by Amanda Truax COACHES’ CORNER

W

HEN A CHOREOGRAPHY and style coach is not at your fingertips, it’s your role as a

coach to develop a style and presentation training plan for your skater.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are some secret ingredients for developing my skaters’ signature style on the ice?

• How can I help my skaters feel more comfortable with movement and choreography?

Tere are many building blocks to

helping your skaters become more comfortable with movement on the ice. First, they need to understand body alignment and awareness, spacial awareness, and energy.

You can start building the foundation of movement in your skaters by following the concepts and exercises below. As you begin to experiment with these exercises, introduce them with excitement to your skaters, be encouraging, have fun and add a splash of your own creativity.

Music Choice

Right off the bat, you’ll want to choose different styles of music for each of these exercises. Creating the movements to match the tempo of the music you choose is important.

Choose different styles of music

from an array of eras for your warm ups, edge class exercises and step sequences, incorporating stage dance steps. Some of the artists I like to use for slower warm-up exercises include “Diamonds” by Rhianna,

“Journey to the Past” by Liz Callaway, “Try” by Natasha Bedingfield and “No Filter” by Britt Nicole. I like to use more upbeat music for faster tempo footwork steps and choreography — “Stompa” by Serena Ryder, “Hit Me Up” by Gia Farrell, “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” by Lesley Gore, “Razzle Dazzle” by Fosse and “Mr. Pinstripe Suit” by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Photo by Peter Slapnicher FAL L 2 017 29 Always give your skaters a lead-in count

before they start any exercise. I like to have the kids present themselves with both arms port de bras (ballet terminology) with a bright smile on “5, 6, 7, 8.”

Exercises STEP 1

To create movement and body awareness, use warm-up exercises that

focus on

posture, energy, expression, use of levels, focal point and isolations. Have your skaters try these exercises in a standstill position and then add basic skating skills, such as swizzles, forward stroking and deep alternating outside edges with both feet on the ice, right and left.

Alignment: While skating forward doing swizzles and stroking, skaters should focus on looking slightly above the Plexiglas window with spine & neck long, shoulders pressed down, arms extended, belly button pressed toward spine, lower back lengthened and tail bone slightly tucked (creating space between the bottom ribs & top of the hip). Have them skate across

the ice keeping in time with the music and focusing on the alignment only.

Energy: Remember, all parts of the body have energy. Tell your skaters to think of an electrical current running through their body that runs out through the top of their head, down the back through their tail bone and out through their eyes, mouth and fingers; instruct them to propel the energy at the walls beside them. Inspire them to be creative and work on different types of energy that match the music you select, whether it be upbeat, soft, slow or lethargic energy. Ten, have them try the same exercise with the alignment drill and add different energy.

Expression: How do you help your skaters express more with their face? It takes practice; one way is to have them add different facial expressions to the exercises they are doing. Use descriptive words to inspire facial expressions that match the music; for example, have your skaters create a hopeful or a sad facial expression that they must maintain the entire exercise. (A few more descriptive

The following skaters demonstrated during Amanda Truax’s choreography session at the ISI/MIAMA conference in the spring. From left: Julia Enright, a figure skater in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; Darina Korn, an ISI professional instructor at the River Blades Skating School and the Cottage Grove Ice Arena; Steven Grant, a professional skater with Disney on Ice; and Savanna Gray and Allison Blatter, both competitive figure skaters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.