2012 Synchronized Skating Championships Recap

What an amazing day it was at the US Synchonized Skating Championships today! With the Masters and Adult division up first, I had a ton of fun cheering with my old teammates on the Starlights, as well as marveling at how much the Adult division has grown. I was so impressed by the speed and precision of the top teams, and it was incredible to watch. Then came the collegiate division, another division that is just getting more and more competitive every year! I especially love watching these two divisions, a pleasure I didn’t always have when I was competing, and because of how much FUN the programs always are.

It was really great to see all of the familiar faces that I have missed being absent from the skating world this past year. I got to spend yesterday cheering with my fellow dreammate, Annaleigh, and then was able to spend today cheering with my fellow Starlights alum, Samantha. Here’s a picture of us, standing on the OTHER side of the ice this year J

Finally, it was time for the Senior Free Skate, always the highlight of the competition! It was really cool to see how widespread the music choices were for this year: from Charlie Chaplin to Trans Siberian Orchestra to Lady Gaga! This diversity really showed how coaches and choreographers are really stepping outside of the box and out of their own comfort zones to create unique programs that will catch our eye. Overall, it was a wonderful competition. Congratulations to the 2012 US World Team Members, Haydenettes and Crystalettes!

I have to admit, it is strange attending the Synchro Championships as a spectator, rather than a skater. Making the decision to attend Dartmouth College, where there is not a synchronized skating team, was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. While I’m loving my time at college, watching everyone skate here in Worcester, seeing the excitement and passion of all the skaters, has reminded me how much I love to skate. Although I may not be competing at Dartmouth, I know that skating is going to remain a large part of my life for years to come. That’s the beauty of this sport: it’s a family, a community, of wonderful people with one common passion: skating!

Love, Bianca

Free Skate Program in Austria!

What a day! As I write this, I'm sitting with my other Starlights teammates relaxing together after our post-competition dinner. We got to sleep a little extra this morning, with official practice starting at noon. We came off of the ice feeling ready and anxious for the competition. Hair and makeup began as soon as we got back to the hotel. Thankfully, the Lexettes were nice enough to lend us some sewing supplies for our hair!

At our floor practice before heading over to the arena, we worked a lot on expression and performing for both the judges AND each other. After our warm up and floor run through, we were in the locker room! Leading off the freeskate competition was a whole new experience. While there were some shaky pieces of the program, we are really excited to build off of it in the coming month before the U.S. Championships. We ended up with a fifth place finish, and were very happy with this, especially at an international competition!

We were SO proud of our U.S. teammates, with Miami Junior's 6th place finish, the Lexettes taking home the bronze medal in junior, and especially the Haydenettes and their silver medal! It was so much fun to be standing in the stands cheering 'USA!!' as loud as we could. I take a lot of pride in those three letters and representing my country is a HUGE honor!

The Mozart Cup was such a wonderful competition, and it was awesome to compete in its inaugural year. I really hope that teams in the future have the opportunity to attend and have as great an experience as I did!

-B

Short Program in Austria!

When I woke up this morning, I could already feel the excitement building! Today was the day of our short program at the Mozart Cup. After a good breakfast, we headed over to our official practice. It was strong and we were able to accomplish what we had been working especially hard on during prior practices. We left the arena in high spirits, and anxious to come back this evening! After a carbo-load pasta lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant, we headed back to the hotel for a bit of rest before we began getting ready for the competition.

After hair and makeup, we all got together and each wrote down our fears and what we were nervous about for that night on a sheet of paper. Then, all together, we ripped them up and threw them away! It definitely calmed a lot of our jitters, and we began our floor practice with new confidence. We carried this new confidence into the arena, did our floor practice run throughs and warm up, and before we knew it we were in the locker room lacing up our skates!

The skate was so exhilarating! Even from our first step on the ice, we saw all of our U.S. teammates on Haydenettes, Lexettes, and Miami junior cheering in the stands, and we completely fed off of their energy. We skated a strong, clean short program, which we were extremely proud of. There is no better feeling than skating a program that you know you can be proud of, and its definitely a great way to head into both the free skate as well as the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships. We are extremely proud of our Haydenettes teammates for their second place finish and of our fifth place after the short program.

And now there is the free skate tomorrow! My teammates and I are SO excited to show off this program on the international stage tomorrow evening! At the draw ceremony, we picked lucky number 1, so make sure you tune in to the live broadcast early!

-B

Our First Day in Austria!

Hi, everyone! We’re finally here in Austria! After a relatively smooth flight across the Atlantic, my Starlights senior teammates and I arrived in Salzburg around noon. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then were on our way for a walking tour of the city (to take in some of the amazing sights as well as to keep ourselves awake!). The tour was a lot of fun, and the snowy weather made it all the more beautiful! After dinner, we had a team meeting with our team leaders, Bob Bauer and Karin Sherr, U.S. judge Jeannette Davey, the Haydenettes and the Lexettes; now, it's off to bed for us, as we’ll be up bright and early for our unofficial practice tomorrow morning! I’ve included a couple of pictures from our tour today.

-B

And so it begins! Kalamazoo 2010

Standing there, in the final pose of our senior short program at the Kalamazoo Kickoff Classic, I quickly glanced up at the judges to my right and knew that while this marked the end of our first competition, it was really only the beginning.

My teammates and I had an early start Saturday morning, on the ice at 6:30 for a quick practice before we left Chicago for Kalamazoo. When we arrived at the rink, hair already slicked back into neat buns, we had a quick floor practice, then headed straight into the locker room to get ready for our monitoring session. The best way to describe our first run-through of the session was definitely "nervous." However, we pushed through the program and the stumbles before skating over to our coach standing in the doorway. Hearing her voice as calm as ever, we all started to breathe again. She reminded us of the things we tell ourselves every day, and we all skated back into position with a new sense of confidence. After that, the rest of the 45-minute session went extremely well, and we left the ice in high spirits.

Although we'd missed our preliminary and juvenile teams' strong third-place performances earlier that morning, we were eager to watch our novice team perform its "Soul Train" number for the first time in competition. As soon as they took the ice, we were cheering as loudly as we could! They skated beautifully, and we were all so proud of their second-place finish: a great start to the season!

After finishing our hair and makeup (with everyone smashed into the mirror of the hotel's fitness center!) we loaded the bus to head back for the senior short competition. Finding an open space in the emptying rink, we warmed up, stretched and, in what felt like no time at all, we were in the locker room slipping on our "Lace and Leather" short program dresses. When we took the ice, I heard all our moms cheering as loudly as they could, attempting to replicate the cheers the other teams normally lead. This sight made us all smile and relax a little as we hit our starting pose.

At the end of the day, we walked out of the Ice Cube with a silver medal, which is always something to be proud of! Although not our best skate, we were still very happy with the program we put out on the ice that day. Some elements went really well, while others we got straight to work on at practice the next morning.

As I said before, Kalamazoo is only the beginning. It is a starting point from which we are able to gain both experience and valuable feedback from the judges. With the Dr. Richard Porter Classic in Ann Arbor coming up next weekend, we are excited to compete against many of the teams we will eventually see at the U.S. Championships, and are EXTREMELY excited for the debut of our free program!

Hope to see you there!

-B

Introducing Bianca Jackson

Hi there! My name is Bianca Jackson, and I am a member of the Starlights senior team. I am in my senior year at New Trier High School. As I work through my college applications, I am hoping to enter college next fall as an engineering major and eventually go on to medical school.

I started skating for the Starlights eight years ago on their preliminary team. That year, we had a perfect season, winning each competition with our Blues Brothers program. I was hooked! I've skated on two U.S. Championship-winning teams since, including juvenile in 2006 and novice in 2007, but I think the highlight of my skating career so far was capturing the pewter medal with my teammates in our first year at the senior level last year. When we saw our results on the JumboTron from the kiss and cry, we all jumped and screamed as loudly as we could...it was so exciting! Looking back and watching it now, it's actually pretty funny, but it is also something I'll never forget.

This will be my fourth year as a member of Team USA: two years at the novice level, and one at the senior level. My favorite memory is our long program this past season at the French Cup in Rouen, France. When I hit that beginning pose, it finally dawned on me that here we were, representing the United States! It sent a shiver down my spine, but the moment the music started, all that disappeared, and we went on to skate a clean run-through. Showing everyone that we could compete against these top teams that went on to the World Championships was such an amazing experience, and I can't wait to do it again this coming year!

When I'm not on the ice, I keep extremely busy! Aside from synchronized skating, of course, I have two other major passions: crew and karate. I started rowing for my high school this past spring and rowed on the varsity lightweight boat for the season. We won the Midwest Championships and went on to compete at the National Championships--a first for our team in the division! I also am nationally ranked in karate. I've won national championships in multiple divisions, including kata (forms), kobudo (weapons) and team kata. In addition to these two other sports, I love to run, go to the movies and practice new tricks on the trampoline with my friends!

And now for some favorites!

Top 5 most played songs on my iPod right now: "Power" by Kanye West, "Your Man" by Down with Webster, "We R Who We R" by Ke$ha, "Raise Your Glass" by P!nk and "Alright With Me" by Kris Allen

Favorite cities: London and Boston

Favorite movie: Mean Girls

Favorite book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Favorite TV shows: Grey's Anatomy, House, Gossip Girl and Nikita

Favorite magazines: Lucky and SKATING

Favorite vacation spot: Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Favorite food: FROZEN YOGURT!!!! Especially from Red Mango :-)