The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1938-11-29
DISTRICT ICE
FANS EMBRACE
FANCY FIGURES
BY Lillian RIXEY

IHVUI ElUUllAO
BY Lillian RIXEY
Now that the novelty Of the
thing has had its first keen edge
slightly worn off, Washington ice
skaters will begin to think seri
ously of the fun of learning how
to figure skate. They will gradu
ally grow tired of just going round
and round the new Chevy Chase
Ice Rink, with little change of
pace and only an occasional spill
to break the monotony.
SPIN SPECIALIST
Christopher Meyer believes that
there are at least $4,000 Washing.
tonianS (nee New Englanders
Badgers, Gophers, Wolverines,
NorwegianS, etc. who each winter
crave to cut a figure on ice and
who, before the Ice Palace was
opened last week, had to content
themselves with a rare trip to
Baltimore where there are two
ice Kinks or wait for the Memorial
Pool and the Tidal Basin to freeze
over.
With such backlog of enthuSi-
astS, the SNOWFALL of interest in
ice skating should gather momen-
tum in speed and size. Many will
turn to figure skating, plain and
fancy, and later, when facilities
permit, speed skating and ice
hockey.
Most accomplished local expo.
nent of the art to take the ice so
far is 16-year-old Dorothy Smell,
of Takoma Park. Miss Smell spe-
cializes in spins and has the dis
tinction of having been runner-up
in the national amateur Junior
championship this year.
According to Roland Janson,
of the New York Skating Club, a
visitor at last weeks rink opening,
figure skating competition is very
much like fancy diving.
PRECISION IMPORTANT
I'm Olympic or United States
competition" says Mr.. Jansen,
Middle Atlantic pair champion,
leach skater has a required set
of figures which must be run
through. The most difficult of
these are two backward move
ments-the loop-change-loop and
the bracket change bracket.
Upon their grace, style and
particularly their precision, the
skaters are judged. The pattern
that the blades form on the ice
is a distinctly important item
in judging.
For instance" says Mr.. jan
son, "take a simple figure eight.
It must be executed three times,
thus there will be three separate
tracings on the ice. The closer
together these tracingS are the
better, and if the three tracings
merge into one pattern, the per-
Torrance was just about per-
feet"
ICE COMPOSITIONS
Following the performance
of the required routine, each
skater is given five minutes in
which he may skate free that
is, perform an ice composition
made up of steps of his own
choosing. His repertoire gener-
ally includes dance steps, jumps
and spins. Among the dance
movements are the back roll
and the double-three step; the
jumps usually include the diff
ficult AXel-Paulson, the Lutz,
the flip and the loop, and the
spins used are the Camel. the
ballet, the arabesque and count
less others"
There is no limit to the vari-
atoms and combinations of fig
ures which may be used. A
figure-skater should practice al.
most daily. Just as a piano stu.
dent has his scales. a fancy
skater has a set of some eighty
school figures which are the
basic steps for all more compli-
Gated compositions. And he
must practice these indefatig-
ably to give us the flowing grace
of movement which today char
acterizes the art of figure skat-
ing"