ice dance pairs !?

[~shasta~]

I was wondering if anyone here has done ice dance pairs, and if you could give me any advice from experience you've had ... I am 15 and working on my silver dances (soon to test), i have got my senior moves and would love to start ice dance pairs. any advice ?

[skaternum]

Shasta,

These kinds of discussions belong under the On Ice-Skaters forum here. That's where people who do ice skating talk about it. This forum is more of a fan forum.

Can a moderator move it?
skaternum

[~shasta~]

thank you for moving this thread peeps

[Jess-ka]

Is it a partner you are looking for? Because if it is the only advice I can offer is to get your name out there by competitions or posting yourself on partner search sites. Finding a partner is like selling a product, only you are the product and every one is a potential customer.

[Mrs Redboots]

Hi, Shasta. I'm not quite sure what you want to know - is it about dancing as a couple, or about transferring your dance skills to pairs skating? We (elderly adults, but it's the same principle!) dance together, and we also do what's called "Artistic pairs" or "Interpretive pairs", which doesn't have the technical requirements of ordinary pairs skating, although we do put pairs elements in. Great fun!

Dancing with a partner, if you are not used to it, is a very great deal harder than it looks! A whole new set of skills.....

[~shasta~]

thanks for all of your input/comments people :) I just wanted to get a general idea from people that have done ice dance pairs (competitively, none-competitively or just tried it) and what they thought of it.
Please post any more comments you have etc.

[dbny]

thanks for all of your input/comments people :) I just wanted to get a general idea from people that have done ice dance pairs (competitively, none-competitively or just tried it) and what they thought of it.
Please post any more comments you have etc.

As Mrs Redboots implied, I think we need a little more clarity here. "Pairs" refers to freestyle skating which primarily involves jumps and spins, while "Dance" refers to dance, which primarily involves dance steps with only very specific small jumps and spins allowed. There really is no discipline known as "ice dance pairs".

I think you will get more feedback if you can clarify for us which discipline you are interested in.

[luna_skater]

There really is no discipline known as "ice dance pairs".

I think you will get more feedback if you can clarify for us which discipline you are interested in.

I take it that she means dance. I have often heard dance referred to as dance pairs.

[dbny]

I take it that she means dance. I have often heard dance referred to as dance pairs.

I never have, at least not by skaters.

[AshBugg44]

Yeah, neither have I.

[luna_skater]

I never have, at least not by skaters.

Actually, the first time I heard it referred to as dance pairs was by someone who used to compete in dance. :D Must be just one of those things...

[~shasta~]

well, i guess i mean ice dance, ice dance pairs, ice dancing with a partner, or whatever you want to call 2 people dancing together. no jumping or any of that freestyle stuff. just dancing with someone.
i just refer to it as ice dance pairs. i thought that that would be clear enough..but if it's not you don't have to reply.

[Mrs Redboots]

well, i guess i mean ice dance, ice dance pairs, ice dancing with a partner, or whatever you want to call 2 people dancing together. no jumping or any of that freestyle stuff. just dancing with someone.
i just refer to it as ice dance pairs. i thought that that would be clear enough..but if it's not you don't have to reply.It does help when you use the correct terminology - ice dancers in twos are often referred to as "couples" to avoid confusion, since pairs skating is a totally different discipline.

Anyway, what is it that you want to know?

[~shasta~]

ICE DANCE COUPLES- thank you Mrs. Redboots :)
I just wanted to know if anyone has ever tried ice dance couples. Whether it was just something you tried or if you trained hard and competed, i'd like to know what you thought of it. I really like ice dance and footwork, and would love to start ice dance couples. Therefore I thought it would be helpful to get some feedback from peeps that had done ice dance couples. ANYTHING you have time to share about your experience would be great (how long have you done ice dance couples, what are some good things about it, and what are some things that you didn't like etc.) If I could think of detailed questions to ask I would, but i'm not sure where to even start...being that I know only a little about ice dance couples.
thank you,
callie (~shasta~)

[Mrs Redboots]

It is a totally different sport, almost, to solo dancing! Partnering is incredibly difficult. At first, you spend your entire time fighting each other - I don't mean yelling at each other (although you do that, too!) - but somehow impeding each other, not flowing together, and your skating as a couple is a very great deal worse than your skating solo. Then, somehow, one day, something clicks, and the whole becomes a very great deal better than the sum of its parts.

It's very rewarding indeed, but, as I said, it is incredibly hard work. We've been dancing together for about five years now, I think, maybe four (you lose track!), and we are still very mediocre. But we improve all the time, and on those rare occasions when it goes right, it's wonderful!

Husband also dances with another woman, who is a couple of levels higher than we are, and certainly vastly more experienced. But together, they have problems as she is not very used to dancing with a partner, and doesn't really know how.

Think about it - you are dancing, say, the 14-step, and it comes to your Mohawk. How do you do that Mohawk if you and your partner are both perpendicular to your tracing? That's not going to work, is it - think how you would have to be to enable you to do your Mohawk? Ditto in the Foxtrot - you can't just have your arms out to the sides the way you do solo. Where do your shoulders need to be? Where do his shoulders need to be?

And think how long it must take of just skating round side-by-side in Kilian hold to learn how to skate in absolute unison, with both free legs extending the same distance in front and behind, both toes pointing the same amount, both knees bending at the same time and the same amount, free legs coming through at exactly the same instant.... and if any of those things don't happen, it's a point or two off your score! In the Canasta Tango, your very heads need to move in unison! You have to be part of a whole, not an individual any more.

Having said that, of course, it's enormous fun. In this country, we have a tradition of social dance nights, where you get to skate with all sorts and conditions of partners, from the incredibly good you'd trust to dance something really difficult with you, to the incredibly bad who you try to avoid except in a Novice Foxtrot! But it's still fun.

[CanAmSk8ter]

I love skating with my coach, but finding a partner and competing is another ball game entirely.

First of all, finding a partner takes a lot of luck. You have to be the right height and build for each other, and often someone, usually the girl, has to pack up and move to where the other skater is, or to a mutually agreeable coach somewhere. I'm sure you know how much the girls outnumber the boys in this sport! Unless you're at a major training center for dance (Detroit, UDel, etc.) you can pretty much count on having to move. You may well have to fly to more than one rink for tryouts before finding someone, too. Dance is expensive, because every year you're working on multiple compulsories, plus a free dance and (for Junior and Senior) an OD. That's a lot of ice time, a lot of coaching, a lot of choreography, and four or five competition outfits each year. These days, many (although certainly not all) boys expect the girl's family to pay some or all of his expenses. And of course, it's always possible you'll find someone who's a good match and then it'll turn out you can't stand him. Spending hours together every day can do that ;)

[~shasta~]

thanks so much for all of the comments-and huge paragraphs... :lol:
you are all fabulous!!!
~callie

oh, and Mrs. Redboots...do you think the whole partnering thing would come a little easier if i had already partnered all of my dances through silver?

[Mrs Redboots]

oh, and Mrs. Redboots...do you think the whole partnering thing would come a little easier if i had already partnered all of my dances through silver?Possibly/probably/I don't know, not being nearly at Silver level. Actually, I know two young women who are to compete in the British Juniors this year for the first time with a partner, both having done really well in the British Solo Championships at their level in previous years. One of them, at any rate, has had enormous trouble adjusting to having a partner, but they have got there in the end, and both couples passed their competitive tests this week, so they must be doing something right! But I think it was a very steep learning curve for both of them - less so for their partners, who had had other partners before.

[CanAmSk8ter]

thanks so much for all of the comments-and huge paragraphs... :lol:
you are all fabulous!!!
~callie

oh, and Mrs. Redboots...do you think the whole partnering thing would come a little easier if i had already partnered all of my dances through silver?

I'm not Mrs. Redboots, but I'll give you my answer- probably not much. Partnering with anther skater your level is vastly different from partnering with a coach. I know very few skaters who haven't done quite a bit of partnering with a coach before starting with a partner (you don't generally test high in solo dance and not standard and then find a partner- it's hard enough to find a partner anyway, I don't know many guys who would want to commit to skating with a girl who hadn't even partnered with a coach). Other than the fact that you're adjusting to a guy who's probably not the same height and build as your coach, he's going to be making the expected mistakes for your level, and if he's coming from a different coach he may have learned with different technique too.

[lil-sk8r-chick5]

i do pairs.. but not icedancing... what are u looking to go into? hehe pairs is alot of fun..:P

[~shasta~]

i would like to do ice dance couples. Freestyle pairs doesn't interest me that much.

[lil-sk8r-chick5]

ic, so u want to do that? i dont no if they do it the same where you live, but where i live the guy picks the girl....(i dont no that mite be just with pairs but im sure its for both) and if you do it that way to in your club you might wanna tell that to one of your coaches or the dance coach? i dont no? sorry i cant help you :??