ADVANCED FOR HER ICE AGE JUST 12 YEARS OLD, FIGURE SKATER BENET WANTS TO EXCEL, HAVE FUN AT SAME TIME.

Byline: Gideon Rubin  Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Performing in the spotlight might not come naturally to most 12-year-olds, but it doesn't seem to bother Hannah Benet.

Benet is an Ice Station Valencia-based figure skater who burst onto the national scene a year ago when she qualified for Junior Nationals. She thrives when the lights are brightest.

Benet has been exposed to skating since she was practically a toddler. Her mother and coach, Aimee Kravette-Benet, an accomplished amateur and professional skater - she came four places away from qualifying for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team - took Benet with her to several performances in the late 1980s. Benet participated in her first child-skating competition wearing diapers as a 2-year-old.

``She's always been like, `You perform when it's your turn, that's what you do.' '' Kravette-Benet said.

Benet will be in her element this weekend. She's among about a dozen full-time and part-time Ice Station-based skaters who will compete at the Southwest Regional Figure Skating Championships at Disney Ice Arena in Anaheim.

The competition began Friday and concludes Sunday.

From there, Benet hopes to again advance to the Junior Nationals, which will be Dec. 2-6 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Last season, she became the first Ice Station-based female skater to advance to the Junior Nationals.

Benet, who placed 17th at nationals last year as a juvenile-level skater - she likely would have finished in the top 10 if not for an untimely fall on a double flip in the final round - now competes at the intermediate level in singles, and in pairs for the first time in her career with partner David DeGuzman.

Benet's skating ability is on par with most of her elite peers. But Kravette-Benet said what sets her daughter apart is her natural performance ability, and when her competitive nature takes over, she seems to be at her best.

``She really just lights up in competition,'' DeGuzman said. ``It looks like she's doing a play, almost.

``It really doesn't show up that much in practice, but then that's what kind of gives me a spark when she does it in competition. It's kind of like turning a light switch on.''

Benet spends two hours five times a week refining her skills and also spends significant time developing other talents as a seventh-grader at Pacoima Theater and Performing Arts Middle School.

Benet recently began participating in the Pacoima Singers Group as a singer/dancer. She thinks working with the group, which will perform in Canada this year, has improved her on-ice presentation.

``It kind of helps me because some skaters are really shy when they're out there, but I'm usually not,'' Benet said. ``I'm able to do a lot of facial expressions. It kind of helps me put it out there.''

Despite the implications of her skating performance this weekend, Benet already is looking ahead to the next weekend, when she performs with the Pacoima Singing Group at the Sherman Oaks Street Fair.

``It's going to be my first time performing with them, so it's going to be really fun,'' she said. ``Last year I got to watch the Pacoima singers, and was like `I really want to sing in that group,' and so now that I finally am, I'm really excited that I'm going to be able to perform with them.''

As central as skating is for Benet, she seems to understand the importance of having a life outside of it.

``I think that there's more to life than just skating,'' she said. ``You could put everything in your whole entire life into just skating and then go win the Olympics, but it's not really worth it if you don't have fun, you know? There's a way to be good and also have fun.''

Gideon Rubin [phone]

gideon.rubin(at)dailynews.com

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Hannah Benet, a 12-year-old who trains at Valencia Ice Station, is competing this weekend in an effort to qualify for her second Junior Nationals in a row.

Joel P. Lugavere/Special to the Daily News