Soniah Spence (above, third from right, in Disney's Worlds of Fantasy now playing at the Staples Center) wants more opportunities for performers of color in future ice shows. "It's a huge deal, that I didn't have when I was a little girl," she said.
Story Created:
Dec 16, 2009 at 9:31 PM PST
Story Updated:
Dec 16, 2009 at 9:31 PM PST
When Soniah Spence first auditioned for Disney on Ice two years ago, she had her eye on a principal role in their “High School Musical on Ice” show.
But when producers called to say they liked her for another role in their Worlds of Fantasy show, chances were the callback wasn’t for a leading part.
“There were no Black princesses, so what role could they offer me?” Spence said this week. “But I accepted it, thinking I’d love any role they would offer and that just being a part of the traveling show would be an honor.”
Little did Spence know that the entertainment giant was adapting its new “Tinker Bell” movies into an ice-skating show, and that her new role would be as Iridessa the Light Fairy, the first Black fairy in the history of Disney. While the part may not be as high-profile as the much-heralded Tiana in “The Princess and The Frog,” to generations of African-American girls who until recently had not seen themselves reflected in Disney’s popular animated characters, the opportunity represents an important milestone.
“It’s a huge deal, that I didn’t have when I was a little girl,” said Spence, whose favorite Disney princess was Jasmine. “When you’re a kid, you don’t think about that stuff, you just want to play dress up and wear your favorite Disney princess dress for Halloween — but you really couldn’t, because you don’t look like any of them. But when you’re a kid you don’t worry about that, it’s when you get older that you realize, ‘Wow, there are no princesses that look like me.’”
Honored to be a part of a new era, Spence hopes that more principal roles for performers of color will be added to Disney’s repertoire. “Jasmine is still one of my favorites, but I have to say that I’ve loved seeing little girls dress up like Iridessa,” she said. “Now I can’t wait to see them in Princess Tiana’s dress.”
First released in 2008, the new series of straight-to-DVD “Tinker Bell” movies follow the life of the sparkly pixie and her friends in the time before she met Peter Pan. While identifying with one’s own character is important to any entertainer, Spence said her approach to performing is more in line with the struggles — and eventual triumph — of the title character. Tinker Bell’s trajectory, she said, is one that “we all can relate to.”
“She shows us how to accept our own talent and not try to be somebody else,” Spence said. “In the story, Tinker Bell is unhappy because her talent is not as glamorous as those possessed by her pals Iridessa and Rosetta. While she’s just a tinker, the rest of the fairies get to play with water and light and everything is sparkly. … The story is about her trying to find her talent and when she does, she’s really proud of it and realizes that she’s just as good as anybody else.”
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