English Style Skating
The art of ice skating for pleasure was first developed by English upper classes in the 18th century.[1]. They brought the prevailing dance forms of the time, based on [Dance Figures|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_figure], onto frozen ponds, with a figure being a named pattern of movement larger than a step and smaller than a phrase.
English Style Skating[2] is based around a shared vocabulary of figures. English Style Skaters can practice the figures solo, but the highest goal of English Style Skating is the practice of combined figures, in which skaters execute figures in complex symmetrical and anti-symmetrical formations and patterns. Similar to other forms of group figure dancing, such as Irish Ceili Dancing, Square Dancing, and Contra dancing, a caller tells the skaters which figure to execute next.
As with other figure-based dance forms in the 19th century, English Style figures were documented by drawing a pattern on a page representing the skating surface[3]. Figure skating was distinguished from "plain skating," in which people just skate forward and do not execute any figures.
Victorian Era English Style Skating emphasized "long, flowing glides at high speeds with a stiff, upright body posture"[4]. By that time, the art of figure skating had become well established in North America and Continental Europe, with different approaches in each location and strong opinions both for and against English Style Skating[5].
At its height, English Style Skating clubs practiced the art beyond Great Britain, including in Switzerland[6]. The practice of English Style Skating dwindled over the 20th century and today is practiced only by the Royal Skating Club in Guilford, UK, which is the world's oldest skating club.
Notes
- ↑ Jones 1780
- ↑ Cobb 1913
- ↑ Montagu 1883
- ↑ Thurber, B.A. (2021). "The English Style: Figure Skating, Gender, and National Identity". Sport History Review. 52 (2): 332–355. doi:10.1123/shr.2020-0023.
- ↑ Meagher 1895, p. 23
- ↑ "The Mecca of Skating: Switzerland's Skating Craze".
References
- Cobb, Humphry H. (1913). "Figure Skating in the English Style", Evleigh Nash, London
- Jones, Robert (1780). "A Treatise on Skating", London
- Meagher, George A (1895), "Figure and Fancy Skating," Bliss, Sands and Foster, London
- Montagu, S. F., Monier-Williams, B. A. (1883). "Combined Figure Skating", Horace Cox, London
References
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