Gliding across the ice gives Bethesda artist ‘freedom’
It wasn’t until Caroline Thorington turned 57 that she accidentally figured out she could do the splits.
“I was working on a new program and it had a pivot in it — where you put one foot in the ice and spin around — and I went into a split,” she said. “I had never known I could do a split before and I’ve been able to do it ever since.”
Thorington, a 66-year-old adult figure skater with the Washington Figure Skating Club, began skating about 25 years ago when she enrolled her two children in lessons. When they left for college, she continued to skate and signed up for a lesson. Now she competes in singles freestyle and group interpretive events in the adult nationals.
“Some people say, ‘Oh, adult skaters,’ and sometimes we really look like adult skaters,” she said. “We’re probably slower and not as limber … but there are some people that can do fantastic things.”
Despite spins being her biggest obstacle, it is the challenging footwork that keeps her craving more ice.
“I love the feel of the ice as I glide over it, especially the jumps and all the kinds of footwork and maneuvers you can do,” she said. “It’s just a really great feeling, like flying.”
When Thorington is not jumping across the ice, she is printmaking at her home in Bethesda. Thorington had been an artist for years, teaching printmaking at Montgomery College before working out of her house. Thorington’s favorite works include a panda sculpture she created for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Pandamania exhibit, in which panda sculptures were displayed around the city in 2004. The sculpture was placed in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
The balance of work and skating has never proved a problem, said Thorington, who trains five days a week for one hour a day on the rink and runs a mile on the track. On Sundays she runs three miles. As the adult nationals competition in April approaches, she expects to increase her training time.
Thorington has found her work colliding with her skating world in unique ways — even saving her a couple bucks.
“A couple of times, I hit my chin and that was interesting,” she said. “Because I’m an artist, I went to a doctor and he took payment in artwork for sewing up my chin.”
Thorington also created a costume for a routine to Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird” suite, one of her favorite performances.
Thorington also created a costume for a routine to Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird” suite, one of her favorite performances.
Thorington would like to master some more novice moves and perform an inside spread eagle on her 80th birthday in honor of a friend. An inside spread eagle is a move in which the skater locks her legs and points her feet in opposite directions, moving in an arc.
Thorington practiced the move with a friend when he turned 80 and could no longer perform an outside eagle.
Ice skating “is a kind of freedom,” Thorington said, and she doesn’t want her age to hold her back from pursuing her passion.
“He’s still skating at 80 and I want to be there too,” she said.
