Inspiration from the 2011 Men’s World Champion, Patrick Chan

April 30, 2011 by

Patrick Chan easily won the men’s event at the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow with two excellent programs that incorporated artistry and technical difficulty. His musical interpretation, footwork, and turns are all wonderfully executed, and he flows between each element flawlessly. The announcers said Patrick has taken ballroom lessons to improve his artistry. He likes to watch videos of great performers to get motivation as well. Notice how both of Patrick’s programs look easy as he completes his high-level jumps and spins with strength and great technique.

Patrick Chan – 2011 Worlds Short Program

Patrick Chan – 2011 Worlds Long Program

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April 30, 2011

Figure Skating Spins

April 1, 2011 by

Sasha Cohen

This week I’m talking about the different types of spins – upright, sit, camel, combination, and flying spins. There are different variations for spins and at the higher levels of ice skating, you can get even more credit for difficult variations than in the past.

With the new judging system, the IJS, you get more credit by doing a variation of position, difficult entry to the spin, or a change of edge. I don’t usually link to Wikipedia. However, this article describes the positions well and has good pictures of the various spins: Figure Skating Spins.

Photo Credit: Sasha Cohen by Ryosuke Yagi at Flickr Creative Commons.

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April 1, 2011

Is Performing on Ice the Same as Theatre?

March 10, 2011 by
Christina and Mark Performing to Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" (Photo by David Paterson)

Christina and Mark Performing to Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" (Photo by David Paterson)

People go to the theatre to see a play to be entertained. It may be a love of the arts or maybe a relaxing night out that inspires a trip to the theatre. There are many reasons to attend the theatre.

People also go to an on-ice performance to be entertained. Again it could be a relaxing night out or love of on-ice performances. However, it could be a love of sports as well that inspires a trip to an ice event.

I’ve performed both on the stage and on the ice. I was first an on-ice performer, and that made performing on stage an easy transition and very enjoyable, too. 

Here are 5 similarities that performing on the ice and performing on the stage have in common.

Read the entire article

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March 10, 2011

Inspiration from the 2011 U.S. Ladies Champion, Alissa Czisny

February 24, 2011 by

The 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships were all about inspiring performances. As much as I love to see Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu do well, it was wonderful to see the beautiful Alissa Czisny make her comeback to win the gold medal in the senior ladies event.

After her heartbreaking 10th place finish last year (after winning in 2009), Alissa recreated her skating with coaches Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen. It’s lovely to hear that Alissa’s coaches really believe in her and helped her find confidence in her skating.

Read the full article

Photo Credit: Alissa Czisny at the 2009 Fiesta on Ice. Photo by Queen Yuna at Flickr Creative Commons.

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February 24, 2011

Inspiration from the 2011 U.S. Men’s Champion, Ryan Bradley

February 10, 2011 by

Ryan Bradley was the winner of the senior men’s event at the recent U.S. National Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. I’ve been friends with Ryan for many years. We both trained at the Colorado Springs World Arena as well. I enjoyed seeing Ryan win this title!

Ryan has always been a showman with one of his main focuses to please the crowd. Watch this winning short program and how Ryan incorporates strong technical difficulty (including a quad/triple combination) with a fun, showy style. This should be remembered as one of the most entertaining programs ever for a men’s national champion!

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February 10, 2011