Ice skating is in the Santee family's blood but their story is a heartwarming one.
Ryan Santee, who portrays Kristoff in Disney On Ice presents 100 Years of Wonder, was an 11-day-old babe in his mother's arms when he made his first Disney On Ice appearance.
Cast members hoisted him high in the air during a performance in Montreal, evoking memories of a certain king of lions and his newborn son.
Ryan's mother Jamie Lynn was the original Snow White in Disney On Ice back in the 1980s and '90s. Ryan's father, Jimmie Santee, was the Huntsman and also the first skater to bring Aladdin's Genie character to life on the ice (using the late actor Robin Williams' voice).
"My parents met while on tour and started dating, and then my dad decided to get down on one knee and propose during a show with the group number going on around them," Ryan Santee tells Weekender.
"After the group number it was time for my mum's solo and the story they tell is that the ring didn't quite fit so she had to do her solo grasping the ring so it didn't go flying across the ice."
The pair married and Ryan toured with them as an infant.
When they retired from Disney On Ice, Jimmie and Jamie Lynn coached Ryan and his sisters Sarah and Jessie, who are also Disney On Ice skaters (Sarah performs the role of Ariel and Jessie is an ensemble skater in another production).
Ryan's uncle David is a two-time Olympic figure skater and one of his cousins played professional ice hockey.
"In my competitive figure-skating days there were certain things I wanted to live up to, both for myself and my family," Santee says.
"There was always a level I wanted to get to - I didn't quite get there but I tried my best.
"When I transitioned out of the competitive world into performing, that's when I really hit my stride. Performing is definitely for me."
In Disney On Ice presents 100 Years of Wonder Mickey Mouse and his friends follow Captain Hook's treasure map for clues to find Tinker Bell. The devious Hook is trying to steal her magic. Mickey's journey spans the Marigold Bridge with Miguel from Disney Pixar's Coco and the mystical Land of the Dead before heading to the wintry world of Arendelle where Elsa creates a kaleidoscope of crystals to build an ice palace with a little help from from a "high flying" Belle.
Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie demonstrate teamwork when recruiting the Green Army Men for a daring rescue in Andy's room, Moana encounters the fiery wrath of Te Ka, and memories are made with characters from Aladdin and The Little Mermaid in a grand finale.
Disney On Ice presents 100 Years of Wonder is physically demanding and features more non-traditional forms of skating than previous productions.
"There's a lot of freestyling, which I think of as like breakdancing on ice. There are also acrobatic acts that you think wouldn't work on the ice, but they do," Santee says.
He grew up in Chicago and then "moved a bit further north" to Minnesota.
"This year the biggest changes are the addition of the non-skating elements. There are people flying through the air on silks, a Chinese pole, we have ramps on the ice which skaters go up and jump off, and trampolines."
Learning new tricks for this production proved challenging.
"As Kristoff I run up and jump off a trampoline with my skates on over a block of ice. I was trained as a figure skater, I'm not a gymnast, and it was hard learning this new skill," he says.
"It's a completely different skill set.
"As skaters we rotate in one direction, and I had to learn how to rotate in a completely different axis and it doesn't work in skaters' brains, at least not at first.
"It's a hurdle to get over.
"We might make it look easy but it most definitely is not."
Then there's the challenge of not colliding with other skaters during the show. It gets pretty crowded out there on the ice.
"I've been skating since I was about two, and a lot of it is muscle memory. It's just like walking. I don't have to think about skating as such a lot of the time and I can focus instead on not running into others on the ice," Santee says, laughing.
"It does happen and we like to joke that if it makes the kids laugh that's all that really matters, right?"
Disney On Ice presents 100 Years of Wonder, Newcastle Entertainment Centre, July 20 to 23. Tickets are on sale now at ticketek.com.au/disneyonice
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