For Young Simi Skater, 1st Role as Professional Isn’t Exactly Peanuts

From the moment she first glided across the ice a dozen years ago, Amanda Johnson has dreamed of being a figure skating pro.

Now, after years toiling at chilly ice rinks five days a week, that dream has come true--although the 17-year-old Simi Valley High School senior did not imagine that her professional debut would come inside a 30-pound Snoopy costume.

Such is show biz, however, and it is--after all--the starring role. Amanda will get her big break playing the popular Peanuts comic strip character in the annual Knott’s Berry Farm “Snoopy’s 12 Days of Christmas” ice show.

Amanda’s ice skating instructor at Simi Valley’s Easy Street Ice Arena, Tiffany Chin, asked the show’s producers to take a look at the young skater, thinking that maybe she could land a bit part. Only a milkmaid role and Snoopy were available.

Three days later, they called her back--and offered her the lead.

Amanda and about 10 other skaters will now perform three times daily from Thanksgiving Day, which is also her 18th birthday this year, through Jan. 4 at the Buena Park attraction. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin this week.

“I was just so happy that they even came out to see me,” Amanda said Wednesday between school and her daily practice at the arena. “I was like, ‘When am I going to wake up from this dream?’ It’s been wonderful.”

Amanda stepped into her first pair of figure skates at age 6 and has been practicing two to three hours a day since. Her commitment and determination surprised her mother, Marsha, who initially regarded Amanda’s gusto for skating as just another passing fad.

“It was one of those things, ‘Would you like to learn how to ice skate?’ ” Marsha Johnson said. “I thought it would be one of those things, like dance school, that she would do for a while. We had no clue she would stay in it forever.

“But she just really loved to skate and she made a choice that she wanted to skate. Every day.”

Since then, Amanda has competed in numerous figure skating events, increasingly against much younger skaters, and though she hasn’t always brought home the top prize, she uses the experiences to motivate herself, according to her mother.

“It’s hard because she puts so much pressure on herself,” Marsha Johnson said. “All I ever say to her is, ‘Have fun.’ I don’t care how she does, but I hurt for her when she falls because I know how bad she’s going to feel. They always want a medal or a ribbon, and that doesn’t always happen.

“People [ask] . . . ‘Is she going to the Olympics?’ But the fact is, only a few people go.”

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Amanda has also had to endure countless injuries, including a back sprain two years ago that nearly ended her skating dream. But the nine-month ordeal, which caused her to visit acupuncturists for relief, only made her stronger, she said.

“A lot of people would have quit, but I love to skate,” Amanda said. “It’s taught me so many things about life. It’s a way for me to express my feelings. I can put on any music and just skate and perform.”

Because of the time she devotes to skating, Amanda’s high school life has been markedly different from most of her classmates.

Sure, she had a boyfriend for a while--he “got in the way,” she said jokingly--and she even held a job at a local coffee shop. But other than the hours she spends with friends at school and her other set of friends at the rink, socializing has already taken a back seat to her professional goals.

For the next few months while she performs as Snoopy, her school life will also be different. Amanda will not attend classes, instead meeting with a teacher once a week to collect her assignments and studying when her rink time is through.

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“I don’t have much time to go out with my friends,” Amanda said. “I just don’t have time. We’re all good students, and the party scene is not for me. I don’t drink or smoke or use drugs, and that’s what a lot of kids do around here, anyway.”

But let’s cut to the chase: What does it actually feel like for a 5-foot-3, 120-pound high schooler to skate in a giant Snoopy outfit? Is it difficult?

“I haven’t tried it yet,” Amanda said. “I hear it’s very hot and difficult to see in, but you get used to it. The choreographers are going to take it easy on me.”

This holiday season marks the 12th year that Knott’s Berry Farm has featured Snoopy in a Christmas-themed event. The performances are free with admission to the park.

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Bustillo is a Times staff writer and Greenberg is a Times correspondent.