Guest post by Mrs Redboots
An improbable hobby
“Please Mummy, may I….?” How many times a day do we here these words when our children are small? Mostly, we respond “Yes, of course”, or “No, not this time”, and think no more about it.
Our Free Dance 2009 – we are skating to Kirsty McColl’s “England 2 Columbia 0”, hence the shirts.
This particular request came in September 1994, when our daughter was just starting the 4th year at her London secondary school. The school liked to offer the girls a choice of sport as they grew older, and one of the options was an ice-skating course at the nearby rink. Little did we know, when we agreed and wrote a cheque for the very modest course fee, just what we were letting ourselves in for*.
The daughter did the course, loved it, and was very disappointed the following term when it was not offered again. So we took her skating fairly frequently, and eventually found ourselves buying boots and signing up for lessons. We, then in our 40s, were well and truly hooked!
It is insidious, skating. At first you think you just want to learn how to move properly on the ice, how to keep your balance. Then you decide you’d be better off with your own skates. And then they show you how to go backwards, and the proper way to go round a corner…. and how to turn… And before you know it, you decide you simply aren’t learning fast enough in the group lessons, and you hire a private coach. Then you find you have got through all the learn-to-skate levels, and that’s when the fun really starts**
There are national standard tests, taken in front of a qualified judge, there are competitions, small and large, there are dresses and tights to buy***.
Me being Jake the Peg in 2003. I skated that piece competitively five times. It won twice, came last twice, and won a Bronze medal once!
And there are friends to make. We went into skating at the right moment, when there was an explosion of adult interest in the sport, and have seen it develop from very tentative beginnings to being recognised as a discipline in its own right. And have made friends from all over the world – literally, from every continent! We have competed in England and Scotland, of course, but also in France, Germany and Estonia. We could, were we so minded, go to competitions in Russia, Italy and the USA – we have skated in the US, but not competitively as yet. One of these years….
We compete mostly in ice dance. Torvill and Dean we’re not, but we have great fun trying. My husband also does free skating – one year, he was both British and French champion, for the oldest age group and lowest level! I sometimes do what’s called “Interpretive” skating – portraying a character or telling a story, and have even won a couple of times.
Me all blinged up for a competition in 2007)
But competitions are not the only part of skating we enjoy. Recreational and social dancing is still very popular, and my husband, in particular, enjoys the social evenings that are still a feature of many ice rinks. They provide good practice time, and also enable one to dance with a variety of different partners. Mind you, that is really only true for the men – there are always far more women, so we end up standing around getting cold, while the men dance every dance they are able for!
Of course, holidays have been transformed. We don’t have to worry about where we’ll go, or what we’ll do when we get there; our pre-holiday packing focusses far more on the skates, the costumes, the music and the preparation of our routines than on swimming-costumes and suncream. And we meet the same friends every year, all of us gradually getting older, fighting our bodies to be allowed one more year, one more competition, one more dance…..
* If we had known, would we still have agreed?
** You never, but never, tot up the amount you spend on skating. It’s scary!^
^ But my niece does dressage and that is even more expensive – you have to have a horse!
*** The men do have it easier, they can get away with one pair of skating-trousers for everything. But then, on how many occasions in a woman’s life can she get away with masses of Swarofski crystals and heavy make-up? Some of us joke we only do it for the bling!
I’m afraid almost all our action shots have been taken by professional photographers and are copyright to them. There is, of course, this one, which was taken in 2003, and which is the basis for the pastel drawing that I use as my avatar!
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