‘Magical Journey’ for Woodbury resident

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Skating with Disney’s “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey” has also been a magical journey for Cassie Deilke of Woodbury.

Deilke, who has been on the road skating in Disney productions for eight years, will get a chance to play to a hometown crowd when the show comes to Xcel Energy Center Dec. 11 to 14.

“It’s an amazing way to see the world,” she said in a telephone interview from the East Coast, Tuesday, Nov. 11.

“You miss your family,” she said. “I miss my two nephews.”

She said the cast is like “one big family,” and she plans to continue skating when the show goes to Europe next year. As part of her daily routine, she exercises about 90 minutes a day.

“I do it more to stay healthy so I don’t get sick,” she said, adding that she also likes to dance, run, rollerblade and play rugby.

Her greatest achievement, other than making Disney on Ice, was being a member of an all-state rugby team.

Deilke, who has been to 39 countries, said there is a difference in audience reactions to the shows. Crowds are very raucous in South America but very reserved in Japan and other Asian countries because of cultural differences.

Skating since she was 6 years old, Deilke said her toughest challenge was overcoming her fear after colliding with another skater doing a back spiral. “I had a cut from the beginning of my cheek through my ear,” she said. “I had to get stitches.”

After growing up in Cottage Grove, she graduated from Woodbury High School in 2001. She auditioned and made the Disney show in October of the same year, after honing her skating skills in Maplewood and Woodbury figure skating clubs.

Growing up, she was in choir from fourth grade into high school where she did solo and ensemble work. She took many theater classes, danced for 15 years at Larkin School of Dance and two years at Andahazi School of Russian Ballet and two years at American Ballet Academy.

Deilke said, as a cast member of “magical journey,” she enjoys performing for people, especially kids. “I like watching how excited kids get when they watch the show,” she said.

As to her future after she ends her career with Disney, she hopes to go to college and get a degree in choreography and dance. “I want to become a coach and choreographer,” she said.

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