Dorothy Hamill’s Camp
In October, I was delighted to be invited to coach once again with the fabulous Dorothy Hamill at her luxurious Figure Skating Fantasy Camp in Scottsdale, AZ! Its always a blast…a real “lovefest” between the coaches and campers! The coaches were Dorothy, Julie Patterson, Tai Babilonia, Randy Gardner, Steven Cousins, Doug Ladret and me!
After the long day on the ice, we coaches would pow wow at our condo, planning the next days activities. One night, Julie’s handsome husband, former professional baseball player “Moose”, grilled some amazing Ahi Tuna for us! Doug Razzano, the wonderful American skater who just turned pro, joined us and of course we all had to give him our 2 cents worth about becoming a “professional skater”!
On the ice Doug Ladret taught us some introductory skills to “skating with a partner”, Stephen taught jumps and some challenging edge exercises, Tai and Randy worked on lots of creative transitional moves, Dorothy and I introduced compulsory school figures and Julie, who is the skating director of the Ice Den, was a great coordinator/organizer, inspiring us as she led exercises.
Dorothy hosted 2 beautiful dinners at mexican restaurants (yum!). We stretched each morning under the beautiful AZ sky and practiced our kick line for the Friday “show”! The theme of the camp was “Hollywood Movies” hence the “shades” in our group shot.
Thank you Dorothy and all the campers and coaches for a memorable week and for being so inspiring!
