On January 3, 2010, a friend of mine let me know that her daughter was going to be a part of an ice skating performance at Alexanderplatz. Since I have a camera, and I’d mentioned previously I’d love to come see M perform, I was asked if I could bring the camera and take a few shots of the kids and the show for them since, prior to the actual event, the parents are running around trying to get everyone ready and most only have small cameras. Despite the cold and frozen fingers (I forgot my gloves and it was well below zero F), I must say that I was totally impressed by these youngsters – ages 4 and up – some of whom practice 6 days a week, two hours or more a day (yes, even the under 10 year olds). They have put in a lot of hard work and absolutely left me surprised and amazed at how well they do.

A few photos are below – with more in my flickr set here.

First – the Spins…. Spins are difficult, but apparently one of the “easier” things to master as other than the first class, all ages seemed to have some variant:

Then there were the beautiful glides – whether it was with toes out, one leg up and straight out, or with one leg up behind the head – these were more complex (obviously) and starting with the young – and ending up with the older ones – they were just beautiful….

Finally, came the one thing the kids all tried their best to do – the jumps – from the “kangaroo” hop of the youngest….

to the one legged ‘cowboy’ kick

, to the “greek” dancers –

and yes, even a single loop, these kids were fearless!

With the performance over, they took one big bow, and stood for pictures:

Well done guys! I can’t wait to see you in the Olympics in 2014 or 2018!