Hi, my name is Elizabeth! This blog is all about this dancer’s journey through the world of figures, and how we train our bodies for it. I will be looking at the technique from the points of view of physics, biomechanics and past understanding of ballet technique. I will be finding relationships where they exist, drawing connections and producing a coherent set of principles that work together to create all of skating. And I will be finding ways to train both on ice and in studio — two equally glorious environments. I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I do and…. Merde!
In my younger years I danced for a ballet company. We performed about 50 times a year, half of them The Nutcracker. But that was a long time ago. Since that time I have continued to train in ballet class and have studied and performed in modern dance, Chinese Folk and Classical Dance, and Irisish Dance. I’ve also continued my violin training from childhood. All of these disciplines have specific ways of doing things that must be learned; and based on these experiences I have developed a meta process that can be used to train any discipline, within our bodies’ physical capacities.
In 2024 I (re)discovered figure skating, mainly because there’s a rink nearby where I can train six days a week. I didn’t know which discipline(s) of figure skating I would do, but soon fell in love with the art of figures, where we draw precise patterns on the ice by balancing on blades attached to our feet. For more than 150 years, Figure Skating was mainly about figures, hence the name. I am meticulous in my work at the barre, and figures appeal to the same sensibilities in me: precision, balance, beauty, form following function. From this perspective, figure skating looks like another dance discipline, one with infinite possibilities!
It soon became clear that Figures provide the safest and most efficient way to train skating movement, and an environment in which the meta process can be most effective. But figures aren’t just a kind of figure skating or a tool to learn how to skate, they are figure skating. Freestyle skating is figures with more power and size, and can best be accomplished when those figures can first be executed precisely, on balance, with maximum control at minimal speed. Power can always be added later with confidence, once the body is on balance.