Darrell Levack loves a challenge — which is why he has two master’s degrees, black belts in taekwondo and kung fu, is fluent in Mandarin and took up ice dancing at age 64.
ments,
Impressive accomplish- certainly, but what
makes his athletic achieve- ments even more remarkable is Levack is paralyzed in the left arm. Stricken with polio when he was just 3 years old, the disease also weakened his right leg. But Levack never dwelled on his disabilities; in- stead he views polio as “a gift” that shaped the course of his life.
“Nothing was easy so I
developed determination and always worked very hard at everything I did,” he said. “My father never babied me; he immediately enrolled me in the martial arts and encour- aged me to play basketball and learn to ski.”
Levack decided to take
up skating as a senior after accompanying his wife, Tao Wang, to the rink when she was taking lessons to learn to skate. “After sitting in the stands
watching her for a few weeks I decided I should do this with her,” he said. She’s since hung up her
skates, but Levack is hooked. “It’s my passion. I love
that it’s difficult. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it,” he said. “I also love the flow, the movement and learning the dance patterns. The soft movement of ice dance is sim- ilar to kung fu.” Now 66, the retired finan-
cial analyst believes his many years of athletic training in the martial arts and as a ski instructor may be the reason why he was able to go from hanging on to the boards at the Champion Skating Center in Cromwell, Conn., to working
on his silver compulsory danc- es in just two years. He skates about three
hours a day, five days a week and is coached by Matthew Gates alone and also with his partner, Nina Handleman. Besides learning how to
skate and dance, Levack has the
additional hardship of
figuring out how to lead and partner without the use of one arm.
“We try different things
to make it work,” he said. “My coach is teaching me to use my core more and my part- ner can hold my arm up in the dance position. Everyone is so surprised when they learn that I can’t use my left arm and thought it was a style of skat- ing.”
They are considering
competing in the future but for now, Levack is OK with his progress.
“Of course I
wish it were faster,” he said. — Laura Fantarella
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