Ice Dance

Margaret Helmstetter is a professional writer and former skater.

Jeweled dresses
The colors resonant with life
Blazing in the air
The lights catching
Holding the glitter
Skirt swirling
Legs flashing
Bending low
A step, a glide
Swooping like a bird
Flying free

Balancing, turning
As graceful as a swan
Dips and loops
Spinning, and bobbing
No bird can compare
To the freedom
Taking flight In leaps and capers
Matching your partner
Swirls,

A mating dance
Fleeing across the ice
Catching
Another spin
A leap of joy
A bird in the sky
The music slowing
Slipping leisurely
The final
Twist

Stillness, resting
The soaring is through
The ice dance complete

Figure Skaters—Brian Boitano

Figure Skating Facts, history, and trivia about the people, places and personalities that makes figure skating so cool.

While some figure skaters change coaches so often that viewers are never quite sure who will be next to the athlete in the kiss-and-cry, this was never the case for 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano. Throughout both his amateur and professional career, Boitano was coached and managed by Linda Leaver.

Already an avid roller skater, Boitano turned to ice skating at age 8. His talent became apparent quickly during his weekly group class at the rink in Sunnyvale, Calif., and Leaver approached Boitano's parents about letting the youth take private lessons with her. The two became inseparable. He even spent much of his free time hanging out at Leaver's house with other kids from the rink, playing hide and seek or jumping on her trampoline.

Leaver was not a particularly well-known coach before taking on Boitano. Stories have portrayed her as a suburban housewife who coached at the local rink in order to help pay for her husband's expenses while attending Stanford University. But her honesty, work ethic, and ability to give constructive criticism struck a chord with the goal-oriented Boitano that kept him from switching to a more established instructor as he advanced. Leaver also coached Yvonne Gomez, a skater with dual citizenship who competed in the Olympics for Spain. Gomez and Boitano trained together for several years and became good friends.

Nowadays, Leaver is a figure skating judge. She is chair of the U.S. Figure Skating Association's Committee on International Judges and Officials.

—Beth Braccio Hering

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Ice Dance

Figure Skaters—Brian Boitano