Episode 7. Delve into a captivating tale of a lifelong affair with ice and artistry, as we dive into Bonny's story . From taking her first steps on the ice to gracefully gliding through the decades, Bonny's love for figure skating, ice dancing, and synchronized skating has been an enduring force. Now at 70+, she kindles that very fire in others as an inspiring teacher. Bonny's unwavering dedication to the ice has brought joy, camaraderie, and artistic expression to her life and the vibrant skating community at MIT.
Join us as we unravel the world of figure skating, ice dancing, and synchronized skating, guided by Bonny's expertise. Discover the unique qualities of each style and learn how ice skating can be both a captivating art form and an invigorating exercise. If you're someone curious about exploring this mesmerizing realm, Bonny's journey will surely inspire you to try figure skating and maybe it will be the start of your own lifelong love affair.
Links:
Adult Skating Opportunities USFSA
How to Buy and Care for Figure Skates
If you're a staff member, alumni or current MIT student:
MIT Figure Skating Club
Video Example of Synchronized Skating:
Esprit de Corps Masters 2022 Nationals
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Find my World Groove movement zoom class on Thursdays, under my name, at: https://theworldgroovemovement.com/virtual-search/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lisa (00:08):
Welcome to the Happy Sweat Life podcast.
My name is Lisa Rung and today Iam really excited to be talking
to Bonny Kellerman.
Bonny actually started teachingfigure skating.
When she was a student at m i t,she's been teaching a physical
education class there for over50 years and she helps to teach
(00:30):
skating classes at the M I TFigure Skating Club.
She's also worked at m i t for48 years in various jobs, and
she's been involved with allsorts of different styles of
figure skating.
So we're gonna kind of talkabout Those and how you might
get started and what equipmentyou might need, et cetera.
(00:54):
So Bonny has a wealth ofknowledge that we're gonna tap
in today, and yeah, see wherethe conversation goes.
So Bonny yeah.
Do you wanna start with maybetalking about the different
kinds of skating
Bonny (01:10):
Sure.
So there's recreational skating,which is just basically going
out and enjoying skating.
There's what's called freestyleskating, which is what a lot of
people probably think of whenthey think about skating.
You know, that would be with thejumps and the spins and the.
(01:30):
Various different moves and theprograms that people put
together.
There's ice dancing, which isbasically dancing on ice.
There's patterns that you learnthat you can skate with a
partner or as a solo.
And there's also freestyle icedancing where you make up your
(01:50):
own pattern.
I do find ice dancing is a lotmore forgiving on the knees.
So As I got older, I tended tospend more time ice dancing and
less time with freestyle'causejumping can do a number on older
knees.
And then I also have beeninvolved with what used to be
(02:10):
called precision skating nowcalled synchronized skating.
And Lisa, you and I actuallyskated on a team together for I
forget how many years.
You did it for A few years.
Lisa (02:21):
yeah.
Two I think.
Bonny (02:22):
I did it for actually 20 years.
Lisa (02:24):
My gosh,
Bonny (02:25):
And, and during eight of the years when I competed, the
team that I skated on wonnational championships, which
was pretty exciting,
Lisa (02:34):
That is exciting.
That was a Esprit De Corpsright?
Bonny (02:36):
right?
And the thing I loved about thesynchronized skating team is
that It was, well, severalthings.
It was mental as well asphysical because you had to
constantly be aware of whateverybody around you was doing,
so that if you were trying tokeep a straight line, you had to
be aware how fast or how slowthe people next to you were
(02:57):
going to, you know, constantlybe modifying what you're doing
to get to the formation that youwere trying to get to.
So I, I felt like it was a lotmore Mental than just when
you're skating on your own.
And I also liked thecamaraderie.
We had a team that actually therules changed over the years.
(03:19):
In some years you had as many as32 people skating on a team.
In other years it was as few as20 people, but it was always a
large number of people.
And I made a lot of closefriends skating on the team, and
it was just a really nice chanceto interact.
With a, a group of adults whoshared a love for something that
I loved.
Lisa (03:40):
Did you feel like you had a pretty good level of skating,
like when you went in there, apretty good mastery of, of your
basic sort of skills when youstarted the synchronized?
Bonny (03:52):
I did.
And I'd been skating since I waslittle.
I, I learned to skate shortlyafter I learned to walk.
Lisa (03:58):
Oh my gosh, I didn't know that.
Bonny (04:00):
I, I actually have a picture of me as a
three-year-old on ice skateswith this great big grin on my
face.
I didn't actually start takinglessons until I was about 11,
and that's actually kind of afun story.
Cause there was a skating rinkin the town where I grew up and
I used to go with my friends andwe'd go skating just to have
(04:21):
fun.
And I used to watch some of thefigure skaters there and I was
just fascinated with what theywere doing.
So at one point I asked my momif I could get skating lessons,
and she was like, why do youneed skating lessons?
You already know how to skate.
So I went over and got one ofthe instructors to come and talk
(04:43):
to my mom and explain how Iwould be able to learn things by
taking lessons that I wouldn'tbe able to do on my own.
And she was like, oh, okay.
We'll give it a try.
And my older sister has neverforgiven me because she wanted
skating lessons when she was akid, but she never had the
foresight to have an instructorexplain why lessons would be
(05:05):
useful.
So, so I took lessons allthrough junior high and high
school.
And then when I went to collegeat m i t, and I should say that
when I was deciding where to goto college, making sure that
there was a skating rink.
There was one of my criteria, so
Lisa (05:23):
Oh, okay.
Bonny (05:23):
m i t had not had a skating rink, I would not have
gone to m i t.
But m i t had a skating rink.
But when I went there theydidn't have a figure skating
program.
And but I used to spend a lot oftime on the rink and I would
teach my friends how to do someof the cool things that I had
learned how to do.
And then my junior year was thefirst year that m i t had.
(05:46):
What was called the independentactivities period during the
month of January, which was alittle different than the
regular semesters.
So they were very eager to trynew things.
And just on a whim one day I'dbeen out on the rink with my
friends teaching them fun thingsand they were like, oh, it's too
bad.
M i t doesn't give figureskating.
(06:08):
And I was like, yeah, it's toobad.
M i t doesn't teach figureskating.
Wait a minute.
I've taken six years of skatinglessons.
I could teach figure skating, SoI went into the athletic
department and said, hi, I'dlike to teach a figure skating
class during IAP.
And they sent me down to thedirector of physical education
who knew nothing about figureskating.
(06:29):
But he said, well, what wouldyou do if you taught such a
class?
And so on the floor of hisoffice, I demonstrated various
things that I would do, and Isounded like I knew what I was
talking about.
So he was like, okay, we'll giveit a try.
And of course I got all of myfriends to sign up for the class
who wound up giving me greatevaluations
Lisa (06:48):
Nice.
Bonny (06:48):
So they were like, Hey, this worked out really well.
Let's keep doing it.
So I taught my junior year andmy senior year, and then I left
to go to grad school, but bythen they had found somebody
else to teach the skating class.
So it continued.
And then two years later, I cameback and started working at m i
t and the The person who hadbeen teaching it after I left,
(07:10):
had graduated, so they needed askating teacher again.
So I started teaching it, andthat was back in 1974.
And have continued to do it eversince.
With the one exception being theyear that m i t was semi closed
down because of Covid.
So I, I did miss a year in therebecause the rink was not open
(07:33):
that year.
But other than that, I've, I'vecontinued to teach.
Lisa (07:38):
That is a long love affair with ice skating So what keeps
you doing it and coming back andteaching it and participating?
Bonny (07:49):
So, I mean, honestly at this point my skating is not
very good.
Just'cause I'm 72 years old andmy body can't do a lot of the
things that my body used to beable to do.
But I can still explain topeople.
How to do things.
And I just love being able tosee people learn something new
(08:12):
that gives them joy and seeingthe progress that, that people
make and, and that's what keepsme coming back and doing it.
Lisa (08:20):
That's wonderful.
So any Suggestions for somebodywho maybe just wanting to kind
of try it out, like where wouldthey go?
What equipment might yourecommend or
Bonny (08:34):
Yeah, so obviously it depends a lot on where people
live.
The northern climates probablyare more likely to have skating
rinks, although places likeCalifornia have plenty of rinks
also But you know, there may becommunity rinks or private
rinks, so you, you'd really haveto find out what's available in
(08:55):
your community.
Most places will provide rentalskates, which for people that
don't know whether they're gonnalike it or not that's probably a
pretty good entree.
But I will say a lot of timesrental skates are not very good.
And for most people who thinkthat they don't like skating
(09:16):
because their ankles hurt.
it's probably that they did nothave equipment that gave them
enough support to be able toenjoy it.
So having decent equipment isreally important.
Unfortunately, it, it does costa fair amount of money to buy
skates.
You have to buy the skates andthe blades.
But as I say, have, havingequipment that gives you enough
(09:38):
support that you can have funwith it is something that's
fairly important.
The M I T Figure Skating Clubactually created a website on
how to buy skates.
Anyone who's interested couldcheck it out.
It's, it's publicly accessible.
So if you go to M I t, figureSkating Club and on the website
(09:59):
there, there, there's a place onwhat to look for in buying
skates.
I would say be sure to go to askate store, not a department
store.
Cause in a department storethere aren't gonna be people
that know how to fit you.
And having skates that fitproperly is really important.
A lot of times people will findthat the size that they get in
(10:24):
skates is smaller than theirshoe size.
'cause you want it to fairlysnugly.
You wanna make sure that whenyou move your foot, that the
skate moves with it and thatyour foot's not wiggling around
within the skate.
But you also wanna make surethat You're not cutting off your
circulation, that you have roomto wiggle your toes and that you
(10:44):
feel comfortable.
So a good skate shop will knowhow to properly fit people.
A department store, you're justbuying something off the shelf
and probably something thatdoesn't have a lot of support.
So you're probably throwing awayyour money and you're not gonna
enjoy it if you try to buyskates from a department store.
Lisa (11:03):
Yeah, I had so many people kind of tell me that they
couldn't skate because of theirankle, lack of ankle support.
And I was like, it's yourskates.
It's not, it's not you.
Well, I was thinking too, the mi T figure skating clubs
certainly has grown anddeveloped when I look at the
pictures and A little videos ofwhat they're doing now.
It's amazing how much haschanged over the years since I
(11:26):
was there.
Do you have more studentinvolvement or
Bonny (11:31):
Yeah, the, the club's pretty big.
I think last year we had maybeabout 70 or 80 members of the
club.
Maybe 50 of those people werestudents.
And the rest are alumni andstaff.
One of the things that m i t hasbeen involved with over the
years is we've been hosting andintercollegiate skating
(11:53):
competition, and we wereactually the very first school.
To host an intercollegiateskating competition.
this actually goes back to thetime when I was skating on
esprit de corps and the personwho was the coach of that team,
Shirley Holsworth, was veryinvolved with us figure skating
along with Pat Hagadorn, who wasthe secretary of us figure
(12:15):
skating at the time.
They both lived in Lexington,mass, and they were concerned
that a lot of People who hadbeen skaters through high school
were dropping out of skating incollege, and so they were trying
come up with a way to try tokeep people involved skating in
college.
And so they had this idea that,well, if we had some kind of
(12:37):
intercollegiate competition youknow, maybe that would be a way
to keep people engaged.
And since they knew I worked atm i t, they approached me to
say, Hey, how would you like toorganize an intercollegiate
competition?
So this was back in the mideighties which was before the
(12:57):
days of email.
So the only way that we couldlet people know that we were
doing this competition was bysending Letters to athletic
departments of all of thecolleges in the area to say, hi,
we're hosting a skatingcompetition.
Let us know if you'reinterested.
And the very first one myrecollection is it was maybe
(13:21):
three or four hours long that'sgrown over the years.
So that now there are currentlyfour regional sections of the
country that each host Threecompetitions in each of the
sections plus nationals.
And last year when m i t hostedthe competition, we actually had
(13:43):
to ask the schools to cut backthe number of entries that they
were all sending.
Because the total.
Amount of ice time it would'vetaken if we'd accepted all of
the entries would've been like30 hours and you just can't fit
that in a weekend
Lisa (14:02):
Right.
Oh
Bonny (14:03):
but we, we, we had, I think it was 30 different
schools and we did wind up with,you know, somewhere around 250
different competitors.
And the, the competitions haveall different levels so that,
You know, it's not just for thesenior level skaters, but you
know, people who are, what arecalled preliminary skaters are
(14:26):
competing against other peoplewho are preliminary skaters.
So they, they have the sameskillset you know, people that
haven't passed tests orcompeting against other people
that haven't passed tests.
And then you also have thesenior level skaters which we
will sometimes have people thatare National or even
international competitors thatif they're full-time college
(14:50):
students are eligible toparticipate in these
competitions as well.
So it, it's grown quite big.
And, and I think partly becausem i t has been hosting these
competitions for many years,it's kind of come to the
attention of serious skatersthat they know, oh, m i t has a
(15:11):
skating program.
So for people that Have theacademic background as, as well
as the, the skating interest.
You know, m i t is a school thatthey can consider, and we have
actually had not only nationalcompetitors, but we've had world
competitors that have come to mi t and competed in world
competitions while they were m iT students,
Lisa (15:34):
Wow.
Do you want, do you wanna do anyname dropping?
I'm just
Bonny (15:39):
So the world competitors were An ice dancing pair.
They actually representedFinland because he was from
Finland and she had somebackground from Finland.
The amazing thing is that theyhad been dancing together before
coming to m i t and that theyboth were admitted to m i t,
Lisa (15:58):
Oh yeah.
Bonny (15:58):
which was pretty impressive.
So it was Jessica Hewitt andYuha Valhalla was the, the name
of the pair.
M i t has a special programcalled the Experimental Studies
Group, which people can doduring their freshman year,
which is an alternative way ofdoing their freshman classes.
(16:23):
So that instead of going to biglectures, you're working in
small study groups.
And both Yuha and Jessica werein that program and that gave
them a little bit moreflexibility in how they got
through all of their freshmancourses.
Coincidentally it turns out thatthe national competition was
(16:45):
during January, which is MIT'sindependent activities, period.
So they didn't have any classesthen and were able to take off
to compete in nationals.
And the world competition wasactually during m I t's Spring
Break which worked out verynicely.
So they, they were able to, todo that fairly readily.
(17:08):
But we've also had a number ofnational competitors.
We've actually had quite a fewpeople that have whose skill
level was, was enough that, thatthey were able to compete on in
the national competition.
Lisa (17:24):
It is interesting to me the expansion of the adult world
of skating.
You know, once somebody leaveshigh school that there are these
opportunities on the collegelevel and then even beyond with
like adult nationals.
And did you ever, did you evergo to adult nationals?
(17:44):
I mean, I know as, as
Bonny (17:45):
I, I didn't, the, the only competitions I ever did was
with the synchronized skatinggroup.
but we have had people that havecome to m i t that never skated
before.
And they started skating as astudent and got really into it.
And by the time they graduated,they competed and, and many of
(18:06):
them did go on to compete inadult skating competitions as
well.
Lisa (18:12):
Wow.
And are they still are you stillbringing in coaches?
Like can people bring in coachesto help them with the.
Bonny (18:21):
Yep.
So, so we have a number ofpeople who volunteer to teach in
our group lesson program.
But we also have a few privatecoaches that we bring into our
skating sessions.
Lisa (18:34):
Yeah, so I'm just trying to think for somebody starting
out, definitely if you're at acollege that has a A rink
seeking out, you know, whetherthey have group lessons or as
you said, phys ed is like agreat way to start because you
also will learn, like you weresaying about the equipment and
as well as the various beginningstrokes and going forward and
(18:59):
backwards and all that stuff.
And then if you have a goodprogram, it sounds like you can
really keep progressing withinthat, you know, whether it's
individual or just To going withgroup lessons, et cetera.
Bonny (19:15):
Yeah.
And what we do at m i t is weactually have about five
different levels of groups.
Lisa (19:21):
oh, okay.
Bonny (19:22):
we start with total beginners, people who've never
been on the ice before.
And we go up to people whopretty much know how to do all
of their spins and jumps andwanna work on combination spins
and double jumps.
And everything in between.
And because we have a, a numberof volunteers, we're able to
keep the groups fairly small sopeople can get good feedback and
(19:46):
good attention.
And yeah, I mean I think grouplessons are great partly because
it's more social.
Just doing things with otherpeople is fun, but you also
learn things by watching otherpeople.
And you know, you either Mightlearn things that are good or
(20:08):
you might learn things that bad,but it, it's an opportunity to
observe what other people aretrying to do and how that's
working for them.
So I think group lessons are agreat way for people to learn.
And lessons are reallyimportant.
It, it's really tough to figurethings out on your own.
(20:30):
The, the lessons are important.
Not only.
For instructional purposes sothat you get good basic skills
in knowing what you should bedoing, but also to get feedback
on what you are doing.
Cause people aren't always awareof their own bodies and, and
what they're doing.
So,
Lisa (20:47):
Oh, that's a great point.
Yeah.
Bonny (20:48):
having, having someone to say, you know, you're, you're
bending forward and you'rebreaking at the waist and you're
looking down people might notrealize that.
I usually tell my students whenI first start the class, well,
the first thing I do is I teachthem how to fall without getting
hurt.
Lisa (21:07):
Oh yeah.
Bonny (21:08):
because falling is one of the things that you have to be
willing to do in order to keepimproving.
If you're afraid of falling,you're gonna be afraid of, of
learning things that you don'talready know how to do.
So we practice falling bysliding into the ice, using the
slippery surface of the ice.
By landing on your butt, whichis the best padded part of your
(21:31):
body to make sure you're notsticking out a hand to, to try
to stop the fall to make sureyou're leaning forward with your
head, tucking your head intoyour chest so that your head
doesn't, you know, push backand, and hit the ice and
possibly get a concussion.
So I wanna make sure that peoplefeel comfortable falling and
then that makes them a littlebit more willing to try new
(21:54):
things.
But the other thing I tell themthat, you know, if they remember
nothing else from the class,bend their knees.
The more you bend your knees,the more control you have the
more power you have.
Just bending your knees is iscritical to almost all kinds of
figure skating that you mightdo.
(22:15):
Yeah, the, the knee is reallyserve like a shock absorber
'cause it gives you theopportunity to bend or extend to
make sure that you're in theright place.
Lisa (22:47):
So part of what I'm hearing is that there's lots of
opportunity when you start, whenyou enter the figure skating
world from the beginning, kindof progressing up to any level
that you.
I was gonna say aspire to, Imean, you may not get to like
professional but you candefinitely get to kind of a, a
(23:12):
level, maybe higher than youthought you could with some
coaching and lessons and timeand effort, you know, spent
working on it too.
Bonny (23:22):
Yeah, I mean, definitely you, you know, there's the
opportunity to make progresslearn new things.
Lisa (23:28):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (23:28):
And as I, in my own case, even though I stopped learning
new jumps and new spins,probably in my twenties, but
taking up ice dancing was newfor me.
And so that was something that Iwas able to start learning
(23:48):
various different dances andtaking tests at different levels
and, and Passing those testsand, and then the synchronized
skating was also, I didn't startdoing that until I was in my
thirties.
So that was a new challenge'cause that was, as I say, a
really different way of thinkingabout things.
Lisa (24:05):
That's great.
I was, the other thing I wasthinking about was sort of the
push and pull between hockey andfigure skating time, is that
still sort of something youexperienced at M I t or,
Bonny (24:20):
So, and we've kind of settled into a fairly regular
schedule that hasn't changedmuch over the years.
Lisa (24:26):
oh, that's
Bonny (24:28):
So the Figure Skating Club does have An hour and a
half of ice every day, and thenfour hours of ice on Saturdays
and four hours of ice onSundays.
And then there's also an extrasession one afternoon that's
another hour and a half.
(24:49):
And.
We probably do a lot better thana lot of other schools.
It was interesting.
I just recently got an emailfrom a young woman who's been
admitted to Harvard as afreshman next year, and she's on
the Canadian national team, andshe aspires to skate in the
(25:09):
Olympics in 2026.
And much to her chagrin, shediscovered that because Harvard
has a Fairly strong hockey team.
They dominate a lot of the icetime and the figure skating club
there doesn't get very much icetime at all.
(25:29):
So she was wondering whether shecould come skate at M I t and
the answer was only if you're anM I T student.
So if she cross registers, shecan take advantage of our
skating time.
But I did send a kind of flipcomment to her saying, you
should have come to m i t, notHarvard
Lisa (25:46):
Right.
Maybe she'll transfer.
Bonny (25:48):
On the other hand, there are schools that have formal
skating programs that havefull-time staff, that teach
skating that have actuallycollegiate synchronized skating
is something that has becomemore popular over the years.
So there are a number of schoolsthat have collegiate teams that
compete, and some of thecolleges even have senior level
(26:09):
teams that compete.
You know, there are schools thathave a, a coaching staff of
several people that arefull-time coaches that work with
the students at those schools.
So it, it ranges, you know, thewhole gamut from you know, that
kind of level of support to,gee, you're lucky if you get two
(26:31):
hours a week that you can haveaccess to the ice.
So for people that are.
Seriously interested in skatingwhile they're in college.
I encourage them to look intowhat that college offers and
what opportunities there are.
And in some cases there may becommunity rinks where people can
skate, but people should checkinto that as well.
Lisa (26:55):
Mm-hmm.
I think there's been a bit moreawareness of the.
Interest in adults to continueskating, At various rinks around
the country.
It's not consistent, but yeah.
There's definitely moreopportunities, I think, than
there were many years ago to, tocontinue as an adult skating.
Bonny (27:18):
Yeah.
Lisa (27:19):
But what would you say were like the biggest barriers
for somebody who was interestedin learning to skate?
Bonny (27:27):
Well, obviously having access to a rink is first thing,
Lisa (27:30):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (27:32):
And having access to decent instruction and having
access to decent equipment.
Lisa (27:39):
Yeah.
That's important.
When I went to Wyoming, theFigure Skating Club, there was
very much geared towards theyoung people.
They did have a little bit of anadult Program, but not too much
So I really missed the amount oftime that it was available at m
(28:01):
i t for adult skating I wasspoiled there.
And I think the other thing thatI really enjoyed, When I was
there was the annual show at theend.
'cause that was such a goodthing to work for, to kind of
work on your skills so that youcould present something at the,
at the annual show.
(28:22):
You wanna talk
Bonny (28:22):
we now have two shows a year.
Lisa (28:25):
Have two shows.
Okay.
Bonny (28:26):
yeah, we've been doing that probably for about a dozen
years or We started originallyThe December show was just kind
of a practice show to have theexperience to get out and skate
in front of a bunch of people.
And it was pretty much just themembers of the club and a few
friends that might show up towatch that.
But it has evolved over theyears, so now it's a, a
(28:48):
full-fledged show.
And then we have another fullfledged show at the end of the
season.
We used to bring in guestskaters from actually a skating
club of Boston is fairly closeby, and we would often approach
them to get some of their up andcoming competitive skaters to
skate in our show.
But we now have so many skatersin the m i T community that we
(29:11):
get a nice long show without anyguest skaters and a really high
level of performance.
So we, we just have the m i tskaters and it winds up being a
A really pretty good show.
We've, we've also startedincorporating a number of group
numbers in the show, so we'vealmost always had an opening
number
Lisa (29:31):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (29:32):
was geared for people of all levels to be able to
participate.
But now we have some groups thathave put together numbers as
well.
So that there, there's quite avariety.
So you have single skating, youhave ice dancing, you have group
numbers.
For a short period of time.
We, we did do some synchronizedskating in some of our shows,
(29:56):
but that was actually reallyhard to organize because one of
the aspects of synchronizedskating is you always have to
think about the timing foreverything.
So if you have a group of peoplein a circle rotating, if you
have more people, it takeslonger to Make a full rotation
of the circle.
And because there were so manydemands on students, people
(30:19):
weren't always coming topractice all of the time, so we
always different numbers ofpeople practicing So it was a
little hard to, to do thesynchronized skating.
We did also a few years tryTheater on Ice, which is
basically just performing astory on, on ice.
(30:39):
And that worked pretty well.
But then the person who coachedus wound up moving away and we
didn't find another coach, andso we kind of dropped that.
But that's another way thatpeople can get involved in
skating.
That, you know, various rinkswill have theater on ice groups
where you can participate inbasically telling a story on
ice.
And most of the theater on icegroups will have the opportunity
(31:03):
for people of various differentlevels of ability to
participate.
So that's yet another kind ofway to get involved with
skating.
Lisa (31:13):
Excellent.
So maybe you can talk a littlebit about your time with the
synchronized skating and whatwas that like and.
How you got involved?
Bonny (31:25):
I think you actually got me involved.
actually no.
There was else from m i t FigureSkating Club.
Lisa (31:33):
Vice versa.
Bonny (31:34):
Yeah, it was Elaine Ross.
So this was a team in Lexington.
That was just getting organized.
It was back in the mid eightiesand one of the skaters from m i
t had gone to a skating workshopat the Skating Club of Boston,
and she learned that this teamwas looking for adult adults to
(31:57):
join the team.
And she came and told several ofus about it, and I was like, oh,
that sounds like fun, So I, Iwent and tried out it turns out
it was Actually a lot moreintense And she was like, oh,
you just get to skate with abunch of people.
It was a lot of fun.
It, it was pretty intenseparticularly because within the
(32:20):
first couple of years we hadbecome pretty competitive and
had high aspirations.
And so you really had to makequite a commitment to the team.
So initially we practiced onenight a week.
The team was based in Lexington,mass.
And I think we had probably acouple of hours of ice time, but
(32:40):
we would also show up an hourbefore the ice time to work out
on the floor.
And then there were variouscompetitions that you went to.
There were invitationalcompetitions, which you know,
just pretty much anybody couldgo.
And then there were thequalifying competitions within
(33:01):
each section of the country.
There were sectionals, which Thetop four teams from each section
of the country could thenqualify to compete in nationals.
And within the first couple ofyears, actually, I guess from
the first year that the teamcompeted we did qualify for
(33:22):
nationals and within two orthree years, we were often
placing second, third, or fourthin nationals.
It took Probably about, maybefive or six years till we won
our first national gold medal.
But you know, you had, youalways felt like you had to put
(33:43):
your best effort in.
'cause otherwise you'd beletting your teammates down.
And so people really had tocommit to coming to practice all
the time and, and to you know,really concentrating and doing
what they could.
And but, but it, it was awonderful experience and I'd, I
(34:04):
made a lot of friends.
I really enjoyed the experience.
I enjoyed the competition.
I, I am a competitive person bynature.
So knowing that I was competing,you know, gave me that extra
little boost of adrenaline to,to bring my own skating up to a
level that I probably would nothave if I, you know, wasn't
(34:26):
Trying to accomplish somethingthat was a, a challenge for me.
Lisa (34:31):
Yeah, I, I was gonna say if anybody's interested in it,
because it's a little hard todescribe, but you can just
Google and YouTube and you canfind different videos of, of
synchronized skating.
Bonny (34:42):
And, and there are what are called intro teams that are
a little bit less competitive.
So they have no more than 12people on them.
There's often a Wider moreflexibility in terms of the ages
of the people who compete.
So, you know, if, if there areintro teams in your area, that's
(35:06):
a good way to start to getinvolved.
but I would say also thatanybody that has any kind of
level of freestyle and or danceexperience can probably pick it
up pretty quickly.
I think the dance experience isreally helpful'cause you're at
least accustomed to learning apattern.
(35:27):
And if you're lucky enough tohave a partner to skating with
someone else and, and, you know,being aware of what your partner
is doing.
And a lot of synchronizedskating does incorporate Various
dance moves.
So people that have a a dancebackground can usually pick it
up pretty quickly
Lisa (35:48):
That's a good point.
Yeah, I, I was watching somerecently and it seems like now
they're doing like lifts and
Bonny (35:55):
and jumps
Lisa (35:56):
freestyle things.
Bonny (35:58):
spins.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, it definitely has evolvedover the years, but doing those
things in unison, which is,which is the key.
That the, the synchronizedskating gets judged on how well
in unison you are with yourteammates.
And it also means that forpeople that like doing their
spins and turns rotatingclockwise they may have to learn
(36:21):
to rotate counterclockwise ifthat's what most of the team is
doing.
Un unless they have enoughpeople that can actually mirror
what they're doing.
So that can be an extrachallenge as well.
Lisa (36:33):
Hmm.
always new skills to learn.
I think the other, I mean, itdoesn't really matter, but the
other thing I was thinking aboutwas that I think it, it was at
first just adult synchronize wasa level and then it split into
masters in adults.
Is that right?
I forget how that went.
Bonny (36:54):
Yeah, well there were also younger groups.
So there was one age group thateveryone had to be under 12
years old, age group whereeveryone had to be under 15,
another age group where everyonehad to be under 18.
But yeah, for adults.
Initially it was for an adultteam everyone had to be over 25
(37:16):
years old,
Lisa (37:17):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (37:18):
or, or no, actually three quarters of the team had to be
over 25 years old.
But then that became so popular.
And also as some of the peoplethat had been on adult teams
started aging up they createdthe master's division, which
three quarters of the team onthe master's teams had to be
(37:39):
over age 35.
yeah, so I started on an adultteam.
I did that probably for about 12years, and then I moved on to
the master's team for abouteight years.
Lisa (37:51):
Wow.
So I mean, I can, I can sort ofthink of various benefits, but
what would you say were thebenefits of being involved with
the figure skating or icedancing or synchronized skating,
all of those things?
Bonny (38:06):
So, I mean, skating has always brought joy to my life.
Particularly as a student.
It was a wonderful release.
It, it just, you know, when Iwas out there on the ice, all
the pressures were gone.
I could just enjoy theexperience of skating.
And as they now, even though mybody can't do some of the things
(38:31):
it used to do, being able toteach other people to have that
experience is something that'svery fulfilling.
Lisa (38:39):
I associate different sort of definitely sensations, but
also like, sounds like the soundof the edge.
I always to love that.
like when you really got into,you know, deep, you were saying
deep into your knees and youcould like make a good crunch on
the ice.
Bonny (38:55):
crunches.
Yep.
Lisa (38:57):
And then I think like you were saying, there's the, the
sort of the competitive part ofit.
If you're a competitive person,there's definitely an avenue for
that.
Bonny (39:06):
Mm-hmm.
Lisa (39:07):
There's sort of a mental part of it as well.
I mean, whether it's justgaining confidence to, you know,
skate and present yourself ormove up
Bonny (39:19):
there's also the artistic expression.
Lisa (39:22):
Oh, yes,
Bonny (39:22):
you know, able to, you know, skate to music, to feel
the music, to respond to themusic.
And that's something that I, Iwas surprised to learn that not
everybody can do that.
There people that can't reallykeep a beat to the music and
(39:43):
they have to count to know howlong to, to do things, whereas I
was just always able to hearmusic and, and move to it.
And so there is definitely a, anartistic expression, part of
skating as well.
Lisa (40:00):
Right, right.
Yeah.
Whether it's even like learningchoreography from someone else
or developing your own.
There's definitely avenues for,for both of those.
Approaches.
But and then I think too, likejust thinking about the music,
like there's just can be such awide range of what you pick to
skate to.
(40:21):
So what if some of the styles ofmusic that you've chosen to, to
skate to.
Bonny (40:27):
So choosing music was always one of the hardest things
for me.
I, I would get too obsessed withfinding, you know, something
that was the right piece ofmusic.
It, it's much easier for me ifsomebody else gives me a p piece
of music and says Here,choreograph something and I
(40:49):
mean, I like show tunes.
Think a lot of times they remindyou of things that were going
on, on stage or, or in movies.
So they're always fun to skateto.
Lisa (41:02):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (41:04):
But you know, various, you know, popular music can also
be fun to skate too.
With the group numbers, we oftentry to find music that tells a
story.
And so, you know, people can tryto get into the mood of whatever
it is that the music is, istrying to evoke.
(41:25):
But picking out what music toskate to was never one of my
personal strengths, but thereare other people that seem to
have a real knack for it.
Lisa (41:33):
Yeah, I think you can bring your strengths to the ice
and have an enjoyable time, youknow, whatever that is
Bonny (41:40):
Just the feeling of you know, just gliding along the ice
is just such a wonderfulfeeling.
And I, I can't think of anythingelse quite like it.
And then, you know, for people,if you learn to jump, if you
learn to spin, those are just soexhilarating.
It, it's, it, it's a reallyspecial feeling.
Lisa (42:03):
I know for me there was some frustration in it, but it
was so great when you got it
Bonny (42:08):
Yeah.
Lisa (42:08):
you just had to kind of keep, keep trying, keep trying.
Yeah.
Bonny (42:12):
Yep.
Lisa (42:13):
I think that's the other thing too, is like sometimes you
get it then you lose it, andthen you get it, and then you
lose it.
Bonny (42:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lisa (42:20):
But eventually it becomes a little bit more consistent as
you
Bonny (42:23):
Well, and the more you practice, the more you get
muscle memory that your musclesknow what to do without your
having to think about it quiteso
Lisa (42:31):
That's a good point.
Well, anything else that youwould like to add, Bonny?
I really appreciate you takingthe time to, to talk with me
about figure skating and allaspects of it.
Bonny (42:41):
Well, thank you for inviting me to do so.
Any opportunity to share howmuch fun skating can be with
other people, it's a pleasure.
So I'm glad to have had thisopportunity.
Lisa (42:53):
thank you so much Bonnie.
Bonny (42:55):
All right.
Great talking to you.
Lisa (42:56):
Likewise.
Thank you for listening to theHappy Sweat Life podcast.
I hope you enjoyed thatinterview with Bonny.
If you feel ready to take theplunge and try out figure
skating, please do check out theHow to Buy Figure Skates link
(43:19):
that I will have in the shownotes.
If you do try it, I'd love tohear your experience.
You can email me athappysweatlife at gmail.
com and I look forward tobringing you another interview
next Tuesday.
Welcome to the Happy Sweat Life podcast.
My name is Lisa Rung and today Iam really excited to be talking
to Bonny Kellerman.
Bonny actually started teachingfigure skating.
When she was a student at m i t,she's been teaching a physical
education class there for over50 years and she helps to teach
(00:30):
skating classes at the M I TFigure Skating Club.
She's also worked at m i t for48 years in various jobs, and
she's been involved with allsorts of different styles of
figure skating.
So we're gonna kind of talkabout Those and how you might
get started and what equipmentyou might need, et cetera.
(00:54):
So Bonny has a wealth ofknowledge that we're gonna tap
in today, and yeah, see wherethe conversation goes.
So Bonny yeah.
Do you wanna start with maybetalking about the different
kinds of skating
Bonny (01:10):
Sure.
So there's recreational skating,which is just basically going
out and enjoying skating.
There's what's called freestyleskating, which is what a lot of
people probably think of whenthey think about skating.
You know, that would be with thejumps and the spins and the.
(01:30):
Various different moves and theprograms that people put
together.
There's ice dancing, which isbasically dancing on ice.
There's patterns that you learnthat you can skate with a
partner or as a solo.
And there's also freestyle icedancing where you make up your
(01:50):
own pattern.
I do find ice dancing is a lotmore forgiving on the knees.
So As I got older, I tended tospend more time ice dancing and
less time with freestyle'causejumping can do a number on older
knees.
And then I also have beeninvolved with what used to be
(02:10):
called precision skating nowcalled synchronized skating.
And Lisa, you and I actuallyskated on a team together for I
forget how many years.
You did it for A few years.
Lisa (02:21):
yeah.
Two I think.
Bonny (02:22):
I did it for actually 20 years.
Lisa (02:24):
My gosh,
Bonny (02:25):
And, and during eight of the years when I competed, the
team that I skated on wonnational championships, which
was pretty exciting,
Lisa (02:34):
That is exciting.
That was a Esprit De Corpsright?
Bonny (02:36):
right?
And the thing I loved about thesynchronized skating team is
that It was, well, severalthings.
It was mental as well asphysical because you had to
constantly be aware of whateverybody around you was doing,
so that if you were trying tokeep a straight line, you had to
be aware how fast or how slowthe people next to you were
(02:57):
going to, you know, constantlybe modifying what you're doing
to get to the formation that youwere trying to get to.
So I, I felt like it was a lotmore Mental than just when
you're skating on your own.
And I also liked thecamaraderie.
We had a team that actually therules changed over the years.
(03:19):
In some years you had as many as32 people skating on a team.
In other years it was as few as20 people, but it was always a
large number of people.
And I made a lot of closefriends skating on the team, and
it was just a really nice chanceto interact.
With a, a group of adults whoshared a love for something that
I loved.
Lisa (03:40):
Did you feel like you had a pretty good level of skating,
like when you went in there, apretty good mastery of, of your
basic sort of skills when youstarted the synchronized?
Bonny (03:52):
I did.
And I'd been skating since I waslittle.
I, I learned to skate shortlyafter I learned to walk.
Lisa (03:58):
Oh my gosh, I didn't know that.
Bonny (04:00):
I, I actually have a picture of me as a
three-year-old on ice skateswith this great big grin on my
face.
I didn't actually start takinglessons until I was about 11,
and that's actually kind of afun story.
Cause there was a skating rinkin the town where I grew up and
I used to go with my friends andwe'd go skating just to have
(04:21):
fun.
And I used to watch some of thefigure skaters there and I was
just fascinated with what theywere doing.
So at one point I asked my momif I could get skating lessons,
and she was like, why do youneed skating lessons?
You already know how to skate.
So I went over and got one ofthe instructors to come and talk
(04:43):
to my mom and explain how Iwould be able to learn things by
taking lessons that I wouldn'tbe able to do on my own.
And she was like, oh, okay.
We'll give it a try.
And my older sister has neverforgiven me because she wanted
skating lessons when she was akid, but she never had the
foresight to have an instructorexplain why lessons would be
(05:05):
useful.
So, so I took lessons allthrough junior high and high
school.
And then when I went to collegeat m i t, and I should say that
when I was deciding where to goto college, making sure that
there was a skating rink.
There was one of my criteria, so
Lisa (05:23):
Oh, okay.
Bonny (05:23):
m i t had not had a skating rink, I would not have
gone to m i t.
But m i t had a skating rink.
But when I went there theydidn't have a figure skating
program.
And but I used to spend a lot oftime on the rink and I would
teach my friends how to do someof the cool things that I had
learned how to do.
And then my junior year was thefirst year that m i t had.
(05:46):
What was called the independentactivities period during the
month of January, which was alittle different than the
regular semesters.
So they were very eager to trynew things.
And just on a whim one day I'dbeen out on the rink with my
friends teaching them fun thingsand they were like, oh, it's too
bad.
M i t doesn't give figureskating.
(06:08):
And I was like, yeah, it's toobad.
M i t doesn't teach figureskating.
Wait a minute.
I've taken six years of skatinglessons.
I could teach figure skating, SoI went into the athletic
department and said, hi, I'dlike to teach a figure skating
class during IAP.
And they sent me down to thedirector of physical education
who knew nothing about figureskating.
(06:29):
But he said, well, what wouldyou do if you taught such a
class?
And so on the floor of hisoffice, I demonstrated various
things that I would do, and Isounded like I knew what I was
talking about.
So he was like, okay, we'll giveit a try.
And of course I got all of myfriends to sign up for the class
who wound up giving me greatevaluations
Lisa (06:48):
Nice.
Bonny (06:48):
So they were like, Hey, this worked out really well.
Let's keep doing it.
So I taught my junior year andmy senior year, and then I left
to go to grad school, but bythen they had found somebody
else to teach the skating class.
So it continued.
And then two years later, I cameback and started working at m i
t and the The person who hadbeen teaching it after I left,
(07:10):
had graduated, so they needed askating teacher again.
So I started teaching it, andthat was back in 1974.
And have continued to do it eversince.
With the one exception being theyear that m i t was semi closed
down because of Covid.
So I, I did miss a year in therebecause the rink was not open
(07:33):
that year.
But other than that, I've, I'vecontinued to teach.
Lisa (07:38):
That is a long love affair with ice skating So what keeps
you doing it and coming back andteaching it and participating?
Bonny (07:49):
So, I mean, honestly at this point my skating is not
very good.
Just'cause I'm 72 years old andmy body can't do a lot of the
things that my body used to beable to do.
But I can still explain topeople.
How to do things.
And I just love being able tosee people learn something new
(08:12):
that gives them joy and seeingthe progress that, that people
make and, and that's what keepsme coming back and doing it.
Lisa (08:20):
That's wonderful.
So any Suggestions for somebodywho maybe just wanting to kind
of try it out, like where wouldthey go?
What equipment might yourecommend or
Bonny (08:34):
Yeah, so obviously it depends a lot on where people
live.
The northern climates probablyare more likely to have skating
rinks, although places likeCalifornia have plenty of rinks
also But you know, there may becommunity rinks or private
rinks, so you, you'd really haveto find out what's available in
(08:55):
your community.
Most places will provide rentalskates, which for people that
don't know whether they're gonnalike it or not that's probably a
pretty good entree.
But I will say a lot of timesrental skates are not very good.
And for most people who thinkthat they don't like skating
(09:16):
because their ankles hurt.
it's probably that they did nothave equipment that gave them
enough support to be able toenjoy it.
So having decent equipment isreally important.
Unfortunately, it, it does costa fair amount of money to buy
skates.
You have to buy the skates andthe blades.
But as I say, have, havingequipment that gives you enough
(09:38):
support that you can have funwith it is something that's
fairly important.
The M I T Figure Skating Clubactually created a website on
how to buy skates.
Anyone who's interested couldcheck it out.
It's, it's publicly accessible.
So if you go to M I t, figureSkating Club and on the website
(09:59):
there, there, there's a place onwhat to look for in buying
skates.
I would say be sure to go to askate store, not a department
store.
Cause in a department storethere aren't gonna be people
that know how to fit you.
And having skates that fitproperly is really important.
A lot of times people will findthat the size that they get in
(10:24):
skates is smaller than theirshoe size.
'cause you want it to fairlysnugly.
You wanna make sure that whenyou move your foot, that the
skate moves with it and thatyour foot's not wiggling around
within the skate.
But you also wanna make surethat You're not cutting off your
circulation, that you have roomto wiggle your toes and that you
(10:44):
feel comfortable.
So a good skate shop will knowhow to properly fit people.
A department store, you're justbuying something off the shelf
and probably something thatdoesn't have a lot of support.
So you're probably throwing awayyour money and you're not gonna
enjoy it if you try to buyskates from a department store.
Lisa (11:03):
Yeah, I had so many people kind of tell me that they
couldn't skate because of theirankle, lack of ankle support.
And I was like, it's yourskates.
It's not, it's not you.
Well, I was thinking too, the mi T figure skating clubs
certainly has grown anddeveloped when I look at the
pictures and A little videos ofwhat they're doing now.
It's amazing how much haschanged over the years since I
(11:26):
was there.
Do you have more studentinvolvement or
Bonny (11:31):
Yeah, the, the club's pretty big.
I think last year we had maybeabout 70 or 80 members of the
club.
Maybe 50 of those people werestudents.
And the rest are alumni andstaff.
One of the things that m i t hasbeen involved with over the
years is we've been hosting andintercollegiate skating
(11:53):
competition, and we wereactually the very first school.
To host an intercollegiateskating competition.
this actually goes back to thetime when I was skating on
esprit de corps and the personwho was the coach of that team,
Shirley Holsworth, was veryinvolved with us figure skating
along with Pat Hagadorn, who wasthe secretary of us figure
(12:15):
skating at the time.
They both lived in Lexington,mass, and they were concerned
that a lot of People who hadbeen skaters through high school
were dropping out of skating incollege, and so they were trying
come up with a way to try tokeep people involved skating in
college.
And so they had this idea that,well, if we had some kind of
(12:37):
intercollegiate competition youknow, maybe that would be a way
to keep people engaged.
And since they knew I worked atm i t, they approached me to
say, Hey, how would you like toorganize an intercollegiate
competition?
So this was back in the mideighties which was before the
(12:57):
days of email.
So the only way that we couldlet people know that we were
doing this competition was bysending Letters to athletic
departments of all of thecolleges in the area to say, hi,
we're hosting a skatingcompetition.
Let us know if you'reinterested.
And the very first one myrecollection is it was maybe
(13:21):
three or four hours long that'sgrown over the years.
So that now there are currentlyfour regional sections of the
country that each host Threecompetitions in each of the
sections plus nationals.
And last year when m i t hostedthe competition, we actually had
(13:43):
to ask the schools to cut backthe number of entries that they
were all sending.
Because the total.
Amount of ice time it would'vetaken if we'd accepted all of
the entries would've been like30 hours and you just can't fit
that in a weekend
Lisa (14:02):
Right.
Oh
Bonny (14:03):
but we, we, we had, I think it was 30 different
schools and we did wind up with,you know, somewhere around 250
different competitors.
And the, the competitions haveall different levels so that,
You know, it's not just for thesenior level skaters, but you
know, people who are, what arecalled preliminary skaters are
(14:26):
competing against other peoplewho are preliminary skaters.
So they, they have the sameskillset you know, people that
haven't passed tests orcompeting against other people
that haven't passed tests.
And then you also have thesenior level skaters which we
will sometimes have people thatare National or even
international competitors thatif they're full-time college
(14:50):
students are eligible toparticipate in these
competitions as well.
So it, it's grown quite big.
And, and I think partly becausem i t has been hosting these
competitions for many years,it's kind of come to the
attention of serious skatersthat they know, oh, m i t has a
(15:11):
skating program.
So for people that Have theacademic background as, as well
as the, the skating interest.
You know, m i t is a school thatthey can consider, and we have
actually had not only nationalcompetitors, but we've had world
competitors that have come to mi t and competed in world
competitions while they were m iT students,
Lisa (15:34):
Wow.
Do you want, do you wanna do anyname dropping?
I'm just
Bonny (15:39):
So the world competitors were An ice dancing pair.
They actually representedFinland because he was from
Finland and she had somebackground from Finland.
The amazing thing is that theyhad been dancing together before
coming to m i t and that theyboth were admitted to m i t,
Lisa (15:58):
Oh yeah.
Bonny (15:58):
which was pretty impressive.
So it was Jessica Hewitt andYuha Valhalla was the, the name
of the pair.
M i t has a special programcalled the Experimental Studies
Group, which people can doduring their freshman year,
which is an alternative way ofdoing their freshman classes.
(16:23):
So that instead of going to biglectures, you're working in
small study groups.
And both Yuha and Jessica werein that program and that gave
them a little bit moreflexibility in how they got
through all of their freshmancourses.
Coincidentally it turns out thatthe national competition was
(16:45):
during January, which is MIT'sindependent activities, period.
So they didn't have any classesthen and were able to take off
to compete in nationals.
And the world competition wasactually during m I t's Spring
Break which worked out verynicely.
So they, they were able to, todo that fairly readily.
(17:08):
But we've also had a number ofnational competitors.
We've actually had quite a fewpeople that have whose skill
level was, was enough that, thatthey were able to compete on in
the national competition.
Lisa (17:24):
It is interesting to me the expansion of the adult world
of skating.
You know, once somebody leaveshigh school that there are these
opportunities on the collegelevel and then even beyond with
like adult nationals.
And did you ever, did you evergo to adult nationals?
(17:44):
I mean, I know as, as
Bonny (17:45):
I, I didn't, the, the only competitions I ever did was
with the synchronized skatinggroup.
but we have had people that havecome to m i t that never skated
before.
And they started skating as astudent and got really into it.
And by the time they graduated,they competed and, and many of
(18:06):
them did go on to compete inadult skating competitions as
well.
Lisa (18:12):
Wow.
And are they still are you stillbringing in coaches?
Like can people bring in coachesto help them with the.
Bonny (18:21):
Yep.
So, so we have a number ofpeople who volunteer to teach in
our group lesson program.
But we also have a few privatecoaches that we bring into our
skating sessions.
Lisa (18:34):
Yeah, so I'm just trying to think for somebody starting
out, definitely if you're at acollege that has a A rink
seeking out, you know, whetherthey have group lessons or as
you said, phys ed is like agreat way to start because you
also will learn, like you weresaying about the equipment and
as well as the various beginningstrokes and going forward and
(18:59):
backwards and all that stuff.
And then if you have a goodprogram, it sounds like you can
really keep progressing withinthat, you know, whether it's
individual or just To going withgroup lessons, et cetera.
Bonny (19:15):
Yeah.
And what we do at m i t is weactually have about five
different levels of groups.
Lisa (19:21):
oh, okay.
Bonny (19:22):
we start with total beginners, people who've never
been on the ice before.
And we go up to people whopretty much know how to do all
of their spins and jumps andwanna work on combination spins
and double jumps.
And everything in between.
And because we have a, a numberof volunteers, we're able to
keep the groups fairly small sopeople can get good feedback and
(19:46):
good attention.
And yeah, I mean I think grouplessons are great partly because
it's more social.
Just doing things with otherpeople is fun, but you also
learn things by watching otherpeople.
And you know, you either Mightlearn things that are good or
(20:08):
you might learn things that bad,but it, it's an opportunity to
observe what other people aretrying to do and how that's
working for them.
So I think group lessons are agreat way for people to learn.
And lessons are reallyimportant.
It, it's really tough to figurethings out on your own.
(20:30):
The, the lessons are important.
Not only.
For instructional purposes sothat you get good basic skills
in knowing what you should bedoing, but also to get feedback
on what you are doing.
Cause people aren't always awareof their own bodies and, and
what they're doing.
So,
Lisa (20:47):
Oh, that's a great point.
Yeah.
Bonny (20:48):
having, having someone to say, you know, you're, you're
bending forward and you'rebreaking at the waist and you're
looking down people might notrealize that.
I usually tell my students whenI first start the class, well,
the first thing I do is I teachthem how to fall without getting
hurt.
Lisa (21:07):
Oh yeah.
Bonny (21:08):
because falling is one of the things that you have to be
willing to do in order to keepimproving.
If you're afraid of falling,you're gonna be afraid of, of
learning things that you don'talready know how to do.
So we practice falling bysliding into the ice, using the
slippery surface of the ice.
By landing on your butt, whichis the best padded part of your
(21:31):
body to make sure you're notsticking out a hand to, to try
to stop the fall to make sureyou're leaning forward with your
head, tucking your head intoyour chest so that your head
doesn't, you know, push backand, and hit the ice and
possibly get a concussion.
So I wanna make sure that peoplefeel comfortable falling and
then that makes them a littlebit more willing to try new
(21:54):
things.
But the other thing I tell themthat, you know, if they remember
nothing else from the class,bend their knees.
The more you bend your knees,the more control you have the
more power you have.
Just bending your knees is iscritical to almost all kinds of
figure skating that you mightdo.
(22:15):
Yeah, the, the knee is reallyserve like a shock absorber
'cause it gives you theopportunity to bend or extend to
make sure that you're in theright place.
Lisa (22:47):
So part of what I'm hearing is that there's lots of
opportunity when you start, whenyou enter the figure skating
world from the beginning, kindof progressing up to any level
that you.
I was gonna say aspire to, Imean, you may not get to like
professional but you candefinitely get to kind of a, a
(23:12):
level, maybe higher than youthought you could with some
coaching and lessons and timeand effort, you know, spent
working on it too.
Bonny (23:22):
Yeah, I mean, definitely you, you know, there's the
opportunity to make progresslearn new things.
Lisa (23:28):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (23:28):
And as I, in my own case, even though I stopped learning
new jumps and new spins,probably in my twenties, but
taking up ice dancing was newfor me.
And so that was something that Iwas able to start learning
(23:48):
various different dances andtaking tests at different levels
and, and Passing those testsand, and then the synchronized
skating was also, I didn't startdoing that until I was in my
thirties.
So that was a new challenge'cause that was, as I say, a
really different way of thinkingabout things.
Lisa (24:05):
That's great.
I was, the other thing I wasthinking about was sort of the
push and pull between hockey andfigure skating time, is that
still sort of something youexperienced at M I t or,
Bonny (24:20):
So, and we've kind of settled into a fairly regular
schedule that hasn't changedmuch over the years.
Lisa (24:26):
oh, that's
Bonny (24:28):
So the Figure Skating Club does have An hour and a
half of ice every day, and thenfour hours of ice on Saturdays
and four hours of ice onSundays.
And then there's also an extrasession one afternoon that's
another hour and a half.
(24:49):
And.
We probably do a lot better thana lot of other schools.
It was interesting.
I just recently got an emailfrom a young woman who's been
admitted to Harvard as afreshman next year, and she's on
the Canadian national team, andshe aspires to skate in the
(25:09):
Olympics in 2026.
And much to her chagrin, shediscovered that because Harvard
has a Fairly strong hockey team.
They dominate a lot of the icetime and the figure skating club
there doesn't get very much icetime at all.
(25:29):
So she was wondering whether shecould come skate at M I t and
the answer was only if you're anM I T student.
So if she cross registers, shecan take advantage of our
skating time.
But I did send a kind of flipcomment to her saying, you
should have come to m i t, notHarvard
Lisa (25:46):
Right.
Maybe she'll transfer.
Bonny (25:48):
On the other hand, there are schools that have formal
skating programs that havefull-time staff, that teach
skating that have actuallycollegiate synchronized skating
is something that has becomemore popular over the years.
So there are a number of schoolsthat have collegiate teams that
compete, and some of thecolleges even have senior level
(26:09):
teams that compete.
You know, there are schools thathave a, a coaching staff of
several people that arefull-time coaches that work with
the students at those schools.
So it, it ranges, you know, thewhole gamut from you know, that
kind of level of support to,gee, you're lucky if you get two
(26:31):
hours a week that you can haveaccess to the ice.
So for people that are.
Seriously interested in skatingwhile they're in college.
I encourage them to look intowhat that college offers and
what opportunities there are.
And in some cases there may becommunity rinks where people can
skate, but people should checkinto that as well.
Lisa (26:55):
Mm-hmm.
I think there's been a bit moreawareness of the.
Interest in adults to continueskating, At various rinks around
the country.
It's not consistent, but yeah.
There's definitely moreopportunities, I think, than
there were many years ago to, tocontinue as an adult skating.
Bonny (27:18):
Yeah.
Lisa (27:19):
But what would you say were like the biggest barriers
for somebody who was interestedin learning to skate?
Bonny (27:27):
Well, obviously having access to a rink is first thing,
Lisa (27:30):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (27:32):
And having access to decent instruction and having
access to decent equipment.
Lisa (27:39):
Yeah.
That's important.
When I went to Wyoming, theFigure Skating Club, there was
very much geared towards theyoung people.
They did have a little bit of anadult Program, but not too much
So I really missed the amount oftime that it was available at m
(28:01):
i t for adult skating I wasspoiled there.
And I think the other thing thatI really enjoyed, When I was
there was the annual show at theend.
'cause that was such a goodthing to work for, to kind of
work on your skills so that youcould present something at the,
at the annual show.
(28:22):
You wanna talk
Bonny (28:22):
we now have two shows a year.
Lisa (28:25):
Have two shows.
Okay.
Bonny (28:26):
yeah, we've been doing that probably for about a dozen
years or We started originallyThe December show was just kind
of a practice show to have theexperience to get out and skate
in front of a bunch of people.
And it was pretty much just themembers of the club and a few
friends that might show up towatch that.
But it has evolved over theyears, so now it's a, a
(28:48):
full-fledged show.
And then we have another fullfledged show at the end of the
season.
We used to bring in guestskaters from actually a skating
club of Boston is fairly closeby, and we would often approach
them to get some of their up andcoming competitive skaters to
skate in our show.
But we now have so many skatersin the m i T community that we
(29:11):
get a nice long show without anyguest skaters and a really high
level of performance.
So we, we just have the m i tskaters and it winds up being a
A really pretty good show.
We've, we've also startedincorporating a number of group
numbers in the show, so we'vealmost always had an opening
number
Lisa (29:31):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (29:32):
was geared for people of all levels to be able to
participate.
But now we have some groups thathave put together numbers as
well.
So that there, there's quite avariety.
So you have single skating, youhave ice dancing, you have group
numbers.
For a short period of time.
We, we did do some synchronizedskating in some of our shows,
(29:56):
but that was actually reallyhard to organize because one of
the aspects of synchronizedskating is you always have to
think about the timing foreverything.
So if you have a group of peoplein a circle rotating, if you
have more people, it takeslonger to Make a full rotation
of the circle.
And because there were so manydemands on students, people
(30:19):
weren't always coming topractice all of the time, so we
always different numbers ofpeople practicing So it was a
little hard to, to do thesynchronized skating.
We did also a few years tryTheater on Ice, which is
basically just performing astory on, on ice.
(30:39):
And that worked pretty well.
But then the person who coachedus wound up moving away and we
didn't find another coach, andso we kind of dropped that.
But that's another way thatpeople can get involved in
skating.
That, you know, various rinkswill have theater on ice groups
where you can participate inbasically telling a story on
ice.
And most of the theater on icegroups will have the opportunity
(31:03):
for people of various differentlevels of ability to
participate.
So that's yet another kind ofway to get involved with
skating.
Lisa (31:13):
Excellent.
So maybe you can talk a littlebit about your time with the
synchronized skating and whatwas that like and.
How you got involved?
Bonny (31:25):
I think you actually got me involved.
actually no.
There was else from m i t FigureSkating Club.
Lisa (31:33):
Vice versa.
Bonny (31:34):
Yeah, it was Elaine Ross.
So this was a team in Lexington.
That was just getting organized.
It was back in the mid eightiesand one of the skaters from m i
t had gone to a skating workshopat the Skating Club of Boston,
and she learned that this teamwas looking for adult adults to
(31:57):
join the team.
And she came and told several ofus about it, and I was like, oh,
that sounds like fun, So I, Iwent and tried out it turns out
it was Actually a lot moreintense And she was like, oh,
you just get to skate with abunch of people.
It was a lot of fun.
It, it was pretty intenseparticularly because within the
(32:20):
first couple of years we hadbecome pretty competitive and
had high aspirations.
And so you really had to makequite a commitment to the team.
So initially we practiced onenight a week.
The team was based in Lexington,mass.
And I think we had probably acouple of hours of ice time, but
(32:40):
we would also show up an hourbefore the ice time to work out
on the floor.
And then there were variouscompetitions that you went to.
There were invitationalcompetitions, which you know,
just pretty much anybody couldgo.
And then there were thequalifying competitions within
(33:01):
each section of the country.
There were sectionals, which Thetop four teams from each section
of the country could thenqualify to compete in nationals.
And within the first couple ofyears, actually, I guess from
the first year that the teamcompeted we did qualify for
(33:22):
nationals and within two orthree years, we were often
placing second, third, or fourthin nationals.
It took Probably about, maybefive or six years till we won
our first national gold medal.
But you know, you had, youalways felt like you had to put
(33:43):
your best effort in.
'cause otherwise you'd beletting your teammates down.
And so people really had tocommit to coming to practice all
the time and, and to you know,really concentrating and doing
what they could.
And but, but it, it was awonderful experience and I'd, I
(34:04):
made a lot of friends.
I really enjoyed the experience.
I enjoyed the competition.
I, I am a competitive person bynature.
So knowing that I was competing,you know, gave me that extra
little boost of adrenaline to,to bring my own skating up to a
level that I probably would nothave if I, you know, wasn't
(34:26):
Trying to accomplish somethingthat was a, a challenge for me.
Lisa (34:31):
Yeah, I, I was gonna say if anybody's interested in it,
because it's a little hard todescribe, but you can just
Google and YouTube and you canfind different videos of, of
synchronized skating.
Bonny (34:42):
And, and there are what are called intro teams that are
a little bit less competitive.
So they have no more than 12people on them.
There's often a Wider moreflexibility in terms of the ages
of the people who compete.
So, you know, if, if there areintro teams in your area, that's
(35:06):
a good way to start to getinvolved.
but I would say also thatanybody that has any kind of
level of freestyle and or danceexperience can probably pick it
up pretty quickly.
I think the dance experience isreally helpful'cause you're at
least accustomed to learning apattern.
(35:27):
And if you're lucky enough tohave a partner to skating with
someone else and, and, you know,being aware of what your partner
is doing.
And a lot of synchronizedskating does incorporate Various
dance moves.
So people that have a a dancebackground can usually pick it
up pretty quickly
Lisa (35:48):
That's a good point.
Yeah, I, I was watching somerecently and it seems like now
they're doing like lifts and
Bonny (35:55):
and jumps
Lisa (35:56):
freestyle things.
Bonny (35:58):
spins.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, it definitely has evolvedover the years, but doing those
things in unison, which is,which is the key.
That the, the synchronizedskating gets judged on how well
in unison you are with yourteammates.
And it also means that forpeople that like doing their
spins and turns rotatingclockwise they may have to learn
(36:21):
to rotate counterclockwise ifthat's what most of the team is
doing.
Un unless they have enoughpeople that can actually mirror
what they're doing.
So that can be an extrachallenge as well.
Lisa (36:33):
Hmm.
always new skills to learn.
I think the other, I mean, itdoesn't really matter, but the
other thing I was thinking aboutwas that I think it, it was at
first just adult synchronize wasa level and then it split into
masters in adults.
Is that right?
I forget how that went.
Bonny (36:54):
Yeah, well there were also younger groups.
So there was one age group thateveryone had to be under 12
years old, age group whereeveryone had to be under 15,
another age group where everyonehad to be under 18.
But yeah, for adults.
Initially it was for an adultteam everyone had to be over 25
(37:16):
years old,
Lisa (37:17):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (37:18):
or, or no, actually three quarters of the team had to be
over 25 years old.
But then that became so popular.
And also as some of the peoplethat had been on adult teams
started aging up they createdthe master's division, which
three quarters of the team onthe master's teams had to be
(37:39):
over age 35.
yeah, so I started on an adultteam.
I did that probably for about 12years, and then I moved on to
the master's team for abouteight years.
Lisa (37:51):
Wow.
So I mean, I can, I can sort ofthink of various benefits, but
what would you say were thebenefits of being involved with
the figure skating or icedancing or synchronized skating,
all of those things?
Bonny (38:06):
So, I mean, skating has always brought joy to my life.
Particularly as a student.
It was a wonderful release.
It, it just, you know, when Iwas out there on the ice, all
the pressures were gone.
I could just enjoy theexperience of skating.
And as they now, even though mybody can't do some of the things
(38:31):
it used to do, being able toteach other people to have that
experience is something that'svery fulfilling.
Lisa (38:39):
I associate different sort of definitely sensations, but
also like, sounds like the soundof the edge.
I always to love that.
like when you really got into,you know, deep, you were saying
deep into your knees and youcould like make a good crunch on
the ice.
Bonny (38:55):
crunches.
Yep.
Lisa (38:57):
And then I think like you were saying, there's the, the
sort of the competitive part ofit.
If you're a competitive person,there's definitely an avenue for
that.
Bonny (39:06):
Mm-hmm.
Lisa (39:07):
There's sort of a mental part of it as well.
I mean, whether it's justgaining confidence to, you know,
skate and present yourself ormove up
Bonny (39:19):
there's also the artistic expression.
Lisa (39:22):
Oh, yes,
Bonny (39:22):
you know, able to, you know, skate to music, to feel
the music, to respond to themusic.
And that's something that I, Iwas surprised to learn that not
everybody can do that.
There people that can't reallykeep a beat to the music and
(39:43):
they have to count to know howlong to, to do things, whereas I
was just always able to hearmusic and, and move to it.
And so there is definitely a, anartistic expression, part of
skating as well.
Lisa (40:00):
Right, right.
Yeah.
Whether it's even like learningchoreography from someone else
or developing your own.
There's definitely avenues for,for both of those.
Approaches.
But and then I think too, likejust thinking about the music,
like there's just can be such awide range of what you pick to
skate to.
(40:21):
So what if some of the styles ofmusic that you've chosen to, to
skate to.
Bonny (40:27):
So choosing music was always one of the hardest things
for me.
I, I would get too obsessed withfinding, you know, something
that was the right piece ofmusic.
It, it's much easier for me ifsomebody else gives me a p piece
of music and says Here,choreograph something and I
(40:49):
mean, I like show tunes.
Think a lot of times they remindyou of things that were going
on, on stage or, or in movies.
So they're always fun to skateto.
Lisa (41:02):
Mm-hmm.
Bonny (41:04):
But you know, various, you know, popular music can also
be fun to skate too.
With the group numbers, we oftentry to find music that tells a
story.
And so, you know, people can tryto get into the mood of whatever
it is that the music is, istrying to evoke.
(41:25):
But picking out what music toskate to was never one of my
personal strengths, but thereare other people that seem to
have a real knack for it.
Lisa (41:33):
Yeah, I think you can bring your strengths to the ice
and have an enjoyable time, youknow, whatever that is
Bonny (41:40):
Just the feeling of you know, just gliding along the ice
is just such a wonderfulfeeling.
And I, I can't think of anythingelse quite like it.
And then, you know, for people,if you learn to jump, if you
learn to spin, those are just soexhilarating.
It, it's, it, it's a reallyspecial feeling.
Lisa (42:03):
I know for me there was some frustration in it, but it
was so great when you got it
Bonny (42:08):
Yeah.
Lisa (42:08):
you just had to kind of keep, keep trying, keep trying.
Yeah.
Bonny (42:12):
Yep.
Lisa (42:13):
I think that's the other thing too, is like sometimes you
get it then you lose it, andthen you get it, and then you
lose it.
Bonny (42:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lisa (42:20):
But eventually it becomes a little bit more consistent as
you
Bonny (42:23):
Well, and the more you practice, the more you get
muscle memory that your musclesknow what to do without your
having to think about it quiteso
Lisa (42:31):
That's a good point.
Well, anything else that youwould like to add, Bonny?
I really appreciate you takingthe time to, to talk with me
about figure skating and allaspects of it.
Bonny (42:41):
Well, thank you for inviting me to do so.
Any opportunity to share howmuch fun skating can be with
other people, it's a pleasure.
So I'm glad to have had thisopportunity.
Lisa (42:53):
thank you so much Bonnie.
Bonny (42:55):
All right.
Great talking to you.
Lisa (42:56):
Likewise.
Thank you for listening to theHappy Sweat Life podcast.
I hope you enjoyed thatinterview with Bonny.
If you feel ready to take theplunge and try out figure
skating, please do check out theHow to Buy Figure Skates link
(43:19):
that I will have in the shownotes.
If you do try it, I'd love tohear your experience.
You can email me athappysweatlife at gmail.
com and I look forward tobringing you another interview
next Tuesday.
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