Fire on ice: Skater finds 'whole other world'

When Grandma Kay gave Salem Cone, then 9, a Christmas Eve gift of ice skates, an outfit and skating lessons, Salem was so excited she slept in the violet dress that night.

This gift unleashed a passion in Salem. Now 13, her mom, Suzanne, and dad, known as “A,” drive her from their horse farm near Lovingston to the Charlottesville Ice Park most days of the week.

From those first group learn-to-skate lessons, Salem has shown the aptitude and desire to progress in figure skating. She takes private lessons with Lindsay Tilley, practices regularly and travels throughout Virginia to compete. As a homeschooled student, she has a flexible schedule.

“When she started taking private lessons, we were amazed at how fast she got up the curve,” Suzanne said.

Suzanne and A were still in awe as they watched Salem practice in early December, getting ready for a holiday show. Out on the ice, Salem crouched into a sit spin, one leg out.

“These little girls have strength you can’t even imagine,” A said.

“You’ve got to have a lot of guts,” Suzanne added. “She gets black and blue.”

Salem’s fearlessness is one trait that make her a great skater, her coach said. Her flexibility, determination and petite size help, too. She’s been able to land an axle, a must for advancing as a skater.

“It’s a forward takeoff jump, and you push yourself up into the air with no assist,” Tilley said.

“It’s probably the most feared jump because we actually go into it jumping forward, so it’s really easy to think about taking a nose dive. And you do one-and-a-half revolutions in the air.”

It took a while, but Salem got it. She finally let that fearless part of her kick in, Tilley said; Training with a harness and pulley system helped, too.

“Salem has developed into a really beautiful skater,” Tilley said. “She has a sense of feeling when she’s out there that’s hard for kids to get. She just feels the music.

“Salem likes to give me a lot of creative input with her programs, which is nice. When a skater puts her own style into it, they really own it. They make it that much better.”

One program Salem helped Tilley create was for the summer 2008 Virginia Commonwealth State Games. She did a jazzy number from Moulin Rouge.

“I did ‘Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend,’ and I had a top hat and all these diamonds and stuff,” Salem said.

“(My outfit) was a black dress with sequins and a boa.”

Her Holiday Show routine is fast, but with more elegant movements. She helped to choreograph this routine, as well.

“It’s a fun program,” Salem said. “My favorite things are things that are stretchy, like the spiral, which is where you put your head leg high in the air, and the beilman, where you put your leg high above your head.”

Salem stepped into the rink for one last run-through of the day. She wore a navy velvet dress and hints of makeup. She flew around the ice to Celtic Women’s “Carol of the Bells.”

She took quick little steps, and then spun, grabbing the blade of her skate behind her head in the beilman. Her face was focused, her long brown ponytail whipping with her movements. She ended with the lay back spin, one leg stretched behind her with back arched, arms extended.

Beyond solo performances, Salem would like to try pair skating. Tilley thinks she’d be perfect for it.

“She’s so tiny, and talk about being fearless — you get thrown across the ice,” Tilley said.

The Ice Park isn’t a training facility bound on producing Olympians, Tilley said. She takes a holistic approach, looking to create skaters with a work ethic and discipline that will reflect beyond the rink.

She hopes Salem never sees skating as a tedious job.

“I want her to take it as far as she can without losing the passion and joy that she takes from it,” Tilley said.

Salem, too, is taking figure skating one step at a time, and seems content to have found her niche.

“It takes a lot to be a skater,” she said. “If you go around to the schools, you’ll rarely find any skaters. You kind of have to have that talent, to be born a skater.”

She isn’t always serious on the ice. Often she and her friends, other homeschooled girls from the area, will spend time making up their own programs to music, or just skate together, holding hands and spinning in circles.

“When you’re on the ice, it’s like a whole other world,” Salem said, “and you don’t have to worry about anything else, you just do stuff you love.”

Contact Clark, who writes for The Nelson County Times, at lclark@nelsoncountytimes.com.