Ten years is a long time. Contemplating where the next decade will take her, Grace Moyer acknowledges that no one has a crystal ball, and life is filled with uncertainties, but there is one thing she’s sure of: “I’ll definitely have a dog in 10 years,” she says. Why the wait? Moyer’s career keeps her on the move, literally.
As a professional figure skater with Feld Entertainment, she has traveled the world performing in Disney on Ice productions for the past three years. From Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi to Singapore and Thailand, Moyer has circled the globe. “Being able to leave home and see the world with my own eyes has been something I never thought I would do,” Moyer admits. “But I’m really grateful for it because it has made me a different person in the best way.”
Moyer began skating at age six when her parents took her to a public skating session. Group lessons came first, and were soon followed by private lessons with coach Angela Davis, whom Moyer works with to this day. “For some kids skating is natural, whereas others have to work a lot harder,” Moyer says. “For me, I was one of those natural kids. I just zoomed through each level.”
That doesn’t mean there weren’t challenges. And not just the physical ailments that afflict any professional athlete. Moyer admits that the mental aspect—avoiding the frustration of repeatedly falling while working to perfect a jump—was, and sometimes still is, an obstacle she works to overcome. She worked with a sports psychologist for several years who helped her a lot with breathing exercises. But it was a daily routine her coach had her adopt that was most beneficial. “Every day following practice she had me write down three positive things I did, even if it was a really awful day,” Moyer says. “Three positives I could take away to build on going into the next practice. She really understood my mindset.”
Coach Davis took a similar approach when Moyer began competing. She recognized that if Moyer wasn’t the first skater on the ice and she saw another skater fall, she’d worry that she was going to fall too. Or, if another skater turned in the best program of their life, Moyer would worry how she was going to follow that performance. So, she had Moyer turn her back to the rink and avoid watching. As for handling nervousness? “My coach always told me to take those nervous butterflies and use them to help me float,” Moyer recalls. “Just feel free, in a sense, like a butterfly. And turn it into doing what I know how to do.”
Moyer’s accomplishments speak to the successful coaching techniques. She’s a two-time U.S. Figure Skating gold medalist in Moves in the Field, and Freestyle; the 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Collegiate bronze medalist; and a 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Regional Championships silver medalist. The latter, she says, is her best memory from competitive figure skating. “Leading up to Regionals I was nailing every program in practice, so I was prepared,” Moyer says. “To make it to Sectionals you have to place in the top four, and after my short program I was in fifth place. I had to go first in the long program, which I hated, and I was so nervous.” Moyer pushed aside the nervousness, and had “the best program I’ve ever had in my life,” pumping her fist in air when it ended.
That performance lifted her to a second-place finish, and an emotional celebration. “Hearing that I had finished second, I was with my mom and my coach, and we just started crying, because I knew I had made it to Sectionals,” Moyer says. “That was the biggest accomplishment.”
While all this was going on, Moyer was working at the Steel Ice Center in Bethlehem, first at the front desk, but by age 16 she began coaching. It was scary and nerve-wracking at first. “You want to help them grow and do things the right way,” Moyer says. “Because if they did something wrong, well, that was on me.” She began by shadowing other coaches to study their techniques, and eventually became more comfortable working with children as well as adults.
And while her travel schedule with Disney on Ice has limited her coaching sessions, she regularly returns to Steel Ice to see how former students have progressed. “I was at the rink the other day and one of my students is now with my coach,” Moyer says. “When she hugged me after not seeing me for many months, it was really heartwarming. And watching them, I think, ‘Oh, I taught them something good,’ because I see the progress they’ve made.”
Moyer says she knew as far back as high school that she wanted to perform in some type of skating show once she was finished competing. She says figure skaters are fortunate to have that opportunity, an avenue not readily available to all high school and college athletes. “In some sports, when you’re done competing, you’re done,” she says. Her initial thoughts upon graduating from college were to try out for Cirque du Soleil, but the requirements, she says, were extreme. “I didn’t think I could physically do it.”
Fortunately, two coaches she’d taken lessons from knew the casting director from Disney on Ice, and helped facilitate a meeting. Moyer assembled and submitted a highlight video, and a live audition was held in February 2020 at the PPL Center in Allentown.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so how could I not accept?
Then COVID-19 hit, and everything shut down. Moyer, who had anticipated hearing whether she had passed the audition by May or June 2020, now had to play the waiting game. She periodically emailed the casting director reminding her that she was still interested. But it wasn’t until June 2021 that she received a positive response, and a contract offer. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so how could I not accept?” Moyer says.
And yet, standing in the terminal at Lehigh Valley International Airport in September 2021, ticket in hand to begin rehearsals in Ellenton, Florida, Moyer came close to not getting on the plane. “I was so scared,” she says. “There were so many what-ifs. And they were all the negative what-ifs. What if I don’t make friends? I couldn’t get my mind to flip to, what if it’s the greatest experience of your life?”
But she got on the plane. And it has been the greatest experience of her life.
With a B.A. in corporate communication and a minor in business from Penn State Lehigh Valley, Moyer has been able to apply the skills she learned in the classroom to opportunities while traveling. “In Disney, we do a lot of interviews,” she says. “I think all the presentations in college prepared me for being in front of a camera and talking. And I must have been pretty good at it because I always got assigned to do interviews.”
She’s also had an opportunity to portray a wide range of Disney characters, including Rapunzel, Buzz Lightyear, Ariel, Anna, Marlin and Nemo. But her favorite, she admits, is Snow White. “My grandmother always said I looked like Snow White, with the pale skin and dark hair and features,” Moyer says. “So when I got to do Snow White I sent her pictures and she was over the moon. That connection with my grandmother made it really cool and fun to do.”
Moyer is currently in the middle of a five-month Europe tour called “100 Years of Wonder.” It began last November, and encompasses visits to the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. Prior to embarking on the tour, Moyer reflected on a mix of excitement and melancholy. “We were in Egypt over Christmas last year (2022),” she says. “When we walked into the venue on Christmas Day they had a tree set up with presents everywhere. They decorated the place for us, which was really nice, because it’s hard being away from families over the holidays.”
But the Europe tour, Moyer says, may be her curtain call. She acknowledges that she’s still young, but also that there are a lot of things she still wants to do. And spending three years on the road can take its toll. “Living out of a suitcase months at a time is not the most ideal thing,” she says. “But it’s not the worst thing either. The three years I’ve been doing Disney on Ice I’ve gotten to see literally the whole world. I’m pretty satisfied with that.”
Published as “Insight” in the January 2024 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
