The Art Of Figure Skating

My life has been related to ice since I was four years old. Even though I did not succeed at figure skating, I had an opportunity to watch trainings of other sportsmen. I grew up, watching how talented people were rising above the ice and creating amazing figures in the air. Each skater had own music theme, characterizing him or her. They rehearsed programs for hours every day to make them perfect. Each program must comply with world regulations to be able to compete. The figure skating performance must include four kinds of elements: jumps, spins, spiral, and footwork sequences.

The easiest elements in program are footwork sequences, or, how we call them, steps. Their purpose is to connect other, more complicated elements. While doing them, skaters draw patterns on ice. It can be straight lines, circulars, or loops. It starts to look like a real dance when you add the arm movements. For an audience, it seems like skater naturally does all these motions, without any tension. But sportsman has been spending hours every day, to make them look easy. He knows exactly how and when he should perform every small step. Spiral is a required move in women’ singles and pair skating, when majority of gentlemen prefer to ignore it. Skater should glide on one blade, while raising the free lag above hip level. It is called arabesque in ballet. This movement demonstrates combination of flexibility and balance. A final pose depends on fantasy and skills of sportsman or choreographer, who is responsible for the ice dance. My favorite spiral was performed by Yulia Lipnitskaya, a fifteen-year-old girl, who crushed the competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Dancing to the soundtrack from the movie “Schindler’s List”, she accurately extended her leg behind the head, forming gymnastic split on skates.

At such moments you realize, figure skating is not just a sport, but a combination of art and athletics. One of the most important elements in Figure skating are the spins. You can easily identify them during performance. They are based on rotating around a single point on the ice. While spinning, person demonstrates one or more poses. He changes them by varying positions of arms and legs. Some coaches count Biellmann as the most difficult spin. It is performed only by ladies as it requires great flexibility. Sportsman needs to carry foot extended behind the head. And again, my favorite performer here is Lipnitskaya.