What comes first the skater or the ballet….

When I began teaching years ago I was fascinated by the levels in skating. I remember learning the jumps and their order; the spins; moves and transitions; I was fascinated on the design of the progression of skating and its design.

Let’s go back to the progression of movement beginning, of course, with ballet. The ballet barre ultimately remains the same: plie, tendu, degage, rond de jambe, frappe, develop and grand battement. As you progress in ballet the combinations become more difficult with more intricate movements however the skeleton barre is always there.

It’s like that is skating. Stroking is our plie. Crossovers our tendu. Degage our jump take offs rond de jambe our spins. Frappe our footwork and steps and transitions, develop our spirals and flexibility and grand battement again any “height” suspended movement and split jump and stag jump energy.

So similar and yet so different it’s really amazing when you look at it. But it’s not rocket science it just takes time and study. Time to know each and every athlete as an individual and study of both figure skating and movement. Break it down and think out of the box.

Modular training which is my methodology will prove beneficial to you especially when training your athlete and developing choreographic exercises. Keep it simple and ingrate components rather than movement- expression, performance, interpretation and choreography.

Short exercises well thought out. Based on the specifics of your skater. Modality of movement. Studio2ice.

Xo

Paula