Gliding As One Precision Skaters Discover A Whole New World When They Practice Synchronicity On Ice

There must be a million better places to be on a frigid Saturday morning than Eagles Ice-A-Rena.

A Hawaiian beach comes to mind. Or the Italian Riviera.

Any warm bed would do just fine.

Yet the Eagles rink is where the action is early this particular Saturday. It’s where a dozen or so sprites on skates are twirling and swirling in seemingly endless figure-eights. And it’s where parka-wearing parents, alone or in small groups, sit and watch.

Some sip coffee or hot chocolate. Some talk among themselves. All pay attention to the skaters dressed in a rainbow of tights, skirts and Polartec tops.

The girls — for they are all girls — glide around coaches Tera Caldera and Kim Ferraro, the two women preparing them for Ice-A-Delics, the Lilac City Figure Skating Club’s upcoming ice show.

Opening night is just five days away. And because the show was pushed up by almost two months — “It’s a long story,” the coaches sigh by way of explanation — practice time is at a premium. But the girls, whose ages range from 11 to 17, don’t seem particularly stressed.

Neither do the coaches.

On break before they go through their routine yet again, the girls listen as Ferraro gives them some important advice.

“I just think it would look classier if your hair was pulled back in a bun,” she says.

No one laughs. No one would.

Appearance is important to an ice skater.

Especially to a precision ice skater.

So: What exactly is precision skating?

In the world of figure skating, precision skaters exist as a rarified subset of the discipline that includes such specialties as solo and pairs performing and ice dancing.

Precision skating is set apart both by numbers — precision teams boast anywhere from a dozen to 24 members — and style: While performing routines emphasizing everything from footwork to group formations, skaters are required to do the act in unison.

Think of it this way: Precision skating is the ice skating equivalent of synchronized swimming. And just like synchronized swimming, precision skating is exclusively an all-woman sport.

There is, though, one big difference between the two.

Swimming pools are a lot kinder to those who fall.

After the talk about hairstyles, Caldera and Ferraro instruct the girls - there are 15 for this morning’s practice - to run through the program one more time.

“And this time,” Ferraro calls out, “let’s see you keep your heads up.”

Pretty soon, the rink fills with the unmistakable sound of the hit musical “Riverdance.” The upbeat Irish tune, which has been edited to last through the four-minute-40-second routine, perfectly fits its purpose: Working to its pulsing rhythms, the girls skate through a variety of formations.

These include a four-spoke pinwheel that collapses into itself, two ranks converging into one so that individual skaters whiz past each other with barely feet to spare; a side-by-side line that has the girls hop-stepping over the ice in quasi-Michael Flatley fashion; there’s even a formation that has the girls line up in something that resembles a revolving, snake-like S.

Finally, the routine builds to its finale, an “add-on” (or “catch-on”) pinwheel that features a single file of skaters rotating in a circle. Beginning with two girls anchoring the center, the skaters - still bouncing with “Riverdance” energy - race to their places, two at a time, at both ends of the ever-growing line.

Done correctly, this last maneuver results in a finale where two skaters, reaching speeds as high as 20 mph, dash to their respective positions, sometimes having to lunge out to grasp their partner’s outstretched hand.

The pinwheel finale can be mesmerizing. The music gathers to a crescendo as the girls work their legs, straining to complete the formation.

If it works, the effect can bring an audience to its feet.

If it doesn’t….

Precision skating, which the International Skating Union now officially refers to as “synchronized figure skating,” has been around for more than 40 years.

Legend has it that it was invented by the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Figure Skating Club.

It was back in the fall of 1957, anyway, that a group of teenage girls intruded on the ice time of the club’s senior division. While the seniors tried to perfect their form, the girls worked on a precision chorus number they planned to perform for the club’s annual ice show.

The routine was a success. And precision skating, first performed by what would become known as the Ann Arbor Hockettes, was born.

By 1960, precision skating had evolved into a competitive sport in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. In 1976, the first international competition was held - in Ann Arbor, naturally.

But then the Canadians got involved. Three years after that first international meet, 46 teams were competing across Canada. By 1983, that number had grown to 450.

Today, some 16,000 Canadians compete on some 550 teams, while another 2,000 or so skate regularly in exhibitions.

“I would say that it is the most popular aspect of skating in Canada,” says Barbara Turner, a skating coach for the Victoria (British Columbia) Figure Skating Club. “Most of the people would much rather watch a precision team than singles.”

And why is that?

“It’s exciting,” says Turner, a 30-year coaching veteran who has managed a precision team for the past 15 seasons. “There just seems to be such an energy in the rink when precision teams are there.”

By contrast, the U.S. Figure Skating Association has only 375 precision teams registered to compete. The Northwest has been particularly slow to catch on.

“We still suffer out here from Rosalynn Sumners wannabes, Michelle Kwan wannabes,” says Lois Long, the ISU Pacific Coast Vice-chair for Precision. “It’s a singles mentality out here vs. a team sport.”

Long, a Seattle-area precision skating judge and referee, says the lack of interest is even worse in the Inland Northwest. “There’s nothing on the east side of the Cascades, much to my displeasure,” she says. “Part of my goal has been to help our clubs, and our judges, who I feel need to encourage and promote this sport.”

Interest in the sport is growing. The 1999 U.S. Precision Team Skating Championships will be held March 10-13 in Tampa, Fla. The inaugural world championships are scheduled for April 5-8, 2000, in Minnapolis. There’s even talk of bringing precision skating to the Olympics, even if only as a demonstration, as early as 2006.

Meanwhile, back in Spokane….

It’s the night of dress rehearsal.

Only a few hardy souls are on hand to watch, and this includes the volunteers handling the spotlights on either side of the rink.

Because the ice has to be cleared by 9 p.m. for a hockey game, the show runs quickly through its entire 28-act schedule, from the singing of the national anthem by an 8-year-old tenor named Joshua West to the “That’s Entertainment” finale in which the entire cast skates to the voice of Judy Garland.

The Lilac City Figure Skating Club sponsors two precision teams, but they skate noncompetitively and even then only for a few months prior to each of its bi-annual shows. All of the 33 precision skaters appear in acts - comprising singles, pairs or various group routines - in addition to their precision performances.

The lower-ranked team, the Intermediate, goes first, 10 acts into the program.

The Intermediates don’t take the ice so much as grab it. Their routine is built around Bette Midler’s version of the Andrews Sisters favorite, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” so they are appropriately dressed in snappy, royal blue uniforms, every girl’s hair neatly tucked under overseas caps. A sparkly red trim matches the scarves tied around each girl’s neck, making them all look as if they just stepped out of a World War II Hollywood canteen.

Two minutes into the act, one of the girls stumbles and does a belly flop. But she gets up as if nothing happened.

Then during the pinwheel finale, the last skater pulls her partner off balance and both hit the ice. Yet they manage to get up and join the line just as the music ends.

The sparse crowd applauds.

The climax of the second half involves the second precision group, the High team. They’re dressed more simply, if no less dramatically, in black leotards and green sparkly skirts.

Boasting a more advanced level of ability, the High team skates its “Riverdance” routine with verve. Just like the Intermediates, one skater takes a flop. Just like the Intermediates, she gets up and rejoins the line.

The skaters complete the pinwheel with no further problem, everyone hitting her spot as planned.

One night to go.

Competitive precision teams follow strict regulations concerning everything from age restriction to performance time. Competition violations can result in lower scores.

Even non-competitive teams follow a few informal rules.

As an information sheet compiled by the Denver and Rocky Mountain Figure Skating Clubs explains, one of the most basic rules is “Don’t let go.” This is considered a cardinal sin, to which there is only one exception: “When someone falls, let go NOW.”

And for the skater who is left to snowplow across the rink? Well, as Ferraro tells one skater who in practice has the wind knocked out of her, “What do you do if that happens during the show? You keep going.”

Ferraro, 22, says this gently. Neither she nor Caldera, 31, seem to be harsh instructors. Caldera, in particular, has experienced the rigors of precision skating. An Ice Capades veteran, who this year is overseeing the entire Ice-A-Delics show, she grew up skating on competitive precision teams in Great Falls, Mont.

Both coaches would agree with Victoria coach Turner that precision skating offers benefits that individual events cannot.

“It’s about the camaraderie, learning sportsmanship and learning how to support each other,” Turner says. It’s also a way, she adds, for less capable skaters to earn their time in the spotlight.

“You have to be a good skater to be on a precision team,” Turner says, “but you may not be able to do the triple jumps.”

Sarah Benson exists in both worlds. Standing nearly 6-feet in her skates, she is a perfect blend of grace and strength.

Which is a good thing, considering that, at the tender age of 13, she anchors the center of the High team’s pinwheel formation.

“The hardest thing is probably taking all the weight of the lines,” she says.

Kristin Cowan typically skates near the end of those lines. A skater since the age of 5, she is now a self-assured 11-year-old who sees both the positive and negative sides of being on a precision team.

On one hand, she says, “It’s a fun thing to do. Everybody’s not staring at you, they’re staring at everybody, so you’re not under as much pressure.’ Even so, she prefers skating by herself because, she says, “You can just do what you want, and if you mess up you can change it.”

Her mother knows just what she means. Robin Briley Cowan, like Caldera a former professional skater, performed on an Ice Capades precision team.

“I was the end,” she says, meaning the last skater to complete the line of a pinwheel. The key to success, she explains, is simple: “You have to have the power and speed and guts to go for it. And don’t look down, never look down. You’re always looking for that hand reaching out, because if you miss it, you’re dead.”

Briley Cowan says this on the night of the dress rehearsal, just as the final run-through comes to an end.

“You want to hear the audience applaud,” she says. “It’s fun. It’s a rush.”

She looks at the rink, at the 100-odd performers - two of whom are her own children - who are skating in circles as Judy Garland wails out, “The WORLD is a STAGE, the STAGE is the WORLD of en-ter-TAI-AIN-ment.”

“Hopefully, it’ll all come together tomorrow night,” Briley Cowan says.

And then it is opening night.

Young West again nails the national anthem, despite some microphone problems. Veteran broadcaster Bob Briley, a Lilac City Figure Skating Club booster since its inception in 1964, introduces the various acts of the “17th and final Ice-A-Delics of the 20th century.”

Fitting the show’s overall theme, which is a tribute to the music of the century, the acts range from the cute (a group of little girls dressed in red and carrying oversized faux suckers, performing to the Shirley Temple song “Good Ship Lollipop”) to the contemporary (an all-male act done to the theme from the film “Men in Black”).

In between, moments of individual achievement stand out. Among them: Benson looking glamorous beyond her years as she skates to the ‘40s tunes “Swings Kids” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”; Tanya West, 13, swing-skating to the tune “Jump, Jive & Wail”; Molly Faris, 16, and Joy Bala, 17, looking impressive as they skate, respectively, to the show tune “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” and Santana’s “Black Magic Woman.”

Later, after their solo moments in the spotlight, all four will come back and perform together on the High precision team.

But first, the Intermediates wow the crowd, the only flaw coming when the final girl grabs for, nearly misses, and then connects with the outstretched hand - only to have the force separate the two skaters from the rest of the line.

The crowd, some 500-strong, doesn’t care, though. These are family, neighbors and friends rooting for their own. Knowing it, the Intermediates respond. They are smiling. Their heads are up.

And then, a little more than an hour later, it’s the High team’s turn. As the familiar strains of “Riverdance” fill the rink, you can actually hear the clack of the High team’s skates hitting the ice.

The first, four-spoke pinwheel looks nearly flawless, the lines melding into one another as smoothly as the frames of a penny kaleidoscope.

And then the music changes pace, accelerating as the two ranks criss-cross before joining in a single 17-skater line. They hop-step up the rink, skate into a circle and, as the music picks up even more, snake through the S-wheel before forming up for what will be the climactic pinwheel moment.

It begins with Benson and Bala, each keeping time to the pounding Irish cadence, anchoring the formation in body as well as spirit, as one by one, sometimes two by two, the other skaters latch on to each end. The line lengthens, gradually but inexorably, to six, then seven, eight and then 11, now 13 - rotating faster at the formation’s far reaches - and now 14, 15 and then 16.

And then there’s only one final skater, hunched over and straining, pulling to catch up. The music builds to its height as she reaches out… …and as she falls.

So close, so close.

And yet if there is any disappointment in the air, the feeling fades quickly. Everyone knows there will be another night.

In any event, the girl rises from the ice in time for the big ending, and the High team strikes its final pose.

Those in the crowd cheer and clap and whistle.

They are - and let’s be precise about this - fans to the very end.

This sidebar appeared with the story: ON ICE High precision The High precision team of the Lilac City Figure Skating Club will perform during the first intermission of Wednesday’s Spokane Chiefs-Prince George Cougars match in the Spokane Area. Game time is 7 p.m. For tickets, call 325-SEAT.