Anyone would like to share the timeline for ice dance

[iceskating21]

Actually I am only talking about partnered pattern ice dance tests. How long did it take you from Pre...... to Silver ...... to Gold? Of course, how many ice dance lessons and practice time per week, will be helpful.

My skater are doing both ice dance and freeskate. But she started ice dance later than freeskate. As a high schooler, she doesn't have much time as before. It seems she has to choose one to focus. So far she wants to keep competing in freeskate. So we need to decide how far she will go on the side of ice dance. Seeing others' timeline is will be helpful for decision.

 

[Arwen17]

So this is just based on watching other skaters in my rink do FS and Dance testing, since I only do FS testing so far.
But if she's fairly high in MIF, she should pass the lower level Dance tests very, very quickly. We had a skater who passed Novice MIF, and then passed all of the Prelim to Bronze levels in like the space of a month, just long enough to learn the dance patterns and test like 5 patterns at once on one test session.
The general sense I get from watching multiple skaters at my rink (who are in the Novice to Senior MIF level already) they seem to pass everything up to Silver in Dance patterns without much trouble. It's at the Pre-Gold level that the struggle seems to start, which kinda makes sense. That's probably somewhat equivalent to a Senior MIF test.

At the moment, my personal plan is to finish testing MIF first, and then start doing the Dance tests, since yeah, I don't have enough free time to work on both and free skate tests.
My coach likes her students to do MIF and Dance in parallel, but I'm choosing not to. I'm doing ballet outside of skating, so I'm getting some "dance" qualities anyway.

I think our skaters practice their dance patterns as much as their equivalent-level MIF patterns. Probably totally wrong, but I think of Dance tests as "yeah, that secondary course of MIF tests....", since our skaters just take dance tests to improve their skating skills overall, because nobody is competing in Ice Dance. Most are taking the solo Ice Dance tests. Very few bother to test with a coach for the partnered tests.

 

[iceskating21]

So this is just based on watching other skaters in my rink do FS and Dance testing, since I only do FS testing so far.
But if she's fairly high in MIF, she should pass the lower level Dance tests very, very quickly. We had a skater who passed Novice MIF, and then passed all of the Prelim to Bronze levels in like the space of a month, just long enough to learn the dance patterns and test like 5 patterns at once on one test session.
The general sense I get from watching multiple skaters at my rink (who are in the Novice to Senior MIF level already) they seem to pass everything up to Silver in Dance patterns without much trouble. It's at the Pre-Gold level that the struggle seems to start, which kinda makes sense. That's probably somewhat equivalent to a Senior MIF test.

At the moment, my personal plan is to finish testing MIF first, and then start doing the Dance tests, since yeah, I don't have enough free time to work on both and free skate tests.
My coach likes her students to do MIF and Dance in parallel, but I'm choosing not to. I'm doing ballet outside of skating, so I'm getting some "dance" qualities anyway.

I think our skaters practice their dance patterns as much as their equivalent-level MIF patterns. Probably totally wrong, but I think of Dance tests as "yeah, that secondary course of MIF tests....", since our skaters just take dance tests to improve their skating skills overall, because nobody is competing in Ice Dance. Most are taking the solo Ice Dance tests. Very few bother to test with a coach for the partnered tests.

My feeling is that for my skater's coach, it doesn't matter what's your moves when you started dance. They all progress almost the same. My skater was about novice moves when she started dance too. But her first 2 tests also took 6 months for each one, and it took longer after that. Yes, her coach also said after Silver it will be much harder. So I worry how hard it will be. I wonder whether it's reasonable to take 7-8 months to pass Pre-gold or Gold. My skater skates every day. She spends about 30 minutes on ice dance everyday, almost the same as her moves. She puts more time on jump and spin, and especially programs if there's event. I don't know how much other skaters do.

My feeling is that the foot work pattern is pretty easy, at least so far. I can see why your coach like skaters to do MIF and dance together. Ice dance definitely helps moves a lot, like knee bend, deep edge, and skating with ease and confident. It helps freeskate too. But, yes, my skate ris in similar situation. She won't compete in ice dance. That requires a lot of time and effort, no less than freeskate. She has to choose only one.

 

[chiyung]

I think it matters, at the lower 4 dance levels, what moves test the skater passed in determining the how quickly they progress in those partner pattern dance tests. At the higher pattern dance levels, I think it's more how hard they focus on the pattern dances while skating.

Yes, I personally think it's reasonable to pass Pre-Gold and Gold within 7-8 months if the skaters are determined to do it.

There are many skaters at our local rink who are focused on free skate (competitively or recreationally) from no test through senior level. When my daughter started taking pattern dance lessons on the side as a free skate competitor 7 years ago, she was the only one. Now about a dozen of them take partner pattern dance lessons on the side. Based on my daughter's experience and those I see around the rink, there's a huge variability in the amount of time taken to pass each level of the pattern dances. I can speak generally from observing them (including my daughter's progress & 2 of her close friends at the rink).

For those who passed senior moves when they started pattern dance lessons and compete in free skate, the first three levels (Prelim, Pre-Bronze, Bronze) were quick (most skate 5 days/week after school for maybe 2 hours/day on free skate, moves, & dance). Within 3 or 6 months of starting partner pattern dance lessons, those skaters can pass all 3 dance levels (Prelim, Pre-Bronze, and Bronze). For Pre-Silver through Gold, the length of time gets longer and longer to pass all dances within that level.

My daughter was the quickest in passing the partner pattern dance tests amongst her friends. She was able to pass Pre-Silver within 3 months, Silver within 4 months, Pre-Gold within 6 months, and Gold within 9 months. This was all while she was still competing in free skate back then. My daughter started international pattern dance lessons 4 years ago and is almost done with those. However, she now only skates like once or twice a week so it's taking a while. My daughter's two free skate friends (Intermediate and Novice free skate level now & had passed senior moves at around age 13) appear to take a year at Pre-Silver and a year at Silver to pass all dances at those levels. They've been learning the Pre-Gold pattern dances for like a year now, and they are still practicing them, on the side, to eventually pass all 4 dances. Who knows how long they'll take to pass the Gold dances if they get to them.

I know several synchro skaters who were able pass the high-level pattern dances (Pre-Gold & Gold) in less than a year at each level by the end of their freshmen year in high school. They were focused, and pattern dance lesson is a requirement on their synchro team.

Good luck to your skater.

 

[iceskating21]

I think it matters, at the lower 4 dance levels, what moves test the skater passed in determining the how quickly they progress in those pattern dance tests. At the higher pattern dance levels, I think it's more how hard they focus on the pattern dances while skating.

Yes, I personally think it's reasonable to pass Pre-Gold and Gold within 7-8 months if the skaters are determined to do it.

There are many skaters at our local rink who are focused on free skate (competitively or recreationally) from no test through senior level. When my daughter started taking pattern dance lessons on the side as a free skate competitor 7 years ago, she was the only one. Now about a dozen of them take pattern dance lessons on the side. Based on my daughter's experience and those I see around the rink, there's a huge variability in the amount of time taken to pass each level of the pattern dances. I can speak generally from observing them (including my daughter's progress & 2 of her close friends at the rink).

For those who passed senior moves when they started pattern dance lessons and compete in free skate, the first three levels (Prelim, Pre-Bronze, Bronze) were quick (most skate 5 days/week after school for maybe 2 hours/day on free skate, moves, & dance). Within 3 or 6 months of starting pattern dance lessons, those skaters can pass all dances forPrelim, Pre-Bronze, and Bronze. For Pre-Silver through Gold, the length of time gets longer and longer to pass all dances within that level.

My daughter was the quickest in passing the pattern dance tests amongst her friends. She was able to pass Pre-Silver within 3 months, Silver within 4 months, Pre-Gold within 6 months, and Gold within 9 months. This was all while she was still competing in free skate back then. My daughter started international pattern dance lessons 4 years ago and is almost done with those. However, she now only skates like once or twice a week so it's taking a while. My daughter's two free skate friends (Intermediate and Novice free skate level now & had passed senior moves at around age 13) appear to take a year at Pre-Silver and a year at Silver to pass all dances at those levels. They've been learning the Pre-Gold pattern dances for like a year now, and they are still practicing them, on the side, to eventually pass all 4 dances. Who knows how long they'll take to pass the Gold dances if they get to them.

I know several synchro skaters who were able pass the high-level pattern dances (Pre-Gold & Gold) in less than a year at each level by the end of their freshmen year in high school. They were focused, and pattern dance lesson is a requirement on their synchro team.

Good luck to your skater.

Wow, that's very impressive. Your daughter did so amazing job! I wonder how many dance lessons they normally take every week? I have very small sample. My coach only has several ice dancers including two adults. He also have other jobs. So I want to make sure she is on the correct way. She is in high school and competes in intermediate freeskate. She is expected to go up to Novice next year. So you can see that we got to have a timeline about everything.

 

[chiyung]

Wow, that's very impressive. Your daughter did so amazing job! I wonder how many dance lessons they normally take every week? I have very small sample. My coach only has several ice dancers including two adults. He also have other jobs. So I want to make sure she is on the correct way. She is in high school and competes in intermediate freeskate. She is expected to go up to Novice next year. So you can see that we got to have a timeline about everything.

Thank you for your warm words for my daughter.

I think my daughter's two free skate friends (both in high school) are taking two 30-min ice dance lessons a week. One lesson is to get through the Pre-Gold partner pattern dance tests, and the other is to try to pass the senior solo free dance test (they have no intention to ever compete solo dance). I think they take like two or three 30-min free skate lessons a week.

I know you said your skater isn't interested in competing in solo dance. My daughter switched from free skate to solo dance competitions a few years ago, and enjoy that more because it's the right fit for her. Everyone is different. There are some skaters who compete in both free skate and solo dance. Wishing the best for your skater in free skate competitions and pattern dance tests.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

My feeling is that for my skater's coach, it doesn't matter what's your moves when you started dance. They all progress almost the same. My skater was about novice moves when she started dance too. But her first 2 tests also took 6 months for each one, and it took longer after that. Yes, her coach also said after Silver it will be much harder. So I worry how hard it will be. I wonder whether it's reasonable to take 7-8 months to pass Pre-gold or Gold. My skater skates every day. She spends about 30 minutes on ice dance everyday, almost the same as her moves. She puts more time on jump and spin, and especially programs if there's event. I don't know how much other skaters do.

My feeling is that the foot work pattern is pretty easy, at least so far. I can see why your coach like skaters to do MIF and dance together. Ice dance definitely helps moves a lot, like knee bend, deep edge, and skating with ease and confident. It helps freeskate too. But, yes, my skate ris in similar situation. She won't compete in ice dance. That requires a lot of time and effort, no less than freeskate. She has to choose only one.

If she's not going for competitive ice dance she doesn't need gold dance. There are many of the pairs, and singles who get nowhere near passing gold dance.

 

[gliese]

My feeling is that the foot work pattern is pretty easy, at least so far.

Nope

 

[iceskating21]

If she's not going for competitive ice dance she doesn't need gold dance. There are many of the pairs, and singles who get nowhere near passing gold dance.

She has spent three years on ice dance. Also she likes it. So she feels sorry if just quit like this. We think it will be nice if she can finish Gold.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

She has spent three years on ice dance. Also she likes it. So she feels sorry if just quit like this. We think it will be nice if she can finish Gold.

The point is, she's doing work she doesn't need to and could focus more on freeskate if she prefers singles and has no goal to be an ice dancer solely.

If she likes dance so much then have her concentrate on that and be an ice dancer and give up singles.

I know, I'm a rarity and competed ice dance and singles from a young age to elite level, but it isn't something done often.

Have her choose now and stop wasting your time and money. In my humble opinion, if she's having issues with the lower dances and just passing and not giving it enough time for practice and wants to spend more time on singles, drop dance and get going in singles more.

This really isn't that hard to decide, just being honest and trying to be helpful with my experience from each discipline and both sides of the sport on the ice and behind the boards.

 

[chiyung]

She has spent three years on ice dance. Also she likes it. So she feels sorry if just quit like this. We think it will be nice if she can finish Gold.

This reflects the sentiment of several skaters and parents that I know personally at our rink. Setting a personal goal and going for it just for the joy of it. If it makes you and your skater happy, then go for it. If not, then don’t.

I think skaters who have passed their senior moves test have the ability to pass the gold pattern dances. Some skaters take longer than others, and it may take longer than the 7-8 months goal you may set for each level. Is your skater planning to stop skating at a certain point, e.g., going to college? I spoke with a skater’s mom over the summer at a test session. Her daughter not only passed all her gold partner pattern dances before heading to college 3 months ago, but also passed one international solo pattern dance.

 

[gliese]

She has spent three years on ice dance. Also she likes it. So she feels sorry if just quit like this. We think it will be nice if she can finish Gold.

That shouldn't change your decision at all. Let's say that switching away was the better decision, then wasting another year is not beneficial just because you already did three.

I'm sure she likes it. Have only ever met a couple people who don't like ice dance. Even the jumpers love it for some reason. But she likes freestyle too, right? So which one does she like more? Pick that one. No need for gold dance if she isn't going to do ice dance.