Figure Fouetté

Someone wrote recently about her experience figure skating growing up. She took lessons until the age of 12 but stopped because it was stressful, she was disillusioned trying to find a healthy balance of enjoyment and competition. This story is so common, are we surprised? At its core, figure skating is a movement language built … Read more

The removal of figures from ISU competition in 1990 goes back to the early 20th century and the creation of the ISU, which was created to promote the International Style of skating (see “Figure Skating History: The Evolution of Dance on Ice” by Lynn Copley-Graves). The English Style of skating was developed in the Victorian … Read more

Here I will write about how to warm up. This is based on decades of experience in ballet, how we practice meticulously every day, how we warm up before performances to avoid injury, and also how I warm up skating. First off, I would not think of a “warm up,” but rather of an entire … Read more

Here are some practice tips based on stuff I found online. This is based on my decades of experience and the Meta Process I have developed, by which we can teach our bodies to do anything (within their physical capacity). Here are a few more answers to questions:

This is an excellent video on art athleticism and sport. As they point out, figure skating can function as a sport or an art, depending on its context. Watch and enjoy the gorgeous clips!

Gary Beacom made a video on Figure Skating Misnomers: Here’s my response: Yes I liked this video. But oh boy you got my nerd juice flowing, here are more misnomers you asked for. References with URLs in the following post (I’m not sure if they are allowed in your Comments section): “The Art of Skating”, … Read more

Although figures are competed and performed on blank ice, the ability to make marks on the ice is a critical component of training. That has traditionally been accomplished using scribes and the heel of one’s blade, which make marks by cutting into the ice. However, extreme white-ice conditions common in most rinks these days make … Read more

The advice and observations here are based on my experiences with professional ballet training, a professional ballet career, 40+ years of dancing in multiple dance styles, 15+ years of training in violin performance, 11 years ice dance experience as a child, and 7 months of training in figure skating, grounded in figures. The basis for … Read more

In the 1930’s, ice dance was the backbone of most figure skating clubs in America. Miracle Vinson, in her Primer on figure skating, suggested that most people wanting to learn to skate, did so in order to participate in social ice dancing. Today social ice dancing has all but vanished, along with the Swing Era … Read more

….also known as the Lean Equation Figure skating is all about riding edges in circles, like a bicyclist riding in a circle. This can be analyzed from two reference frames: that of a stationary observer, or from the non-inertial reference frame of the skater. From the observer’s reference frame: we know from a study of … Read more