Ice Show Warms to Cover Girl

Dina Pitts will not be all dressed up with nowhere to go this fall.

The 22-year-old was chosen over more than 140 figure skaters to be featured on the cover of the Ice Capades program.

But even with her slender figure and attractive smile, Pitts is more surprised than anyone at being chosen to convey the Ice Capades’ new theme, “Glamour is Back.”

“I really couldn’t believe it,” said Pitts, of Woodland Hills. “There are so many pretty girls in the show. I had no idea they were going to pick me. I ran out and had my skates cleaned up and my nails done.”

The Ice Capades took care of the rest. Pitts will be the cover girl of each program of the three touring companies.

“The costumes were so beautiful,” Pitts said. “All pink and so pretty. And they had me wearing big earrings. We tried to make it as glamorous as we could.”

The Ice Capades will begin a nine-month North American tour in September at Corpus Christi, Tex. The show, which comes to the Forum in Inglewood in October, will stop at 30 cities and cover 35,00 miles. But touring is far from being all glamour.

“It’s hard work,” Pitts said. “It’s a different place every week. By the time you get home you’re physically exhausted. The glamour comes out on the ice when you’re seeing people’s faces.”

Pitts, in her fifth year with the show, will have something to look forward to when the tour concludes next June. She will marry former Olympic silver-medalist Peter Carruthers.

Pitts, who has been skating since she was 4, said she will consider retiring after two more seasons with the show. A career in interior design may follow.

She won’t miss all the travel. “The performing--I could go on forever,” she said. “The Ice Capades is like a different world. I just feel like I never know what’s going to happen next.”