Death Has Left the Building

The Ice Show is over.

Scariest thing about it? Skating with that hockey stick. I swear, if I do this again, I'm going to work on learning how to do a spin or even a crossover with that stick. And proper hockey skating in dance boots. I felt like a pre-alpha skater with that stick. Tried a 3 turn with it---not doing THAT again.

Second scariest thing? Skating with a hockey stick in the Finale. Dozens of little kids going really fast. I just skate off back stage rather than be on the ice in the melee' and run the risk of tripping or whacking one.

I don't know how the costume looked from the stands. If you were there, please let me know if the bones showed. I'm not really satisfied with the look of the 'robe'. Maybe next time, I'll go with a cape, or oooh, a custom costume. Let me tell you, it would have been cheaper to go custom. There's probably $150+ in all that stuff. The floaty glittery fabric alone was $11 a yard! And I think I cut it wrong. Sigh.

On the other hand, the vertical line on the leggings does make my legs look slimmer. *wink*

 

I skate on Team Death

But now that I have the costume, I'm wondering if I can do a Dance Test in it,

Maybe, the Midnight Blues? Hmmm.

Although at the rate I'm going, that costume might be a heads up to the judges on my ability to do the outside Mohawk in the Rocker Foxtrot.

*Sigh*  Back to real skating for me. See you at the Ice Show next year!

Death takes a Holiday on Ice

Well, another ice show practice this week and I got to pick out my mask. I'm going with the Jason Voorhees look since I will be appearing in a zombie number as Death--Destroyer of Worlds.

Tremble in fear all ye under 7.

Except that I'm a foot and a half shorter than the fearsome Jason, and wielding a hockey stick instead of a machete, and a 60 year old chick, I am terrifying.

So, my mask selection easy and done in two seconds. While everyone else was sorting through the alien, skull, and zombie masks, I was tooling around on the empty, open ice between Adult2 and Learn to Play2. I worked on my hockey stops. Then, overwhelmed by the open ice, I did a spiral while holding my hockey stick.

I was baaad. Naughty. A rapscallion. Totally off the reservation. The mask. The mask took over. Suddenly, I was on a nice edge on good ice and doing a good spiral, while headed directly at a tall guy stumbling around in LTP2. The hockey stick twirled by itself in my hand like a drum major's, and just before I hit the guy, I dropped into a hockey stop. And my out of control mouth said,

"Hey, baby, how you doing."

Yes, the mask is haunted by the spirit of Joey Tribbiani.

I retreated to the ice show area, and behaved like a nice little, old lady for the rest of the practice.

Back Edges and Death

So, I signed up for an edge class at a new rink. Coincidentally, a coach I know at the new rink asked me to skate as Death in the Spring Ice Show.

Yes. Death.

Technically, the short cute version of Death.

I do have an interesting skating life don't I? How many readers have skated as Death? Anyone? Anyone?

As a friend of mine once  told me, the worst transition she ever saw while grading college papers was "Speaking of dolphins as we were." So, here goes: "Speaking of Back Edges as we were."

I've decided part of my problem in back edges is not only my leg position, hunching, and the push off, it's that I really fell uncomfortable holding the position. This rather came to me today as I was tramping around the building where I work and I thought, "These high heels are the same height as my skating boots. I wonder what I can do with that?"

I tried it out in a spare moment of work privacy (the handicapped stall in the ladies room) and yes I can get into a really good back edge position with my body. Since I'm not worried about falling backwards, I have the luxury of working on getting my weight over the right part of the foot while at the same time getting head, knees, ankles, arms and anything I left out into the correct position.

As a shaping and positioning exercise, I think it has promise. I'll try it for a few minutes a day for a couple of weeks and let you know if it makes any difference.