Quintessentially Canadian ice skating flicks
It’s the ultimate combination of athletic skill and artistic expression. And this winter, with team sports like hockey and curling taking a back seat to safer solo physical activities, ice skating is more popular in Canada than ever.
Even if you can’t lace up your own skates anymore (or are finding it tough to find some in stock), you can still appreciate the grace and strength of others from home. This week, our Canadian Content recommendations celebrate some truly wonderful skating performances for all ages.
The basics never go out of style. So go ahead and learn a move or two from the late, great figure skating champion Barbara Ann Scott in this 1948 black-and-white instructional short from the National Film Board. Accompanied by earnest narration and retro mathematical diagrams, the twenty-year-old Scott demonstrates the fundamentals of figure skating that are still taught today. And since she is still the only Canadian to have ever won the Olympic ladies’ singles gold medal for this sport, you can consider these lessons golden.
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Former competitive skater and Battle of the Blades judge Elladj Baldé has gone viral on social media with his hip-hop influenced skating videos. But his masterful gliding across a frozen lake in Banff National Park to a piano ballad also reminds us you don’t need fancy backflips to instil awe. Baldé co-founded the Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance to support Black skaters, and his incredible performances are certainly inspiring the next generation of Canadians.
How old is too old to take up figure skating? To compete as an athlete on the world stage? A group of mature women from Kelowna, BC show there’s no limit to a passion for the ice in this award-winning 2019 CBC documentary that follows them from their local rink to the International Adult Figure Skating Competition. The sight of senior-aged women in spandex and sequins landing axels and lutzes in competition may be the sensationalist hook, but the film’s true appeal is its examination of the bonds of friendship through recreational sport.