A merging of arts Skaters turning to dancers for their expertise by MIMI WHETSTONE W
ith the rising popularity of dance competitions on reality television and tours featuring the world’s best dancers, more of dancing’s
champions have become household names than ever before.
As the 2014 Olympic Winter Games ap-
proach, creative worlds are colliding as more and more star athletes are turning to the stars of the dance floor in order to excel as artists, a strategy that three-time U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott feels has paid off.
“I think bringing in people who don’t work
with figure skating brings in a fresh perspective,” Abbott said. “Dancers provide different ways to move and new ways to do things that most skat- ers aren’t used to. Te product is far more chal- lenging, but worth it, in my opinion.” Last season, Abbott created his “Swing”
short program with the assistance of Benji Schwimmer, an eight-time world Swing dance champion and the season two winner of Fox’s reality series “So You Tink You Can Dance.” “Seeing the massive success that Jeremy has
gotten from ‘Swing’ has been such a validation,” Schwimmer said. “To see someone benefit from the basic knowledge of dance and literally em- body the spirit of it in a nondance spectrum was worth more than a win at the U.S. Champion- ships, though that was definitely awesome, as well.”
After their success in the 2012 season, Ab- bott and Schwimmer reteamed for a second year to create Abbott’s 2013 short program set to Na- than Lanier’s “Spy.” “Tis time around it wasn’t so difficult to get my ideas out on the ice with Jeremy,” Schwim-
Benji Schwimmer and Jeremy Abbott work on the skater’s “Spy” program.
mer said. “It’s not our first time at the rodeo, so to speak. Te most difficult issues I’ve encoun- tered are trying to get all the nooks and crannies accented musically when there are rules and preps to jumps that sometimes take precedence over musicality. Te artist just shuts off and the technician turns on, leaving the viewer feeling a sense of worry and disconnect.”
While the task of bringing the best of the
floor to the best of the ice can prove to be diffi- cult, in the end, Abbott feels the advantages out- weigh the challenge. “Even though the audience watching the
choreography may not realize that a dancer set the program, they recognize that there is some- thing different, something special about the over- all product,” Abbott said. “Translating the move- ment to the ice is a monumental challenge for me. Finding a way to make the same movement patterns with different foot action and making the piece translate to skating terms is a headache, but worth the loss of hair.” For ice dancing, the program components
are factored separately and then added together. Te idea behind the factoring is to place more emphasis on the components that are most im- portant to each dance, an area in which ice danc- ers are seeking guidance from the stars of the ballroom dance world. “We had looked to different types of dance
specialists in the past to help us bring authentici- ty to our performances,” said Maia Shibutani, the 2011 World bronze medalist with her brother, Alex. “Since last season’s (2011-12) short dance rhythm was Latin, we knew we needed assistance from someone who could help us learn a new style of dance and translate it from the floor to the ice.”
Te Shibutanis found what they were look-
ing for in Corky Ballas, an eight-time undefeated U.S. champion, winner of the Open World Brit- ish Championship in Blackpool, England, Pro- fessional World champion and professional danc- er on the ABC series “Dancing with the Stars.” “Working with Corky was a lot of hard
work, but at the same time, so much fun,” Alex said. “His energy and enthusiasm were infectious, and although the choreography and technique he gave us were challenging, his belief in us pushed us to try things we didn’t think were possible. Re- alizing the potential difficulties of taking a dance learned on the floor and bringing it to the ice, the three of us challenged ourselves to broaden our skills and movement vocabulary.” Renowned as a competitor and choreogra- pher on the floor, Ballas acknowledges the chal-
58 MARCH 2013
Jeremy Abbott performs his “Swing” short program, which was a collaborative effort between himself and World champion dancer Benji Schwimmer.
lenges of abiding by the technical rules of figure skating, but encourages skaters to take advantage of the guidance available to them. “Te challenge is making dance choreogra- phy that the individual is open to and can exe- cute, while adhering to their rules,” Ballas said. “Skaters can benefit definitely from dancers, to get fresh ideas and open their minds. Te prob- lem I see is that most of them are closed in their thinking.” Te Shibutanis, who train in Canton,
Mich., share the ice with both 2011 World champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White and 2010 Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, all of whom utilized the exper- tise of Elena Grinenko, a professional national and World ballroom champion who, like Ballas, was a professional partner on “Dancing with the
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