Post by Admin on Jul 26, 2019 18:39:05 GMT
What are you teaching at the camps/seminars?
A little bit of everything. I love teaching skating skills, the basics are my favorite because I feel like they don’t get worked on nowadays. Everything is about making the kids jump as much as possible. It is amazing when you see kids, teenagers doing quads. It’s incredible what they can do physically.
But, I feel like a lot of what makes skating so special, and what makes a skater solid, what gives them longevity and a solid foundation, gets missed. When you’re a kid it’s boring. You don’t understand why you have to do it and you don’t understand the importance and the purpose, but I kind of love to make the kids do it and try to make them understand how it’s all connected.
It’s not like, OK, you’re just skating here, then you’re just jumping here, or you’re just spinning here. It is that the foundation of skating is all tied together and what I teach from just a basic stroke to a three turn is going to beneficial and useful when they get to the jumping and spinning. Because every jump and every spin is based off on one turn and one push, where your alignment is and where your body is in space. It’s very important and I really like to teach that.
Who have you done choreography for recently?
I worked with all of Vincent Restencourt’s skaters in Pennsylvania this year. I did Gracie Gold’s programs last year, which she didn’t end up using so she’ll keep them this year. She only did the short, once. Hopefully, we can touch them up and make them fresh before the season starts.
That was actually an amazing project and I loved working with her. Regardless of what will happen with the rest of her career, I felt I gave her something special that was just hers and that she could keep for herself moving forward in whatever aspect that is. I was very proud to be part of that.
Then I did some choreography at a camp in Egna, Italy, and also when I was in Andorra I did a few long programs for a bunch of European skaters. Each one was unique and very fun. I really like to kind of get into the mindset of the older kids. I love what they’re feeling about their skating and really try to bring more of themselves to the ice rather than ‘here is your step and go.’
I want them to have a connection to what they’re doing and to understand why I ask them to do a certain thing. I want to know what they are feeling and where their headspace is so that I can give them something that they connect with. If they connect with it, it’s going to connect with the audience and the judges better.
Do you choreograph your own programs?
Some. I worked with Benoit Richaud on one of my exhibition programs this season, “Pure Imagination.” I’ve worked with him for a few years. He’s a good friend and he’s invited me to many of these camps. Then, the other one I was doing on Stars on Ice and which I will do at “Friends on Ice” and a few other shows is a song called “Weathered” by Jack Garrett. I worked with Michelle Dolley on that one. She is the girlfriend of Elladj Balde and is an off-ice dancer. I went to California to work with her and we collaborated to translate her movement to the ice. We took some of my steps and her movements — it was a lot of fun.
I actually really enjoy working with dancers because the translation is so different. You can tell, even if you didn’t know, that it was a floor dancer that did the choreography. There is something a little different, something unique about the program or the performance because it’s just a different mindset, a different vision. I always find that a fun challenge and I really enjoy that.
I would love to do more choreography. I really do enjoy it and I feel lucky when people ask me.
Do you still follow competitive skating?
I do a little bit, as a choreographer. Probably not as much as I should, but I watched Worlds and a lot of times we’ll have the Grand Prix or Junior Grand Prix playing at the rink. So, in between sessions I’ll sit and watch. But I prefer to watch skating live. I don’t know why. As a child, I never could watch enough skating, everything that was on TV I always wanted to watch. I wanted to see everything. Now I don’t like so much to watch skating on a computer or on TV. I find it — this sounds terrible but it’s not a reflection of the athletes of any standard — a little boring. But, when I watch it live, there is so much energy. You can see the speed and the power. It doesn’t translate the same way on TV. It’s very different.
A little bit of everything. I love teaching skating skills, the basics are my favorite because I feel like they don’t get worked on nowadays. Everything is about making the kids jump as much as possible. It is amazing when you see kids, teenagers doing quads. It’s incredible what they can do physically.
But, I feel like a lot of what makes skating so special, and what makes a skater solid, what gives them longevity and a solid foundation, gets missed. When you’re a kid it’s boring. You don’t understand why you have to do it and you don’t understand the importance and the purpose, but I kind of love to make the kids do it and try to make them understand how it’s all connected.
It’s not like, OK, you’re just skating here, then you’re just jumping here, or you’re just spinning here. It is that the foundation of skating is all tied together and what I teach from just a basic stroke to a three turn is going to beneficial and useful when they get to the jumping and spinning. Because every jump and every spin is based off on one turn and one push, where your alignment is and where your body is in space. It’s very important and I really like to teach that.
Who have you done choreography for recently?
I worked with all of Vincent Restencourt’s skaters in Pennsylvania this year. I did Gracie Gold’s programs last year, which she didn’t end up using so she’ll keep them this year. She only did the short, once. Hopefully, we can touch them up and make them fresh before the season starts.
That was actually an amazing project and I loved working with her. Regardless of what will happen with the rest of her career, I felt I gave her something special that was just hers and that she could keep for herself moving forward in whatever aspect that is. I was very proud to be part of that.
Then I did some choreography at a camp in Egna, Italy, and also when I was in Andorra I did a few long programs for a bunch of European skaters. Each one was unique and very fun. I really like to kind of get into the mindset of the older kids. I love what they’re feeling about their skating and really try to bring more of themselves to the ice rather than ‘here is your step and go.’
I want them to have a connection to what they’re doing and to understand why I ask them to do a certain thing. I want to know what they are feeling and where their headspace is so that I can give them something that they connect with. If they connect with it, it’s going to connect with the audience and the judges better.
Do you choreograph your own programs?
Some. I worked with Benoit Richaud on one of my exhibition programs this season, “Pure Imagination.” I’ve worked with him for a few years. He’s a good friend and he’s invited me to many of these camps. Then, the other one I was doing on Stars on Ice and which I will do at “Friends on Ice” and a few other shows is a song called “Weathered” by Jack Garrett. I worked with Michelle Dolley on that one. She is the girlfriend of Elladj Balde and is an off-ice dancer. I went to California to work with her and we collaborated to translate her movement to the ice. We took some of my steps and her movements — it was a lot of fun.
I actually really enjoy working with dancers because the translation is so different. You can tell, even if you didn’t know, that it was a floor dancer that did the choreography. There is something a little different, something unique about the program or the performance because it’s just a different mindset, a different vision. I always find that a fun challenge and I really enjoy that.
I would love to do more choreography. I really do enjoy it and I feel lucky when people ask me.
Do you still follow competitive skating?
I do a little bit, as a choreographer. Probably not as much as I should, but I watched Worlds and a lot of times we’ll have the Grand Prix or Junior Grand Prix playing at the rink. So, in between sessions I’ll sit and watch. But I prefer to watch skating live. I don’t know why. As a child, I never could watch enough skating, everything that was on TV I always wanted to watch. I wanted to see everything. Now I don’t like so much to watch skating on a computer or on TV. I find it — this sounds terrible but it’s not a reflection of the athletes of any standard — a little boring. But, when I watch it live, there is so much energy. You can see the speed and the power. It doesn’t translate the same way on TV. It’s very different.