Today I learned about a new (since 2010) discipline of skating art, called Freestyle Ice Skating. NOT to be confused with its distant and much more established cousin Freestyle Figure Skating, Freestyle Ice Skating is related to extreme sports, break dancing, snowboarding and skateboarding — in hockey skates and on ice! Skating contests are organized as battles between two skaters, similar breakdancing. Beginning with the individual efforts of Nagyerdei Korisok, a creative visionary in Budapest, Hungary, Freestyle Ice Skating now has an active worldwide community. See here to learn more about this inspirational story in Mr. Korisok’s own words:
There are a number of sessions we can all learn from this as Skating Artists.
- Most importantly, skating art is diverse. Nobody owns skating, or even figure skating. This is a point World Figure Sport has made in the past, but the existence of Freestyle Figure Skating drives it home.
- Effective use of the internet, YouTube and Social Media is essential to building active and engaged communities. Here we see how one person with a vision, through a combination of skillful practice, hard work, top-quality videography and the magic of YouTube, was able to build a worldwide community of Freestyle Ice Skaters — people who now come annually to Budapest to work together.
- There is infinite creativity in skating, and that creativity is best harnessed via a bottom-up inclusive approach engaging the whole community. Mr. Korisok solicited and encouraged videos from others, to see what they could come up with in this new sport. Here we see the 540 Trick… Mr. Korisok learned about it from someone else’s video and was so impressed, he worked hard to learn it himself.
- Every Community has boundaries, but they need to be flexible. Imagine if one of these people showed up at a World Figure Sport Fancy Skating competition… how would they be received? My hope is they would be celebrated because what they are doing is so awesome. But would they win? Does this fit into the category of Fancy Skating? If we look carefully at the guidelines for what Fancy Skating is… probably not, and that is OK. Freestyle Ice Skating has its own community and nascent organization to work with. But the lesson here is, we all lose when we define ourselves so narrowly we believe that our definitions are the only worthwhile standards. That is a big problem in figure skating today, and that is why seeing the energy and creativity of this new discipline is so refreshing.
- The Roots of Ice Skating are on Natural Black Ice: Mr. Korisok initially developed his art on natural ice because nobody would allow him to practice in established indoor ice rinks. But his videography also highlights the sublime beauty of black ice, the patterns his skates make on it, and the show lifted up in fancy stops. It also shows the pitfalls, for example when the surface is covered in water. This is a lesson we must never forget; and we would do well to seek out natural ice for ourselves, when we can.
- The Victorian Era was the Golden Age of Figure Skating Creativity — but it doesn’t have to live in the past. As we see so clearly in Freestyle Ice Skating, the creative era must be today. We have a storied history full of important knowledge that needs to be embodied and passed on to future generations. But at the same time, we must look forward to the future, encouraging each and every Skating Artist to find their own voice. We study the past technique not to limit ourselves, but instead free our bodies for artistic expression in new and humanizing ways that are relevant and fitting to us. Here we see Elladj Baldé so beautifully embody and explain that lesson for us.
- Think Creatively with New Technology. Mr. Korisok released a Freestyle Ice Skating video game, which allows anyone to experience the moves and rhythm of this sport without risking their neck. What would a Figures and Fancy Skating video game look like? How could aspiring figure skatings learn fundamental concepts about balance, lean and flow in this way?
So… what would I like to see out of this? Let’s see how we can use the internet more effectively year-round to build community and encourage creativity among Figure Skating Artists. For example… why not hold periodic “Creative and Fancy Figures” contests via YouTube, thereby maintaining engagement in-between the annual event in October. Skating Artists would send in videos of something creative, and the winners would be highlighted and promoted, with maybe some small gift-like prize. These would become challenges that others in the community can learn and improve. Maybe videos could win in various categories: “Most creative fancy move”; “Fanciest figure”; “Best videography on Black Ice”; etc. The contest might do best to focus on Figures in the Field and no more than 1 minute long, aka the Bieberhofer Flying Figure. This format would be easier to put together than a 3-minute Fancy Skating program, but offer more room for different kinds of creativity than a requirement of strict figures with six tracings.
OK that’s enough. In the meantime, enjoy these Freestyle Ice Skating YouTube Channels (and there). Look for moves you might dare to try in whatever skates you have — but please stay safe! And if you can, catch some Freestyle Ice Skating at Disney on Ice!