Black Ice Skating | NewVida Preserve | February 8
- NewVida Preserve 6394 New York 86 Jay, NY, 12941 United States (map)
Discover the Beauty and Skill of Black Ice Skating
NewVida Preserve hosts a workshop with Olympic skater Karen Courtland Kelly.
Skate on a black ice pond.
Growing up in the northeast, you learn to steer clear of the dreaded “black ice” on your favorite ski trails. However, black ice takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to figure skating.
What is black ice skating?
Sometimes called “fancy skating,” the sport’s origins are from the figure skating compulsory events that used to be part of world championships. Skaters traced figures (like figure 8) into the ice to demonstrate their skill in making clean, round turns.
2019 World Figure and Fancy Skating Competition
By the first half of the 20th century, when figure competitions became popular, these “compulsory figures” accounted for 60 percent of skaters’ scores at events worldwide.
I remember watching Dorothy Hamill perform her compulsories in Innsbruck in 1976. She won Silver in Figures and Gold in both the Long and Short Programs.
The International Skating Union discontinued the skating figures as a portion of their competitions in 1990, and the last Olympics to include compulsory figures in the scoring was in 1988.
An Adirondack family revises a last art.
However, one Lake Placid family – Olympians Karen Courtland Kelly and Patrick Kelly – envisioned reviving both figures and the deep connections in the sport with the art of figure skating, and in 2015, they founded the World Figure Sport Society.
Watch champion world figure sport athletes.
In 2016, the Kellys orchestrated the first-ever World Figure and Fancy Skating Championships in Lake Placid.
That event brought back figures competition and skating on black ice, which was the original color of ice surfaces when the sport was first created before the surfaces of indoor rinks were painted white beneath the ice.
The black tint to the ice also allows spectators and judges to better see and interpret the results of skaters’ figures’ performances.
Experience the art and athleticism of black ice skating.
NewVida Preserve in Jay, NY, offers a unique opportunity to join World Figure Sport Society founder Karen Courtland Kelley for a distinctive black ice pond skating experience.
This workshop offers a chance to connect with nature while mastering essential skating techniques.
The session includes:
A 30-minute session in NewVida’s studio covering fundamental skills.
30 minutes of on-ice practice amidst the stunning landscape in the Adirondack High Peaks region
The pond will be open 30 minutes after class so participants can continue practicing their newly learned skills independently, with Whiteface Mountain as their backdrop.
For more information, visit NewVida’s website.
Fancy figures carved into black ice.
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