TWIZZLE SEQUENCE SERIES

Matthew Stockman / Getty Images What would surprise people watching ice dancing? Meryl Davis and Charlie White compete in Sochi, Russia. Those are the programs people remember forever,” says Belbin White. Really, the biggest challenge is putting together a performance that’s as technically strong as it is artistically impactful. For others, it’s skating closely together while navigating difficult turns and maneuvers, or expressing the program’s theme for an audience. That’s entirely dependent on the team and the skater. Phil Cole / Getty Images What’s the most difficult ice dancing move? Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean perform their Bolero routine in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. “It’s almost impossible to give an entirely objective answer to that question because of the artistic quality of the sport - which, by the way, is also what I love most about it - but some of the biggest names in ice dance history are Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and the first American Olympic gold medalists in the sport, Meryl Davis and Charlie White,” she says. Sure, Belbin White ranks among the greats, but the skater is happy to share the spotlight with other notables, including her husband, gold medalist Charlie White. Who are the best ice dancers of all time? Then, while in the lift, the lifting partner needs to spin fast enough to maintain that force,” says Belbin. Whether it be speed, or centrifugal force, or both depending on the type of lift, the team has to find the perfect moment to use all those factors to their advantage. “In the case of a rotating lift, when one partner is spinning across the ice while holding the other off the ice, it has as much to do with momentum as it does timing and strength. Streeter Lecka / Getty Images How do ice dancers spin each other around without losing their balance?Īgain, it’s a case of practice, practice, and more practice, because there’s very little margin for error.

Tanith Belbin and Agosto Benjamin compete in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The skaters perform the rotations quickly with a continuous action, side by side, preferably close to each other on the ice (though not touching).

TWIZZLE SEQUENCE SERIES

Twizzles are a series of turns on one foot. There are synchronized twizzles, however, which are the same number of rotations (or more) than a quadruple jump but the blades stay in contact with the ice while spinning through fast rotations at a high speed,” says Belbin. “No jumps in the ice dance competition, like what you see in singles and pairs skating.

Twizzle sequence