As 19 Syracuse University women place their skates on the ice in unison this Friday, they will trade the worries of college life for the synchronized movements of aesthetic beauty.

The ice skating troupe, also known as Orange Experience, is set to perform a five-minute program as part of an exhibition show at Tennity Ice Rink as a part of the Winter Carnival this weekend. The program is intended to both provide the campus with a glimpse of what the group does, and prelude its efforts at nationals on the 21st in Lowell, Mass.

This will be the first exhibition of the semester for the synchronized skating team, which is also one of the only student-run teams in the country.

‘I’m really excited (for) Friday to have a chance to show friends here what we’re all about, and at nationals to show the country what we’re all about,’ said Erin McLaughlin, a junior biology major and first-year member of the team.

The girls will be skating to three songs during the short program; one of them entitled ‘Vangelis’ and another a mix of soundtrack music from ‘The Two Towers’ and ‘Requiem for a Dream.’ The artistic element of the performance will include the choreographic efforts of junior art history major Melanie Barton and costumes of forest green with flowing skirts and yellow underlining.

Although the club has only been in existence for four years, the group – consisting of skaters ranging anywhere from Environmental Science and Forestry to graduate students – has come a long way since its conception. According to Amy Huber, a junior accounting major and public relations secretary for the team, each year the group selects members from tryout pools almost double its size.

‘We’ve become more selective and we can have a much wider variety of students on the team,’ Huber said. ‘I’ve seen a great show of not only competition but dedication from them.’

Huber said a large percentage of the team is freshman and sophomores – many of them ‘freestylers’ who have been skating since a very young age. Freshmen skaters often come to Syracuse hoping to find students who share their passion and also a way to get involved on campus. While the girls usually get along well, their camaraderie can become an obstacle in absence of constructive coach criticism.

‘We work well together … almost too well,’ McLaughlin said. ‘Although we are self-motivated, it’s sometimes hard to know what we’re doing wrong because we don’t have a coach,’

Yet McLaughlin added that the two team captains – sophomore broadcast journalism major Alexa Ainsworth and senior English and textual studies major Nicole Leifer – have done a good job assuming responsibility and organizing programs.

A challenge group members may face on a more individual level is the transition from free style skating to synchronized skating, which is somewhat more restricted in movement. The students have to make sure they meticulously harmonize not only their physical motions, but facial expressions as well.

‘You have to look the same down to the fingertips,’ McLaughlin said. ‘If one person is any different in terms of emotional intensity, it sticks out.’

Before the skaters can master the emotional element of their performance, they must first conquer the technical part, which is often difficult enough by itself. For example, in addition to skating in blocks and wheels while interlocking arms, the team performs a move called the ‘Jack in the Box,’ which involves two skater lines doing split jumps while the other two lines execute lunges.

Despite the level of difficulty their program presents, the main concern McLaughlin has is the girls finding awareness and stamina within themselves.

‘I’m only nervous about our intensity together … it’s just a matter of getting the energy that they will look for in the competition,’ she said.

McLaughlin won’t have to worry about one performer on Friday and Saturday, at least. Ainsworth says that expressing the sentiments of the music through skating is easiest when one embodies the feelings of a performance directly.

‘My favorite part is showing emotion and how much we love it,’ Ainsworth said. ‘I love showing off how far we’ve come … it’s a long hall to get to nationals, and a lot of people don’t know that about us.’

Published on February 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm