Does anyone here ice dance? If so, what do you like about it? What attracted you to it, initially - why did you decide to dance?

I don't ice dance exactly, but I'm learning a few dances so I can keep going on my levels. So nothing exactly attracted me to it, but I'm quite enjoying it. Dancing with a partner is so much different! In some ways it's really nice because there's always someone there, as opposed to being alone, where you are exactly that. Alone.
I feel nice and safe dancing in a pair with my instructor, I don't know why, I just have an enourmous feeling of security and it helps me to relax. I feel protected.

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There are two main things that attracted me to dance. Firstly you don't have to jump. (Other than small hops) I like my feet on terra-firma. The second thing I like about it is the music and the ability to glide and move with the music. I love the feeling of floating with slow music or jigging and rocking with fast music. For me free skating involves 'tricks' which have to be put into a progrram with litttle or no association to the music.

No. Nothing.

(Don't think I don't respect it. I do. I just don't like it.)

Yes. Everything!

I actually responded to this on another board too, but I'll go through it quickly. I love partnering with someone. I think watching two people interact on the ice is more interesting than watching one person (usually- give me Michelle Kwan over two dancers who aren't even looking at each other any day), and I think being one of two people interacting on the ice is more interesting and fun than being out there all alone. My coach and I compete in the Pro-Am events and my only complaint is that I wish there were more of them!

Plus, I know I'll never have the jumps some of my friends have, but I know I can outskate them!

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I learned dances to skate solo. It improved my edge quality, speed, posture ,etc. I find the dances very challenging. I have not taken a dance lesson for a long time but would like to get back to it. I wish I had started dancing sooner. It really helps one's overall skating.

Kay

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Dance is my favorite discipline (I also skate freestyle). My coach actually taught me one dance to see if I'd be interested, and I loved it. Dance lets you express yourself more than I find I can in freestyle and improves every aspect of your skating. Partnering is helpful because you have someone there (Plus, if you're a girl, we get to blame everything on the guy!)

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I do not ice dance currently but I do have an interest in it in the future... My weekend rink has a LOT of ice dancers on the ice and it's gorgeous to watch. Of course, I still prefer FS... but wouldn't mind learning it in order to improve my overall skating.

My only concern is whether I'm gonna be able to remember the dance patterns...

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Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

I started in dance years ago partly after seeing Torvill & Dean at Sarajevo, and partly because I was not having much luck learning a loop jump. Found quickly that I very much enjoyed dance... then when I returned to skating about 5 years ago, I resumed doing dance with the occasional MIF work.

PS... for remembering dance patterns, I think of dance patterns as sets of small sequences, rather than thinking of them as 20 or 30 or whatever individual edge and turn combinations. I also remember the sequences in terms of their location on the ice surface when they're correctly skated. Hope that makes sense.

I also remember dance patterns as sequences stuck together and I'm also picky about making the pattern be exactly on the right spot on the ice, sometimes to the dismay of my coach who tries to steer when we have to weave in and around people. I started ice dance as a way to improve my basic skating, some of the dances are just awful - I can't think of anything good to say about the Canasta Tango, but the fun of ice dance is that when they play tango music, you do whichever tango you want.

I like swoopy edges and being smooth and powerful, and that's what I like about ice dance, the flow. I've got flow and dance comes easily. It's also the best exercise without seeming like exercise.

To tell the truth, I really hate watching dance, the competitive dancers are too theatrical and pose too much.

I wasn't given a choice when I started. Back then, it was very much a case of "Adults don't jump or spin", and recreational dancing was all that was offered. Happily, the situation ten years down the line is very different!

Having said that, I do think all of us should do at least the basic dances - it's good discipline, and teaches us a great deal about the importance of precision in our skating, about placement on the ice, about skating with our music, not despite it, and that sort of thing. I'm not knocking free skating, far from it - I wish I had the footwork that free skaters do, and I certainly wish I could spin (you now need to be able to spin, for dance, which is a pain for those of us who never learnt how!). But I think that, at the beginner levels, the disciplines are mutually beneficial.

However, that wasn't the question, which was, what do you like about dance? I think I like the social aspect, as much as anything; the friends I've made.... I also love that it's something I can do with my husband, a hobby we both enjoy. I love the feeling of coming off the ice exhausted, knowing I can skate no more that day. I love choreographing our free dances, and challenging us with ever more difficult steps - and trying to dance some of the higher-level dances.....

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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!