How ice dancing differs from figure skating
» Partners must skate close together for almost the entire program and are not supposed to separate by more than two arm lengths.
» A dancer cannot lift his partner above his head.
» Multirevolution jumps are not permitted. “Half” jumps are allowed.
» Ice dancers must skate to music with a definite beat or rhythm.
» Ice dancing competitions allow vocal music with lyrics.
Barbara Kapinus is a former horseback rider, marathon runner and figure skater who holds a black belt in karate. But none of those sports managed to capture her heart like ice dancing.
Kapinus started skating about 30 years ago when she learned that an ice rink near her home in Hyattsville was holding lessons. Kapinus thought it would be a great activity for her two children.
They quickly tired of it, but Kapinus discovered a new passion that, at 65, she plans to practice for the rest of her life.
“Everyone talks about the feel of being on the ice, it’s an addiction,” she said. “There’s just something about [it].”
The leaps and jumps needed in figure skating were a deterrent — the moves were also the reason she gave up karate — and she shifted gears to ice dancing, a sport she said is more difficult.
“It’s a sport that has infinite room for improvement,” she said.
The U.S. Figure Skating Association tests its dancers at different levels of difficulty, employing a pass-or-fail system that judges whether the dancer properly adheres to a specific pattern.
The patterns are so detailed that they dictate every step a dancer must make on the ice from which foot to enter and exit a turn on, to how many strides to take in between tricks.
“Your step has to be right on the beat,” Kapinus said. “I’ve failed dances for being half a beat too late.”
The key to passing is not only staying on beat, but also doing the steps correctly on the proper edge of the ice skate blade, and maintaining the appropriate body and facial expressions.
The tests are called “compulsories,” and they test the dancer on a variety of popular dances from the waltz to the fox trot. If a dancer fails one, she must wait 28 days before trying again. Kapinaus once had to try seven times with seven partners before completing the Passo, a fast-paced Latin dance.
“We have a joke that when someone asks how you did [after you’ve failed,] you say, ‘They liked it so much they want to see it again.'”
Kapinus is at the “pre-gold” testing level, which she achieved by training nearly every day for decades.
“You have to have a big program to be an ice dancer,” she said. “As an older skater, fitness is even more important because if I’m not strong I’ll get hurt.”
Her regimen includes yoga to offset the tightness in her leg muscles, abnominals work to keep balance on the ice, some ballet moves, and some exercises specific for skaters to keep their bodies aligned.
In addition, she skates for more than an hour six days each week, a costly endeavor as renting an hour on the ice at the Gardens Ice House in Laurel, for instance, can cost up to $14.
For Kapinus, the time and money spent is well worth it.
“There’s nothing like spending an hour in the arms of a gorgeous Russian skating coach. How else would I do that at 65?”
She competes about three times per year, but tests frequently. She performed nine dances at her last competition in June, while wearing braces on her back and both knees caused by previous injuries.
Her next competition will be the Adult New Year’s Invitational at the Ashburn Ice House at the end of January.
