Figure Fouetté

Figure skating for fun was developed by 19th century English people, who had a background in Figure Dancing going back to Louis XIV and the Baroque era. A figure was (and still is) a named pattern of movement, usually involving more than one person. Everybody knows the common figures within the genre, and often a … Read more

Human beings have skated for millennia, but our history begins when people began skating for leisure in the 1700’s as documented by Robert Jones.1. Notably the books is a treatise on skating, not figure skating. In fact, the word “figure” in that sense only occurs once, in describing how “to cut the Figure of a … Read more

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