November 2002
Week of November 3, 2002
Rhythm Blues
I only skated once this week; although, I had planned another trip and actually spread my skating clothes out on the bed ready to go. I decided I did not want to be bothered and felt too tired, so I opted for an aerobics class instead. A friend, who had attended the session, assured me I had unknowingly made the right choice because the traffic was horrible, and I would have been trapped on the freeway for over an hour. When I finally did get to the rink, it was a school holiday and the session was packed. Fortunately, my coach gave me a lesson before the place became too chaotic.
After reviewing two familiar dances, the Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango (and earning higher marks from my coach for the Waltz), she introduced the Rhythm Blues. In addition to the basic steps incorporated in the other two dances, the Rhythm Blues also includes inside swing rolls and a series of tricky little cross-behind chassés. Cynthia demonstrated the cross-behind chassés while I watched nervously. They looked like a perfect excuse to catch a toe pick and face plant while skating faster than usual. She scolded me for my childish fears and explained that the secret to these simple but effective steps is to touch down with the heel of the blade first then follow through by placing the rest of the rocker onto the ice. Subsequently, the chassé occurs as the free foot slides off the ice.
Her description quelled my apprehension and I bravely crossed my foot behind, allowing it to take the ice heel first. The other foot slid forward and lifted in a pretty chassé. I laughed with delight. This is a beautiful step and I did it without frightening myself. Cynthia led me around the rink, counting and calling out the pattern of movements. My body complied, and I even executed the treacherous sequence of cross-behind chassés without a stumble. Of course, after she moved on to her next student, I caught my blade a few times, stepping clumsily on my own skate. While these chassés are not especially difficult, they do not resemble any basic freestyle element or lower level moves in the field exercise. Until I get used to them, I cannot become overconfident.
Shortly after my lesson, the rink became a three-ring circus. I skated for about another hour, carving out a spin space for myself that I just as often filled with cross-behind chassés and the other new Rhythm Blues skill, the flare (also know as a lilt). The flare is an attractive twist on the basic progressive. From the deep knee of a forward push, the skater lifts then descends to complete the progressive. I enjoy the lilting action of flares and proceeded around the hockey circle in both directions creating patterns of flares and progressives.
These small skills, almost invisible on television, are the key to my improvement. They have increased the speed, style, and quality of my skating. My Dutch Waltz has become so swift that I am struggling to control the cross rolls that occur at the end of the rink. I love ice dance.
Week of November 10, 2002
Master of Illusion
Preoccupied with more important issues and obligations, I almost stayed home after a poor night’s sleep. However, I decided to push myself to get to the rink. To retain my skills and possibly even improve, I must skate more frequently. Skating also serves as therapy, clearing my mind and helping me to regain perspective.
“Is every damned day a school holiday?” I wondered as a group of princesses entered the lobby. These girls are the epitome of freestyle brat syndrome. While none of them is especially good, they have exaggerated opinions of themselves and commandeer the ice and the cassette player. The cassette player is the bane of many adult skaters’ existence. If an adult can cope with selfish, pushy kids shouting “excuse me”, passing hazardously close, tossing dirty looks, and playing chicken with no intention of backing down; the stereo system is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. (Yes, pun intended.) While I can tolerate most freestyle behavior as long as the skaters are not overly advanced, I struggle to accept greedy kids who play the same program music repeatedly without so much as a runny nose break. These girls are already preparing a stupid group number for a Christmas show. They queued their silly holiday jingle at least five times in a row then each one took turns with individual routines. One of them made a face at me and called: “Behind you” but would not break her path. When I dodged out of her way, she responded with: “Thank you”. As though I had a choice other than body slamming with her. Based on my physical size, the adolescent would get the short end of that stick, but her watchful mother would probably blame the collision on me. As the quality of this session continues to deteriorate, I wished I had yielded to my tiredness and stayed home.
While the rink hogs practiced their sloppy group act in the middle, the adult skaters spun and jumped at the ends. Centering a fast camel, I recalled a variation performed by an elite skater in a recently televised competition. I have tried forward illusions before with little success. Most commonly, illusions are performed from backward camels or backward upright spins. Illusions look impressive but are difficult to do well. None of the show-offs rehearsing for the Christmas pageant could do a worthwhile illusion. I have owned the standard backspin illusion for many years and can exit a back camel with an illusion quite competently.
In previous attempts, dipping into a forward illusion always demoted the spin to a shallower edge that refused to rotate. Surprisingly, my torso dropped, free leg rose, and I continued to bounce completing three illusions before exiting the maneuver. I had executed a smooth effortless forward illusion. Professional skater and former world champion, Denise Biellmann, performs a glorious forward illusion-forward sit spin combination. Following two illusions, I descended into a sit spin and finished with a scratch.
I cannot explain why, on this particular day, I was suddenly able to do a forward illusion as though it were as easy and straightforward as a basic one-foot spin. Yet, it felt natural; an obvious extension of what my body already knew. The idea to turn a forward illusion occurred to me while camel spinning, inspiring me to try the trick spontaneously. I had not psyched myself out with over-preparation. Did I mention how decent my Canasta Tango has become or how confidently I am dancing the Dutch Waltz? I suspect a connection between the coordination, timing and balance required for ice dance and my unforeseen success with the daunting forward illusion.
Week of November 10, 2002; Part Two
Counting to Ten
The Christmas pageant starlets monopolized yet another public session this week. I only skated twice, which is all my schedule would allow, and these kids were there both days! Aren’t I lucky? On the second day, they were even more selfish and obnoxious. They literally practiced their group number over and over for most of the two-hour session. This is a clumsy assembly of about seven juvenile and teenage skaters of various abilities, none of whom is very good. Yes, a couple of them can do a double but not reliably and not especially well. Most of the time they just skated around, recklessly kicking and spiraling with abandon, and heaven help the poor soul who gets in the way. One unfortunate public skater collided with an aggressive young girl who undoubtedly expected the man in old-fashioned hockey skates to respect her dominance and dive out of her path. The man did no such thing, and the girl plowed right into him. A big fellow, he actually caught the girl as she screamed in surprise. It was probably a good lesson for her.
If those brats played their Christmas song once more, I thought I might strangle someone. Without a manager on duty, I considered making a comment to the employee at the desk. I would not object to a couple of run-throughs, but this had gotten completely out of control. The kids rewound the tape and played the grating music again. I thought I would explode from frustration. I got off the ice and turned toward the front desk to voice my dissatisfaction. Instead, I sat down on a bench and counted to ten. I had restrained myself for most of this session but had reached the end of my rope. This behavior was simply unacceptable. These kids were blatantly taking advantage of the situation. This is not a crowded session and they apparently feel they have the right to convert it into a nonstop rehearsal, oblivious to the needs of other skaters.
While I calmly counted, breathing in and out, and monitoring my pulse rate; the selfish kids finally wrapped. They gathered their skate guards, water bottles, and jackets and filed off the ice. “Thank God,” I thought. At least I could stay an extra half hour and enjoy the rink with the few adults who remained.
A coworker of my husband’s has recently taken up swimming as a form of exercise upon the recommendation of his doctor. This person complained about kids staying fifteen minutes into the adult swimming session and children playing across the pool lanes so serious swimmers cannot complete laps. Upon hearing his colleague’s tale of woe, my husband equated it to my aggravation at the ice arena. Apparently adult athletes who share facilities with children are subject to the self-centered lack of courtesy that seems to be characteristic of many young people.
Week of November 17, 2002
Up to Tempo
My lesson began with a review the cross behind slide chassés that I learned a couple of weeks ago for the Rhythm Blues dance. I have been working on them diligently, experimenting with sliding my free foot down my skating boot to insure close placement in the cross behind step. However, I welcomed Cynthia’s tips about knee bend and pushing the foot out straight in front during the chassé. I rehearsed the dance a couple of times by following my coach's lead around the rink before she assessed my independent progress.
At the conclusion, Cynthia declared the dance excellent and even “up to tempo”. Notorious for my slowness, this evaluation was music to my otherwise tone-deaf ears. Of course, the coach tailed me counting the beat, but I kept up and completed everything correctly. I must be developing a level of competence with these dances that translates into improved footwork and basic skating in general.
Cynthia decided to teach me the ChaCha next, a dance whose steps do not repeat for an entire length of the rink, which is unlike the first three patterns I have already tackled. None of the required steps are especially difficult, but they present a more complex memorization challenge. New movements include an inside chassé, a two-foot slalom, and a “four-beat edge with double knee bend and leg expression”. The slalom is an old favorite from artistic inline skating, and the inside chassé is a simple variation on the basic chassé. The “four-beat edge with double knee bend and leg expression” is simply a forward outside edge held for four beats of music with the free leg extended behind the body. The free leg is drawn in with the second knee bend. This provides a graceful lilting action and when performed properly provides an ideal example of the enigmatic skating phase: “soft knees”. Once I learn the pattern, this will be the most enjoyable of the beginning dances.
Satisfied with how quickly I assimilated the components of the ChaCha, Cynthia introduced a couple of skills for the next dance, the Swing Dance. Backward swing rolls are foundation skills for backward cross strokes, an element on the juvenile moves in the field test. Backward cross strokes have never been my best element, but the swing rolls will help enormously. Instead of crossing behind, the feet come together and push into another backward swing roll. The action of the free leg is slightly different than a cross stroke and, of course, is timed to music.
I also tried backward chassés, which resemble a backward swing roll with a chassé sandwiched in the middle of the lobe. Cynthia strung backward swing rolls and backward chassés together in a training drill that looked remarkably pretty. My instructor is a beautiful ice dancer with the willowy body type to accentuate every edge and extension. She looks at least as lovely performing a simple training exercise for the Swing Dance as a more advanced skater popping off triples.
Week of November 24, 2002
A Good Session
Since I planned to go away for Thanksgiving, I only skated once this week. However, the session was good, probably one of the best this season. Three older adult skaters told me they were also fed up with the young rink hogs who monopolized the ice surface and cassette deck to practice their routines for the upcoming Christmas show. These people complained to the manager who agreed to talk to the youngsters. He apparently rectified the situation. None of the snotty princesses appeared on the day I skated. The absence of these little monsters made an incredible difference in the quality of the session. While the ice was not empty, everyone skated in an orderly considerate manner.
I enjoyed ninety minutes of virtually unimpeded ice dance. I ran through all of my dances, actually performing the Dutch Waltz in time to classical waltzes playing over the sound system. For the first time, I actually “felt the music”. The rhythm of the waltz captivated me and I danced with greater awareness of my body; pointing my toes, extending my legs, and riding the edges of each graceful swing roll. Smiling all the while, I lost track of the number of laps I completed, continuing to skate for as long as the music played.
The other dances; the Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues, and ChaCha; are also progressing nicely. The end pattern makes the ChaCha a definite favorite. I love the LFO swing roll crossover, step behind into a LFI edge, followed by a RFI swing roll. This fun series of steps is naturally fluid and curves interestingly around the back of the arena. I actually find myself making expressive arm gestures through the step behind and LFI edge. Addicted to this new dance, I repeated it countless times.
Realizing how much time I had invested in dance, I decided to switch to freestyle. A lovely layback preceded several other well-centered spins. My flying camels were especially fast, twisting easily into layovers or turning into quick illusions. I concluded a star series with a camel-sit-headless scratch combination, prolonging the headless position. A few explosive loops led to lutz practice, many of which were not bad.
Just one decent session refreshes my memory. I love to ice skate. Sometimes the sessions are so crowded and the skaters so intolerably rude, that I become disgusted and wonder why I continue to bother with this pompous sport. Then a couple of hours of bliss purge the frustration allowing pure enjoyment of the magical glide of blade over ice.
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