EVENTS : It’s All Smooth Skating Now : Club’s annual show encourages competitors-- hobbyists as well as serious athletes--to skip the jumps. The contest gives points for artistry and theatricality.

Jumps have made things difficult for the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club on occasion.

Double- and triple-jumps--the kind of athletic maneuvers mandatory in today’s figure skating championships--were driving hobbyists away from the sport in the 1970s. Strength and speed became primary; artistic interpretation became something to work in between a triple salchow and a toe loop.

So in 1974, the club took a cue from roller -skaters. A Bakersfield show called the “Gold Skate Classic,” which was theatrical rather than athletic, became the inspiration for the club’s “Showcase for Skaters.” Skaters in the annual competition are judged on theatrical quality and artistic interpretation.

Now those jumps are causing trouble again. In recent years, celebrity guests--actors, disc jockeys, choreographers--have judged the competition. Showcase Chairman John Dlugolecki explained, “They don’t know one jump from another--and we don’t want them to.”

But the rising popularity of the sport, undoubtedly fueled by the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan debacle, has changed that. “There’s so much skating on TV now, the [celebrity] judges are rewarding jumps,” he said. “Someone can go out there and do their regular freestyle routine, put in three jumps, and they’d win. The judges are too savvy now.”

To correct for that, this year’s showcase, held Saturday and Sunday at Pickwick Ice Arena in Burbank, will have two professional judges from the United States Figure Skating Assn. on the panel with three celebrities.

Other skating clubs have this savvy-judge problem as well, Dlugolecki said, so the Los Angeles club is trying to train U. S. Figure Skating Assn. judges to look beyond technical skill.

To start, the showcase committee developed a scoring sheet that emphasizes theatricality and expression.

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Skating clubs around the country sponsor showcase-style events to give members a chance to perform in the utmost creative manner. Skaters deck themselves out in costumes. They slide props across the ice. And they choreograph routines to music with lyrics-- gasp --which is outlawed in traditional competitions.

There are ability levels for skaters, and seven performance categories.

About 200 people will enter the rink this weekend, some skating solo dramatic numbers, some in groups of up to 30. The winners in each category will skate in an exhibition at 7 p.m. Sunday at Pickwick.

While the showcase is sanctioned by the U. S. Figure Skating Assn., it isn’t a qualifying competition, so winners won’t earn spots at regional or national competition.

“It makes it much more enjoyable when you don’t have to worry about landing your triple salchow and a triple toe loop,” said Jennifer Hayes-Miner, 27, of Burbank. “The regular competition schedule is so hectic, and the kids are so pressured all the time. The showcase is a chance for them to still compete, but while having fun.”

Hayes-Miner started skating when she was 8 and competing in the showcase at 10. She stopped competing in other events during her college years, but never missed the showcase.

The non-technical focus of the showcase allows her to keep performing without too much time on the ice.

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“Being an adult, with adult responsibilities, I’m lucky to get on the ice once a month. Often times I work out my routine on roller-blades, then go on the ice a few times and work it out, and then perform,” she said.

Many of the nearly 700 club members are nationally ranked skaters, including Todd Sand, half of the current U. S. champion pairs skating team, and Michelle Kwan, the singles alternate for the 1994 Winter Olympics.

But showcase winners aren’t necessarily regional or sectional champs. And the categories aren’t necessarily the ones audiences see at the Olympics.

Group productions will have 30 people skating to music from “The Lion King” or a James Bond movie.

The character category requires a skater to impersonate a recognizable persona. And the extemporaneous improvisation category has skaters make up routines after hearing music for the first time 45 minutes before they skate.

For Chrissy Kane, 14, of Glendale, the extemporaneous improvisation category is the toughest, “because you have to come up with a program on the spot. The only way to prepare is to listen to a bunch of different types of music.”

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: “Showcase for Skaters.”

Location: Pickwick Ice Arena, 1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday; 10:45 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. Sunday; Winners’ Exhibition 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Price: $5 Saturday or Sunday; $7 Sunday night exhibition. $3 for children 12 and younger, and children 5 and younger are admitted free. An all-event pass costs $15.

Call: (818) 846-0035.

Also: Blankets and sweaters are recommended. The temperature in the arena is usually 60 degrees.