A Resource for Ice Dancers

I recently learned about the release of Learn to Ice Dance DVD produced by Sharper Edge Productions. Here's a "trailer" for the DVD (from SharperEdgeProd on YouTube)

They have also put up short clips of some of the beginning dances on YouTube:

Order information and other products can be found on IceDancers.com

Sunshine Quickstep

Just found out today that there is a new compulsory dance, the Sunshine Quickstep! The dance will be officially presented at the 2007 Junior Worlds, but it was performed at the European Championships last week. A video has been put up on YouTube.

Beautiful!

This was also reported on Golden skate as part of the 2007 European Championships Ice Dance Highlight as follows:

In addition to determining the best ice dance teams in Europe, Warsaw was afforded a glimpse into the future as Germany's Kati Winkler and Rene Lohse presented a new Compulsory Dance (CD) called the "Sunshine Quickstep". The dance was designed by Finland's Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko, along with their former coach Martin Skotnicky, and was based on their 1995 Original Dance to Borsalino.

The official presentation of the CD will take place at the World Junior Championships later this year. Alexander Gorshkov, the head of Ice Dance Technical Committee, expressed hopes that it would make it's appearance on the list of CDs in a couple of seasons.

"When you think of this dance," explained Kokko, "I'd like you to think of sparkling champagne and crystal clarity. The steps themselves aren't very difficult, but the timing is crucial and I hope that the judges will take proper notice of it."

He went on to explain that the character of the dance is very light. "But it's hard to do it properly. For example, the footwork is fast and precise, but all the movement is coming from the knees while the upper body remains stiff. The holds have to be strictly maintained throughout the entire dance. There should be no swinging from side to side. In essence, it's a very 'ballroom.'"

Solo dance - Tango

In a quick scan of the newsgroups last night, I noticed a request for the video for the Tango - as in, the ice dance Tango, also known as Harris Tango or Silver Tango. I looked through my set of videos again, and found this from my solo dance event at Mountain Cup 2005. It is a solo dance, not sure if it would be helpful to the requestor, but I'm putting it up all the same...





PS: I had sprained my right ankle pretty badly just the week before this competition!