From Lifelong Love to Lasting Legacy: A Passion for Ice Skating and a Mission to Spread that Joy with Bonny Kellermann

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

Contact me at happysweatlife@gmail.com for questions, suggestions, or to be put on the email list and be notified of new episodes.

Find my World Groove movement zoom class on Thursdays, under my name, at: https://theworldgroovemovement.com/virtual-search/

If you're interested in starting a podcast of your own, consider joining the SPI Community. The All Access Pass, in particular, has a step by step course for starting a podcast which absolutely was key for creating and launching my podcast. And equally important, I made connections with other fellow entrepreneurs/podcasters. If you do sign up through my affiliate link, I will receive a commission fee.

Transcript

Lisa: 0:08

Welcome to the Happy Sweat Life podcast. My name is Lisa Rung and today I am really excited to be talking to Bonny Kellerman. Bonny actually started teaching figure skating. When she was a student at m i t, she's been teaching a physical education class there for over 50 years and she helps to teach skating classes at the M I T Figure Skating Club. She's also worked at m i t for 48 years in various jobs, and she's been involved with all sorts of different styles of figure skating. So we're gonna kind of talk about Those and how you might get started and what equipment you might need, et cetera. So Bonny has a wealth of knowledge that we're gonna tap in today, and yeah, see where the conversation goes. So Bonny yeah. Do you wanna start with maybe talking about the different kinds of skating

Bonny: 1:10

Sure. So there's recreational skating, which is just basically going out and enjoying skating. There's what's called freestyle skating, which is what a lot of people probably think of when they think about skating. You know, that would be with the jumps and the spins and the. Various different moves and the programs that people put together. There's ice dancing, which is basically dancing on ice. There's patterns that you learn that you can skate with a partner or as a solo. And there's also freestyle ice dancing where you make up your own pattern. I do find ice dancing is a lot more forgiving on the knees. So As I got older, I tended to spend more time ice dancing and less time with freestyle'cause jumping can do a number on older knees. And then I also have been involved with what used to be called precision skating now called synchronized skating. And Lisa, you and I actually skated on a team together for I forget how many years. You did it for A few years.

Lisa: 2:21

yeah. Two I think.

Bonny: 2:22

I did it for actually 20 years.

Lisa: 2:24

My gosh,

Bonny: 2:25

And, and during eight of the years when I competed, the team that I skated on won national championships, which was pretty exciting,

Lisa: 2:34

That is exciting. That was a Esprit De Corps right?

Bonny: 2:36

right? And the thing I loved about the synchronized skating team is that It was, well, several things. It was mental as well as physical because you had to constantly be aware of what everybody around you was doing, so that if you were trying to keep a straight line, you had to be aware how fast or how slow the people next to you were going to, you know, constantly be modifying what you're doing to get to the formation that you were trying to get to. So I, I felt like it was a lot more Mental than just when you're skating on your own. And I also liked the camaraderie. We had a team that actually the rules changed over the years. In some years you had as many as 32 people skating on a team. In other years it was as few as 20 people, but it was always a large number of people. And I made a lot of close friends skating on the team, and it was just a really nice chance to interact. With a, a group of adults who shared a love for something that I loved.

Lisa: 3:40

Did you feel like you had a pretty good level of skating, like when you went in there, a pretty good mastery of, of your basic sort of skills when you started the synchronized?

Bonny: 3:52

I did. And I'd been skating since I was little. I, I learned to skate shortly after I learned to walk.

Lisa: 3:58

Oh my gosh, I didn't know that.

Bonny: 4:00

I, I actually have a picture of me as a three-year-old on ice skates with this great big grin on my face. I didn't actually start taking lessons until I was about 11, and that's actually kind of a fun story. Cause there was a skating rink in the town where I grew up and I used to go with my friends and we'd go skating just to have fun. And I used to watch some of the figure skaters there and I was just fascinated with what they were doing. So at one point I asked my mom if I could get skating lessons, and she was like, why do you need skating lessons? You already know how to skate. So I went over and got one of the instructors to come and talk to my mom and explain how I would be able to learn things by taking lessons that I wouldn't be able to do on my own. And she was like, oh, okay. We'll give it a try. And my older sister has never forgiven me because she wanted skating lessons when she was a kid, but she never had the foresight to have an instructor explain why lessons would be useful. So, so I took lessons all through junior high and high school. And then when I went to college at m i t, and I should say that when I was deciding where to go to college, making sure that there was a skating rink. There was one of my criteria, so

Lisa: 5:23

Oh, okay.

Bonny: 5:23

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 they didn't have a figure skating program. And but I used to spend a lot of time on the rink and I would teach my friends how to do some of the cool things that I had learned how to do. And then my junior year was the first year that m i t had. What was called the independent activities period during the month of January, which was a little different than the regular semesters. So they were very eager to try new things. And just on a whim one day I'd been out on the rink with my friends teaching them fun things and they were like, oh, it's too bad. M i t doesn't give figure skating. And I was like, yeah, it's too bad. M i t doesn't teach figure skating. Wait a minute. I've taken six years of skating lessons. I could teach figure skating, So I went into the athletic department and said, hi, I'd like to teach a figure skating class during IAP. And they sent me down to the director of physical education who knew nothing about figure skating. But he said, well, what would you do if you taught such a class? And so on the floor of his office, I demonstrated various things that I would do, and I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. So he was like, okay, we'll give it a try. And of course I got all of my friends to sign up for the class who wound up giving me great evaluations

Lisa: 6:48

Nice.

Bonny: 6:48

So they were like, Hey, this worked out really well. Let's keep doing it. So I taught my junior year and my senior year, and then I left to go to grad school, but by then they had found somebody else to teach the skating class. So it continued. And then two years later, I came back and started working at m i t and the The person who had been teaching it after I left, had graduated, so they needed a skating teacher again. So I started teaching it, and that was back in 1974. And have continued to do it ever since. With the one exception being the year that m i t was semi closed down because of Covid. So I, I did miss a year in there because the rink was not open that year. But other than that, I've, I've continued to teach.

Lisa: 7:38

That is a long love affair with ice skating So what keeps you doing it and coming back and teaching it and participating?

Bonny: 7:49

So, I mean, honestly at this point my skating is not very good. Just'cause I'm 72 years old and my body can't do a lot of the things that my body used to be able to do. But I can still explain to people. How to do things. And I just love being able to see people learn something new that gives them joy and seeing the progress that, that people make and, and that's what keeps me coming back and doing it.

Lisa: 8:20

That's wonderful. So any Suggestions for somebody who maybe just wanting to kind of try it out, like where would they go? What equipment might you recommend or

Bonny: 8:34

Yeah, so obviously it depends a lot on where people live. The northern climates probably are more likely to have skating rinks, although places like California have plenty of rinks also But you know, there may be community rinks or private rinks, so you, you'd really have to find out what's available in your community. Most places will provide rental skates, which for people that don't know whether they're gonna like it or not that's probably a pretty good entree. But I will say a lot of times rental skates are not very good. And for most people who think that they don't like skating because their ankles hurt. it's probably that they did not have equipment that gave them enough support to be able to enjoy it. So having decent equipment is really important. Unfortunately, it, it does cost a fair amount of money to buy skates. You have to buy the skates and the blades. But as I say, have, having equipment that gives you enough support that you can have fun with it is something that's fairly important. The M I T Figure Skating Club actually created a website on how to buy skates. Anyone who's interested could check it out. It's, it's publicly accessible. So if you go to M I t, figure Skating Club and on the website there, there, there's a place on what to look for in buying skates. I would say be sure to go to a skate store, not a department store. Cause in a department store there aren't gonna be people that know how to fit you. And having skates that fit properly is really important. A lot of times people will find that the size that they get in skates is smaller than their shoe size.'cause you want it to fairly snugly. You wanna make sure that when you move your foot, that the skate moves with it and that your foot's not wiggling around within the skate. But you also wanna make sure that You're not cutting off your circulation, that you have room to wiggle your toes and that you feel comfortable. So a good skate shop will know how to properly fit people. A department store, you're just buying something off the shelf and probably something that doesn't have a lot of support. So you're probably throwing away your money and you're not gonna enjoy it if you try to buy skates from a department store.

Lisa: 11:03

Yeah, I had so many people kind of tell me that they couldn't skate because of their ankle, lack of ankle support. And I was like, it's your skates. It's not, it's not you. Well, I was thinking too, the m i T figure skating clubs certainly has grown and developed when I look at the pictures and A little videos of what they're doing now. It's amazing how much has changed over the years since I was there. Do you have more student involvement or

Bonny: 11:31

Yeah, the, the club's pretty big. I think last year we had maybe about 70 or 80 members of the club. Maybe 50 of those people were students. And the rest are alumni and staff. One of the things that m i t has been involved with over the years is we've been hosting and intercollegiate skating competition, and we were actually the very first school. To host an intercollegiate skating competition. this actually goes back to the time when I was skating on esprit de corps and the person who was the coach of that team, Shirley Holsworth, was very involved with us figure skating along with Pat Hagadorn, who was the secretary of us figure skating at the time. They both lived in Lexington, mass, and they were concerned that a lot of People who had been skaters through high school were dropping out of skating in college, and so they were trying come up with a way to try to keep people involved skating in college. And so they had this idea that, well, if we had some kind of intercollegiate competition you know, maybe that would be a way to keep people engaged. And since they knew I worked at m i t, they approached me to say, Hey, how would you like to organize an intercollegiate competition? So this was back in the mid eighties which was before the days of email. So the only way that we could let people know that we were doing this competition was by sending Letters to athletic departments of all of the colleges in the area to say, hi, we're hosting a skating competition. Let us know if you're interested. And the very first one my recollection is it was maybe three or four hours long that's grown over the years. So that now there are currently four regional sections of the country that each host Three competitions in each of the sections plus nationals. And last year when m i t hosted the competition, we actually had to ask the schools to cut back the number of entries that they were all sending. Because the total. Amount of ice time it would've taken if we'd accepted all of the entries would've been like 30 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 have all different levels so that, You know, it's not just for the senior level skaters, but you know, people who are, what are called preliminary skaters are competing against other people who are preliminary skaters. So they, they have the same skillset you know, people that haven't passed tests or competing against other people that haven't passed tests. And then you also have the senior level skaters which we will sometimes have people that are National or even international competitors that if they're full-time college students are eligible to participate in these competitions as well. So it, it's grown quite big. And, and I think partly because m i t has been hosting these competitions for many years, it's kind of come to the attention of serious skaters that they know, oh, m i t has a skating program. So for people that Have the academic background as, as well as the, the skating interest. You know, m i t is a school that they can consider, and we have actually had not only national competitors, but we've had world competitors that have come to m i t and competed in world competitions while they were m i T students,

Lisa: 15:34

Wow. Do you want, do you wanna do any name dropping? I'm just

Bonny: 15:39

So the world competitors were An ice dancing pair. They actually represented Finland because he was from Finland and she had some background from Finland. The amazing thing is that they had been dancing together before coming to m i t and that they both were admitted to m i t,

Lisa: 15:58

Oh yeah.

Bonny: 15:58

which was pretty impressive. So it was Jessica Hewitt and Yuha Valhalla was the, the name of the pair. M i t has a special program called the Experimental Studies Group, which people can do during their freshman year, which is an alternative way of doing their freshman classes. So that instead of going to big lectures, you're working in small study groups. And both Yuha and Jessica were in that program and that gave them a little bit more flexibility in how they got through all of their freshman courses. Coincidentally it turns out that the national competition was during January, which is MIT's independent activities, period. So they didn't have any classes then and were able to take off to compete in nationals. And the world competition was actually during m I t's Spring Break which worked out very nicely. So they, they were able to, to do that fairly readily. But we've also had a number of national competitors. We've actually had quite a few people that have whose skill level was, was enough that, that they 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 leaves high school that there are these opportunities on the college level and then even beyond with like adult nationals. And did you ever, did you ever go to adult nationals? I mean, I know as, as

Bonny: 17:45

I, I didn't, the, the only competitions I ever did was with the synchronized skating group. but we have had people that have come to m i t that never skated before. And they started skating as a student and got really into it. And by the time they graduated, they competed and, and many of them did go on to compete in adult skating competitions as well.

Lisa: 18:12

Wow. And are they still are you still bringing in coaches? Like can people bring in coaches to help them with the.

Bonny: 18:21

Yep. So, so we have a number of people who volunteer to teach in our group lesson program. But we also have a few private coaches 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 a college that has a A rink seeking out, you know, whether they have group lessons or as you said, phys ed is like a great way to start because you also will learn, like you were saying about the equipment and as well as the various beginning strokes and going forward and backwards and all that stuff. And then if you have a good program, it sounds like you can really keep progressing within that, you know, whether it's individual or just To going with group lessons, et cetera.

Bonny: 19:15

Yeah. And what we do at m i t is we actually 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 who pretty much know how to do all of their spins and jumps and wanna work on combination spins and double jumps. And everything in between. And because we have a, a number of volunteers, we're able to keep the groups fairly small so people can get good feedback and good attention. And yeah, I mean I think group lessons are great partly because it's more social. Just doing things with other people is fun, but you also learn things by watching other people. And you know, you either Might learn things that are good or you might learn things that bad, but it, it's an opportunity to observe what other people are trying to do and how that's working for them. So I think group lessons are a great way for people to learn. And lessons are really important. It, it's really tough to figure things out on your own. The, the lessons are important. Not only. For instructional purposes so that you get good basic skills in knowing what you should be doing, but also to get feedback on what you are doing. Cause people aren't always aware of 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're breaking at the waist and you're looking down people might not realize that. I usually tell my students when I first start the class, well, the first thing I do is I teach them 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 keep improving. If you're afraid of falling, you're gonna be afraid of, of learning things that you don't already know how to do. So we practice falling by sliding into the ice, using the slippery surface of the ice. By landing on your butt, which is the best padded part of your body to make sure you're not sticking out a hand to, to try to stop the fall to make sure you're leaning forward with your head, tucking your head into your chest so that your head doesn't, you know, push back and, and hit the ice and possibly get a concussion. So I wanna make sure that people feel comfortable falling and then that makes them a little bit more willing to try new things. But the other thing I tell them that, 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 is critical to almost all kinds of figure skating that you might do. Yeah, the, the knee is really serve like a shock absorber'cause it gives you the opportunity to bend or extend to make sure that you're in the right place.

Lisa: 22:47

So part of what I'm hearing is that there's lots of opportunity when you start, when you enter the figure skating world from the beginning, kind of progressing up to any level that you. I was gonna say aspire to, I mean, you may not get to like professional but you can definitely get to kind of a, a level, maybe higher than you thought you could with some coaching and lessons and time and effort, you know, spent working on it too.

Bonny: 23:22

Yeah, I mean, definitely you, you know, there's the opportunity to make progress learn 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 new for me. And so that was something that I was able to start learning various different dances and taking tests at different levels and, and Passing those tests and, and then the synchronized skating was also, I didn't start doing that until I was in my thirties. So that was a new challenge'cause that was, as I say, a really different way of thinking about things.

Lisa: 24:05

That's great. I was, the other thing I was thinking about was sort of the push and pull between hockey and figure skating time, is that still sort of something you experienced at M I t or,

Bonny: 24:20

So, and we've kind of settled into a fairly regular schedule that hasn't changed much 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 then four hours of ice on Saturdays and four hours of ice on Sundays. And then there's also an extra session one afternoon that's another hour and a half. And. We probably do a lot better than a lot of other schools. It was interesting. I just recently got an email from a young woman who's been admitted to Harvard as a freshman next year, and she's on the Canadian national team, and she aspires to skate in the Olympics in 2026. And much to her chagrin, she discovered that because Harvard has a Fairly strong hockey team. They dominate a lot of the ice time and the figure skating club there doesn't get very much ice time at all. So she was wondering whether she could come skate at M I t and the answer was only if you're an M I T student. So if she cross registers, she can take advantage of our skating time. But I did send a kind of flip comment to her saying, you should have come to m i t, not Harvard

Lisa: 25:46

Right. Maybe she'll transfer.

Bonny: 25:48

On the other hand, there are schools that have formal skating programs that have full-time staff, that teach skating that have actually collegiate synchronized skating is something that has become more popular over the years. So there are a number of schools that have collegiate teams that compete, and some of the colleges even have senior level teams that compete. You know, there are schools that have a, a coaching staff of several people that are full-time coaches that work with the students at those schools. So it, it ranges, you know, the whole gamut from you know, that kind of level of support to, gee, you're lucky if you get two hours a week that you can have access to the ice. So for people that are. Seriously interested in skating while they're in college. I encourage them to look into what that college offers and what opportunities there are. And in some cases there may be community rinks where people can skate, but people should check into that as well.

Lisa: 26:55

Mm-hmm. I think there's been a bit more awareness of the. Interest in adults to continue skating, At various rinks around the country. It's not consistent, but yeah. There's definitely more opportunities, I think, than there were many years ago to, to continue 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 interested in 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, the Figure Skating Club, there was very much geared towards the young people. They did have a little bit of an adult Program, but not too much So I really missed the amount of time that it was available at m i t for adult skating I was spoiled there. And I think the other thing that I really enjoyed, When I was there was the annual show at the end.'cause that was such a good thing to work for, to kind of work on your skills so that you could present something at the, at the annual show. 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 originally The December show was just kind of a practice show to have the experience to get out and skate in front of a bunch of people. And it was pretty much just the members of the club and a few friends that might show up to watch that. But it has evolved over the years, so now it's a, a full-fledged show. And then we have another full fledged show at the end of the season. We used to bring in guest skaters from actually a skating club of Boston is fairly close by, and we would often approach them to get some of their up and coming competitive skaters to skate in our show. But we now have so many skaters in the m i T community that we get a nice long show without any guest skaters and a really high level of performance. So we, we just have the m i t skaters and it winds up being a A really pretty good show. We've, we've also started incorporating a number of group numbers in the show, so we've almost 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 that have put together numbers as well. So that there, there's quite a variety. So you have single skating, you have ice dancing, you have group numbers. For a short period of time. We, we did do some synchronized skating in some of our shows, but that was actually really hard to organize because one of the aspects of synchronized skating is you always have to think about the timing for everything. So if you have a group of people in a circle rotating, if you have more people, it takes longer to Make a full rotation of the circle. And because there were so many demands on students, people weren't always coming to practice all of the time, so we always different numbers of people practicing So it was a little hard to, to do the synchronized skating. We did also a few years try Theater on Ice, which is basically just performing a story on, on ice. And that worked pretty well. But then the person who coached us wound up moving away and we didn't find another coach, and so we kind of dropped that. But that's another way that people can get involved in skating. That, you know, various rinks will have theater on ice groups where you can participate in basically telling a story on ice. And most of the theater on ice groups will have the opportunity for people of various different levels of ability to participate. So that's yet another kind of way to get involved with skating.

Lisa: 31:13

Excellent. So maybe you can talk a little bit about your time with the synchronized skating and what was 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 Figure Skating 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 eighties and one of the skaters from m i t had gone to a skating workshop at the Skating Club of Boston, and she learned that this team was looking for adult adults to join the team. And she came and told several of us about it, and I was like, oh, that sounds like fun, So I, I went and tried out it turns out it was Actually a lot more intense And she was like, oh, you just get to skate with a bunch of people. It was a lot of fun. It, it was pretty intense particularly because within the first couple of years we had become pretty competitive and had high aspirations. And so you really had to make quite a commitment to the team. So initially we practiced one night a week. The team was based in Lexington, mass. And I think we had probably a couple of hours of ice time, but we would also show up an hour before the ice time to work out on the floor. And then there were various competitions that you went to. There were invitational competitions, which you know, just pretty much anybody could go. And then there were the qualifying competitions within each section of the country. There were sectionals, which The top four teams from each section of the country could then qualify to compete in nationals. And within the first couple of years, actually, I guess from the first year that the team competed we did qualify for nationals and within two or three years, we were often placing second, third, or fourth in nationals. It took Probably about, maybe five or six years till we won our first national gold medal. But you know, you had, you always felt like you had to put your best effort in.'cause otherwise you'd be letting your teammates down. And so people really had to commit 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 a wonderful experience and I'd, I made a lot of friends. I really enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed the competition. I, I am a competitive person by nature. 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 not have if I, you know, wasn't Trying to accomplish something that 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 to describe, but you can just Google and YouTube and you can find 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 12 people on them. There's often a Wider more flexibility in terms of the ages of the people who compete. So, you know, if, if there are intro teams in your area, that's a good way to start to get involved. but I would say also that anybody that has any kind of level of freestyle and or dance experience can probably pick it up pretty quickly. I think the dance experience is really helpful'cause you're at least accustomed to learning a pattern. And if you're lucky enough to have a partner to skating with someone else and, and, you know, being aware of what your partner is doing. And a lot of synchronized skating does incorporate Various dance moves. So people that have a a dance background can usually pick it up pretty quickly

Lisa: 35:48

That's a good point. Yeah, I, I was watching some recently 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 evolved over the years, but doing those things in unison, which is, which is the key. That the, the synchronized skating gets judged on how well in unison you are with your teammates. And it also means that for people that like doing their spins and turns rotating clockwise they may have to learn to rotate counterclockwise if that's what most of the team is doing. Un unless they have enough people that can actually mirror what they're doing. So that can be an extra challenge as well.

Lisa: 36:33

Hmm. always new skills to learn. I think the other, I mean, it doesn't really matter, but the other thing I was thinking about was that I think it, it was at first just adult synchronize was a 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 that everyone had to be under 12 years old, age group where everyone had to be under 15, another age group where everyone had to be under 18. But yeah, for adults. Initially it was for an adult team everyone had to be over 25 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 people that had been on adult teams started aging up they created the master's division, which three quarters of the team on the master's teams had to be over age 35. yeah, so I started on an adult team. I did that probably for about 12 years, and then I moved on to the master's team for about eight years.

Lisa: 37:51

Wow. So I mean, I can, I can sort of think of various benefits, but what would you say were the benefits of being involved with the figure skating or ice dancing 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 I was out there on the ice, all the pressures were gone. I could just enjoy the experience of skating. And as they now, even though my body can't do some of the things it used to do, being able to teach other people to have that experience is something that's very fulfilling.

Lisa: 38:39

I associate different sort of definitely sensations, but also like, sounds like the sound of the edge. I always to love that. like when you really got into, you know, deep, you were saying deep into your knees and you could 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 of it. 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 just gaining confidence to, you know, skate and present yourself or move 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 the music. And that's something that I, I was surprised to learn that not everybody can do that. There people that can't really keep a beat to the music and they have to count to know how long to, to do things, whereas I was just always able to hear music and, and move to it. And so there is definitely a, an artistic expression, part of skating as well.

Lisa: 40:00

Right, right. Yeah. Whether it's even like learning choreography from someone else or developing your own. There's definitely avenues for, for both of those. Approaches. But and then I think too, like just thinking about the music, like there's just can be such a wide range of what you pick to skate to. So what if some of the styles of music 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 with finding, you know, something that was the right piece of music. It, it's much easier for me if somebody else gives me a p piece of music and says Here, choreograph something and I mean, I like show tunes. Think a lot of times they remind you of things that were going on, on stage or, or in movies. So they're always fun to skate to.

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 often try to find music that tells a story. And so, you know, people can try to get into the mood of whatever it is that the music is, is trying to evoke. But picking out what music to skate to was never one of my personal strengths, but there are 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, you know, whatever that is

Bonny: 41:40

Just the feeling of you know, just gliding along the ice is just such a wonderful feeling. And I, I can't think of anything else quite like it. And then, you know, for people, if you learn to jump, if you learn to spin, those are just so exhilarating. It, it's, it, it's a really special 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, and then 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 muscles know what to do without your having to think about it quite so

Lisa: 42:31

That's a good point. Well, anything else that you would like to add, Bonny? I really appreciate you taking the time to, to talk with me about figure skating and all aspects of it.

Bonny: 42:41

Well, thank you for inviting me to do so. Any opportunity to share how much fun skating can be with other people, it's a pleasure. So I'm glad to have had this opportunity.

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 the Happy Sweat Life podcast. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Bonny. If you feel ready to take the plunge and try out figure skating, please do check out the How to Buy Figure Skates link that I will have in the show notes. If you do try it, I'd love to hear your experience. You can email me at happysweatlife at gmail. com and I look forward to bringing you another interview next Tuesday.