I've been wondering how many of you have a dance background - I'm referring to dance on the ground, not on ice.

Did you dance before picking up skating? Or did you take up dance after taking up skating? Or not at all?

Do you feel that dance helps with your skating.

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I did ballroom, and it doesn't really help. Maybe my balance was better to start with and I know a little about the positions of your shoulders in respect to your hips and in respect to eachother so that might've been why I got the edges relatively fast and clean, but it doesn't help for jumping or spinning and it doesn't help for presentation because in ballroom you're keeping your arms to yourself, you're not doing fancy tricks with them - generally speaking.

11 years classical ballet training up to the age of 16, the last 5 years of that being at a professional vocational school, with at least 2 hours training every day.

Decided to quit, as I was realistic and knew I wasn't good enough for soloist status and didn't want to be in the corps de ballet for the rest of my dancing life.

It has helped huuuuuugely in my skating (apart from the fear factor in those darn backward crossovers!) - apparently I have good poise and posture, and my arm and upper body positioning comes very easily to me. I just have to work out what happens below my waist! I am also quite "body aware" so instructions are easy for me to follow.

Although still doing the Skate UK, it has been suggested that I think about solo dance which I really like the idea of, although I would like to do freestyle to some extent - spinning looks like fun! Although the spinning could cause me a problem initially - dancers "spot" when turning (keeping your eyes fixed on one point), and skaters do the exact opposite. I foresee some periods of nausea coming up!!

Other small problems I have encountered were 3-turns being a little difficult for two reasons - first of all I have extensive turnout, and getting that "closed hip" feeling is quite tricky (but that's just as much down to genetics as ballet). It is also quite odd for me to do turns that aren't on my toes with straight knees!!

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Amanda

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance . . . "

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My daughter took seven years of ballet before she took up skating. It certainly helped ice dance in that both her dance coaches have marveled how keeping her upper body perfectly still comes so natural to her. It's given her a pretty look on the ice so she knows what to do with her arms and such.

When she was learning to land jumps she had a disadvantage because she would have that arched "banana back" that did not help landing at all.

Me? No dance. No sports. Nothing. Skating has been the only thing remotely athletic or graceful I've ever been interested in.

j

I danced recreationally for 10 years before skating. (Well in competitions with a high school dance team, so I guess that's competitively) and while I was good, I was never great.

I don't know if it has helped my skating but I do know it has helped my presentation. I have had MANY people compliment me on my first performance saying they thought I had been out there for a long time! Even though I looked at the ice with my eyes almost the entire performance (oops) my chin was up and I had a cheesy-to-match the music smile the entire time.

I have also had quite a few compliments from other adults that my hands/arms are so graceful and they never know what to do with theirs. That must come from dance- because even if my feet don't know what they are doing I have some carriage in the arms.

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-Jessi
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Danced for 16 years, the last few in a professional company. I continue to take lessons when I can, but money and time just don't seem to let me do as much as I like. I had to quit when I blew out my knee playing a sport in high school -- no company will take you after you've had knee surgery. It's helped a lot with my artistry and presence, however some of the positions (like turning out constantly) really are a detriment.

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14 years of dance.
5 years of skating.

I did take a ballet class after I started to skate, but it's not for me.

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I took a little bit of dance here and there. (Tried ballroom, tap, and hip hop.) I originally was looking to do dance again but ended up doing figure skating instead. Then I took my last dance class, ballet (but secretly also took hip hop along with it as well... ) When I injured my lower back and went thru the dot-bomb period, BOTH my dance classes went away!!!

Now my secondary coach is trying to get me to take modern jazz b/c of my current artistic program. She wants me to "shake my booty!!!" LOL!!!

Did it help my skating??? Meh... not really... still can't dance to save my life! But I figured with all the different type of dances and how long I've been at each of those dances that I probably didn't expect much to translate over. I'm definitely hopeless on the arms/hand gesturing thing... the most you'll get out of me is "good posture."

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I skated when I was a kid and quit at 14. In college (skip ahead 4-5 years) I liked to take dance classes - easy credits! Modern and AFrican were my favorites - I tried Jazz, but was really bad at the syncapation...

Skip ahead another 12 years and I started skating again - took a couple of individual classes of dance for skaters (kind of like a combo of ballet and moves that were sort of like stroking...) and then I took a modern dance class and sprained my ankle - that was the end of the dance training for me I guess.

But I've since been in several situations where people ask if I was a dancer (!) - in a water aerobics class, and again at a little dance class at a resort we went to once... - I tell them I'm a figure skater and ice-dancer and they look at me like I am crazy... apparently I know how to take a class (or maybe I "spot" or something - who knows? All the skating has paid off I guess (except for my back - ouch!).

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I took ballet for one year and some type of acrobatics for another year when i was 6 and 7.. does that count? LMAO.

I also did soccer for about.. 10 years. Not that that helps at all.

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5 years ballroom, and latin American, and 3 years ballet which I feel is 100% responsible for helping me to skate (if that makes sense?!) I quietly thank my Ballet teacher everytime I step on the ice, for helping me with alignment and upper body posture, even though it was 26 years ago!

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• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
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Well, one time my friend tried to teach me to swing dance...that was scary. In college, I did my share of drunken club dancing...equally scary to those watching, I'm sure

So, no dance background for me. I didn't even take ballet when I was little. Probably would have helped me be a bit more graceful on the ice.

I took dance at 12 then started again at 15, after I began skating. I just take jazz and hip hop now, but I did take ballet and our rink offers ballet class for the skaters so I might do that as well. I think it has helped me with presentation like Skittl said, and definitely with posture.

Back when I first started skating (during the Nixon adminstration) we used to do summer skating school all summer. In the afternoons, at the rink, the girls had to take ballet classes. The boys would sit around and make fun of the girls. To this day I don't know why they never threw us out.

Kevin

I took Ballet during my middle school years and 'creative dance' during high school. Defected to skating at 17 when they built the arena in my hometown and skated for four years.

When my daughters were younger and both took all kinds of dance classes the school had adult classes for ballet, jazz and highland so I did all three.

Went back to skating just over three years ago - no more dance classes as the skating takes up all my budget....

I think the dance does make a difference.

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

So why didn't they also make the boys take ballet??

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I've been taking ballet classes for ten years now (and still dancing-- I just got back from night 1 of my 2 night recital!)

I was always terrified of the ice and even used ballet as an excuse to avoid "skating parties"-- "Oh, me, nooooo... I have a performance in a few (days, weeks, months), can't afford an injury!"

But two years ago I ruptured my Achilles tendon and was sidelined for a looooong time. So, when I was cleared for normal activity, I got it into my head that I wanted to skate. Tonight was my first recital back on pointe and I had to push jazz aside, but skating has let me soar for over a year now.

I'm positive that dance has helped-- there was a period of time in the beginning when I was behind everyone else because I just couldn't correllate the difference between how to react on ice and how the ground reacts, bending my knees, weight placement on spirals and spins, but once I caught on, new things are easier for me to pick up. Coaches and other skaters definitely see the dance background in my arms and carriage.

I also blame dance for my ability to spin in both directions (though, I swear, I'll never get the whole no-spotting thing down entirely!)

Cons: Skating the day after a pointe-heavy class. Mah pooooooor toes! EEK!

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

I danced recreationally as a young child (age 3-9), picked up skating as an adult and started ballet last year. I can't say if it has or has not made a difference as I am the most ungraceful individual one could ever meet. My only saving grace is that I do have rhythm.

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In those days boy skaters dressed like lounge lizards and didn't skate from the waiste up. The days of John Curry were still awhile off. Even today, few American men go for the classical look.

Kevin

When I was very young, my parents tried to send me to ballet class, but I simply refused to go after a few weeks. Sorry, no offense meant, but I found it horribly boring... That was the closest I got to dancing

Anyway, a friend of mine recently told me about this video of Katherine Healy on YouTube. Very interesting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEPOLBlB9BU

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
~~~~~

At Lake Placid in 1998, I took a private lesson from Katherine, she is a wonderful teacher.

As far as ballet goes I also had no interest in ballet as a youngster, found it oh so boring, so the nice ballet instructor (principal with ballet company!) taught me tap.

I was a recreational dancer, 2/3 times a week, during the 70s and 80s. Started with rock, then disco, then punk. Does this count?

One thing I love about skating, it's possible to dance/skate to any kind of music, even nature sounds. But the same cannot be said about dancing off ice, some music is just not danceable on the floor. (imo).

I think dancers are naturally balanced, so yes, it must help with skating.

Her basic skills like crossovers aren't too good and do you notice she spots her spins? Still pretty interesting!

Wow- I totally disagree. I though her basics were very strong.

I think the spotting on spins was very distracting- it's just not part of the aesthetic of ice skating.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)