The Collective

It's fall where I am and I'm back to blogging.  Thanks for stopping by.

You may have seen them on Facebook already ... does Mazurka Monday or Turnout Tuesday ring a bell?  If not, check out The Collective on Facebook.

It's run by three amazing coaches, Chris Nolan, Vesna Markovich and Mark Hird and it brings such a fresh new take on skating.  Sort of the opposite of Ice Charades - while I'm looking for anything cheesy, quirky or downright goofy, they're bringing you all that's good in the world of figure skating.  Their motto, "moving classic basis forward" highlights quality and passion in skating.

Will you be in Toronto on Wednesday?  They're putting on a workshop at the National Performance Centre, York Univerity as part of the Skate Canada Development Series.   And it's free!  That's another classy move.

Check it out at npctoronto.skatecanada.ca.

Here's to the Chorus!

Here's to the Chorus - 

We'll never get our own TV special or Olympic commentating gig.  We'll never make a hairstyle famous or get our face on a box of Cheerios.

BUT, we will give the A-list skaters time to rest and change costumes.  We will be budget friendly and usually less demanding.  And most importantly, no single skater, no matter how good, can do a kick line like this ...
 

Ice Charades is going on vacation for a bit and won't be posting until some time in September.  Yes, Ice Charades is in there, but it doesn't matter where.

Have a great end of the summer.  Come back for fall!

Our pick for the best skater in the world ...

I had lunch with a former skater and ice show mentor when I visited the Twin Cities and much of our discussion came back to one skater.  We were both gushing, since he's a hometown boy.  I've never met him, but I've written about him, written to him, and have had the pleasure of seeing him skate live. 

If you were able to get to "Quiet As It's Kept" in May in Minneapolis or caught this beauty of a program, "A Journey to Solace" performed in June at the American Ice Theatre, then you would know we were talking about Rohene Ward.

Currently, he may be better known as Jason Brown's choreographer. 

And that's our pick for the best skater in the world at this time.  And perhaps for all time?  (Okay, that last part may be hard to declare, but it often gets me wondering when we'll hit peak skating) but for now ... we think Rohene's the best.  Seriously. 

Now I don't mean in a true, competitive, let's tally up the Code of Points (CoP) kind of way - more in an overall, performer-meets-athelete on the ice kind of way.  If you want to start the discussion, I'm cool with that, but before you say he doesn't even compete anymore/he can't be better than the Olympic or World champion ... I would say, he can do his doubles and triples both ways.  Can anyone else do that?

So there you go, I've included a You Tube video of the program where I first saw him skate.  I was in awe, but if you search for Rohene on You Tube, you'll be rewarded with a dozen different programs.

You're welcome. 

So This Happened ...

The Toller Memorial in Toronto on June 25, 2015.  Click here to see photos and read more about it.  It would have been amazing to have been there, but I'm grateful my family made the trip to visit in Mexico when we had the chance.

There's more happening for Toller, this time in New York City.  He will be honored by the Ice Theatre of New York on October 30, 2015 for their 30th Anniversary Benefit Gala.  Maybe I will make it to that one.

The Women's List

as promised ...

Same thing as the mens' list - it's in Spanish and it's got points if you want to rank them yourself.  Or you can just scroll down and ponder.

I can think of one missing skater .... nine-time US champion and multiple World and Olympic medalist, Maribel Vinson Owen.  She was tragically one of the skaters that died in the 1961 plane crash on the way to the World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia along with her two daughters.


I'm grateful to see a home-town (of St. Paul, Minnesota) favorite, Vivi-Anne Hultén make the list.  Considering she was a rival to Sonja Henie among controversial judging, I'd like to see her rank higher, but that discussion is for another day.

Can you think of anyone missing? 

Ice Cold Combos in Concert

They are so close to their fundraising goal ... can you help out?

The concert is June 26- 28 at the Ice Chalet in Knoxville, TN.  Tickets are available from www.productionsonice.com.

There's lots of chatter from the cast on Facebook and Twitter, so head to #iceconcert or #icecoldcombos if you want to get a sneak peek at rehearsals.

Toi toi guys!

Ranking the 100 Best Men in Figure Skating

No, I'm not prepared to name them ... but 20 Minutos is and it's a fun list to read, you can scroll the whole thing (no pesky "NEXT" buttons to keep hitting) and it does seem pretty complete.  But brace yourself kiddos, it's in Spanish.  I came across it from a tweet by Binky's Johnny Weir Blog.  And you can put in your own vote, so it's not over yet.

Can you guess who Binky's favorite skater is?


Anyone you can think of that didn't make the cut?  Personally, I would like to see Scott Williams up there, but this list skews toward competition, not shows.  This list also skews to younger skaters whose fans are all over the internet.  Where's Gary Beacom's internet fan base?  Anyone else?

Up Next - the women's list ...