KIRKLAND — Where the journey will end, Danielle Rochlin cannot say. But for the time being, and with all the hope she has, the Monroe High School junior-to-be is pursuing a dream of being a top American ice dancer.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I want to go as far as I can with this,” Rochlin said after a recent early-morning workout. “From the get-go I knew I wanted to go as far as I could just because I loved it so much. And if that means the Olympics, that’s great.”
Rochlin will take a big step toward her skating dream when she competes next month at the 2015 National Solo Dance Series Final. The event, sanctioned by the United States Figure Skating Association, will be held Sept. 23-26 in Lansing, Mich.
At nationals, Rochlin will be competing with Alexander Vinocurov of Bellevue in what is called shadow ice dancing, where two partners skate together, but without touching. In effect, one “shadows” the other.
“Shadow ice dancing is to help prepare us for partner ice dancing,” Rochlin said. “And it’s a lot harder than partner ice dancing because you have to feel the other person’s rhythm without actually touching them.”
She is also hoping to qualify for nationals in solo ice dance. Though ice dancing generally involves two skaters, a shortage of male skaters has led to the introduction of solo ice dancing. She expects to find out by next month whether she will also skate in the solo competition at Lansing.
Rochlin started skating when she was 13, and within a year had become serious about the sport. Since her aunt, Lisa Clinton of Bellevue, is a former competitive ice dancer and current coach, the two naturally began working together, training several days a week at the Sno-King Arena in Kirkland.
“I love it a lot,” Rochlin said. “But it’s been eye-opening as to the amount of hard work you have to put into it.”
She began in freestyle skating, but soon found she preferred ice dancing. It is, she explained, “all about controlling yourself, and feeling graceful and looking graceful at the same time. I really just fell in love with that aspect of ice dancing. It’s like an art and you can express yourself through it.”
When she skates, she wants spectators “to feel what I’m feeling. And it’s a feeling where you hear a song and you just kind of float along to it. … It depends on what song you’re skating to because the music has a lot to do with it, but you’re definitely trying to express the song through your dance.
“I try not to think about what other people are thinking while I’m on the ice,” she added, “but of course I’d love it if somebody was moved by my dancing.”
Though some skaters are much younger when they begin, ice dancers tend to develop later and skate longer than freestyle skaters.
“Usually ice dancers compete all the way up to 35, and they usually don’t (get successful) until they’re in their 20s,” Clinton said. “So she’s at a good age where she’s just starting out and learning the ropes.”
In the past year, Clinton went on, “she’s come a long way. She’s a totally different skater. Her (skate) edges are a lot more solid, and she’s able to create her own style with the edges and with her dancing and the rhythm. She’s able to put it all together.”
This summer Rochlin is training six days a week, often early in the morning. She also has off-ice workouts that include weight training and ballet.
In her leisure time she coaches a team of 10-year-old girls in soccer, a sport she used to play before having to quit because “skating is very consuming.”
“At first I’d get mad because skating was taking up so much of my time,” she said. “But then every time I’d get mad I’d go a couple of days without skating and then I’d be like ‘I can’t do this’ because I missed it so much.”
As she looks to the future, Rochlin is torn between her skating dream and some ambitious academic goals. She is considering pursuing medical school, perhaps with the goal of being a surgeon.
But if she sticks with skating, it will be because “there’s no other feeling of confidence and passion and everything that you feel on the ice,” she said. “You can’t get that from anywhere else. It’s a feeling that’s so hard to describe and nobody else gets it but figure skaters, but it’s just this feeling that you’re basically amazing.”
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