• Do I need a partner?

No! Most of the dances are made to be done with a partner, however, there’s a very large and friendly community of solo dancers in the world! In the UK and the US in particular there’s a whole championship series for solo dance. You can do these solo yes

• Do I need dance blades?

No! Will it help you? Eventually, when the steps of the higher level dances require faster stepping and turning, this will be a benefit. For the first few levels at least you won’t need dance blades. I used to use free skating blades!

• How do you remember all the steps?

You need a reference to refer to on the occasions you forget the steps. All coaches will refer back to these from time to time. It’s tricky remembering every step in every dance! Have an online resource you can access anytime in the format you need will really help to remember the steps.

• What are the most important things in ice dance?

In order: Correct steps, correct pattern, correct timing, correct edges then… musical interpretation and character, oh and smiling!

• How do you stay in time?

Playing an instrument can help, clapping or tapping to the music can help, counting can help. The marriage of music to counts and steps on the ice is a triple tasking thing. It takes time! Having the tools and knowledge you need helps immensely. You should be able to use the follow along timing videos to help you stay in the correct timing as the skater does the dance.

• How do you know the character of each dance?

This comes from the music. You have to feel it. That music is from the Ballroom and Latin dance world. I’m always sending my skaters videos from youtube of BALLROOM dancers! They will show you how to interpret the music! A coach can also help show you how to convert this on the ice!

• Do I need a coach?

Ideally yes, but you don’t have to have one. If you dance for fun you can learn the dances for fun! If you compete, things get a little more precise and a coach is highly recommended to have a fine dancer eye on what you’re doing! A coach for the basics in this course is not needed.

• What do I do if I’m not good enough yet?

if you can hold an edge and do crossovers you can start ice dance! It’s all based on the simple steps from the beginning. If you’re still not feeling ready, this tool is for off ice too! Learn them at home for when you are ready to try!

• Do I have to be able to fill my rink with each dance?

No. The “pattern” of each dance is what to follow. Just because the drawing looks like it’s the whole ice pad doesn’t mean it has to be. You can do these slowly and steady first before you add speed to try to fill your rink.

• Where can I get the music?

The ISU own the music officially and you’ll need to buy it from them. However, the audio is available for each video in the course! For copyright reasons I have to include commentary over the top and can’t provide the music on its own. The dance BPM’s are used in competitions for popular music (Where allowed), these BPM’s are on the dance pages for you!