelle Sheridan fell, hurting what appeared to be her ankle, and had to be taken to the hospital.

But for the most part, the event was a success. While the Helena club was unable to win a team points title as the host club (a rule which eliminates an unfair advantage based on number of skaters), all skaters took home plenty of medals.

The Helena Figure Skating Club next competes in Billings on April 18 at the State Games.

Amber Kuehn: 447-4079 or amber.kuehn@helenair.com