Figure skating is as much about aesthetics as athletics. That in mind, rising American Gracie Gold enlisted the help of a different kind of coach -- a mime.
“I just started working with a physical acting mime coach, which has actually been quite fun,” Gold, 18, told ABC 4 in Utah ahead of this weekend’s U.S. International Figure Skating Classic. “It’s sort of a new thing that has been added to my training. ... The physical acting is to sort of have that emotion where it seems genuine.”
Gold also said she takes dance twice a week and does off-ice ballet.
She leads a quartet of American women with Olympic hopes who are competing in Salt Lake City this weekend. Gold is the reigning U.S. silver medalist who took sixth at the World Championships in March. Also in Salt Lake City are the third-, fourth- and eighth-place finishers from nationals -- Agnes Zawadzki, Courtney Hicks and Samantha Cesario.
U.S. champion Ashley Wagner is not competing at the U.S. International Classic.
Miming is not a new concept in figure skating. The coach of Canadian Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir brought in not only mimes, but also ballroom dance experts a year and a half ago, according to the Toronto Star. American Timothy Goebel, the 2002 Olympic bronze medalist, worked with a mime, too.
Key information for U.S. International Figure Skating Classic
