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Ice Zone figure skater medals at competition
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Nora Carlson and Thomas Zebrasky perform to the Rhythm Blues. The Rhythm Blues is a Preliminary Level Pattern Dance. While this is a lower level dance, this year U.S. Figure Skating is adding a new twist to pattern dance. This dance was utilized at lake Placid for skaters to try it out. The event is called Creative Dance and skaters will be able to pick their own music and they can do their own upper body choreography as long as they maintain the actual pattern. So they can change holds and ad lifts. This is an effort to make watching pattern dance more interesting to the spectator so they do not have to listen to the same music over and over again.
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Neighbors | Submitted.Nora Carlson (right) and Thomas Zebrasky skated The European Waltz during a recent routine. The European Waltz is a Pre-Silver Pattern Dance. Pre-Silver is the fourth level out of eight dance levels that exist is the U.S. Figure Skating System.
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Nora Carlson and Thomas Zebrasky skated The Fourteen Step at the competition at Lake Placid. The Fourteen Step is a Pre-Silver Pattern Dance.
By ABBY SLANKER
Nora Carlson, of Canfield, has been figure skating since she was 3 years old, and now, at the age of 11, she has returned from competing at the Lake Placid International Dance Championships with a first place medal, a second place medal and a third place medal.
Carlson, the daughter of Josie Jennings and Patrick Carlson, of Minnesota, and step-daughter of Stephen Jennings, placed first in the European Waltz, second in the Creative Dance/Rhythm Blues and third place in The Fourteen Step.
The competition was Aug. 4-7 and competitors and judges from all over the world were in attendance. Qualification was not required for this event, but according to Josie Jennings, it is the closest event to a qualifying competition.
Carlson attends Holy Family School in Poland where she will be in sixth grade this year. She trains at The Ice Zone in Boardman with Thomas Zebrasky and Skip Mackall. She is a member of the U.S. Figure Skating Association and the Youngstown Figure Skating Club.
Carlson is also a member of the Phantoms Figure Skating Club at The Ice Zone.
Figure skating runs in Carlson’s family. Her mother, Josie, was a figure skater and now teaches the sport at The Ice Zone.
Carlson recently passed a set of moves in the field test, which required her to execute footwork patterns correctly. In 2009, she passed the juvenile free dance test, which only 42 skaters in the country passed that year.
Carlson plans to compete in U.S. Figure Skating Regionals in Nashville, Tenn., this fall.