The following story appeared in the December 2023 issue of SKATING magazine.
By Lois Elfman
Two-time U.S. junior ice dance champion, Olympian and half of the first U.S. ice dance team to win the World Junior title, Jessica Joseph, understands what skating can be at its best. After taking a break from the sport, she returned to coaching about five years ago.
“I’m slowly figuring out my place so that I can be a positive impact for kids and for this community,” said Joseph, 41, who skated with Charles Butler.
She works mostly with singles skaters as a supporting/secondary coach and as a choreographer at the Onyx Suburban Skating Academy and Detroit Skating Club in Michigan. Most of the skaters are at lower levels, but she has also worked with higher-level skaters.
“My goal is to supply the skaters with quality tools so that they may become intentional and strategic,” Joseph said. “So that they have access to a huge vocabulary of edges, turns and movements. So that they have an understanding of music and how to move to it, and they have the ability to pick things up quickly.”
To achieve that, there are two parts. The technical part is mostly done on ice, and the component nature and other foundational aspects happen off ice. She studied some of the greats in ice dance to inform skating technique; however, Joseph is aware that singles skaters need something a bit different.
“I use a lot of different learning tools,” she said.
There is good information in the PSA (Professional Skaters Association) modules. U.S. pairs champion Garrett Lucash introduced Joseph to athlete-centered training, which he has written about. Social media has also been influential as people share their training regimens. She has also attended U.S. Figure Skating camps, including Jump on It! Camp, where she learned from outstanding coaches.
“I watch skaters skate and look for what’s missing in their skating,” she said. “From that, I create an exercise or multiple exercises to train the desired edge quality, knee timing, movement, or movement pattern into their bodies. Now, I have a library of exercises that I utilize and frequently add to. That’s the technique aspect.”
She also addresses the components. For that, Joseph has acquired experience and knowledge of dance and movement. In doing choreography, she sees that the music creates a feeling in her, which she then translates to the skaters, utilizing off-ice dance classes. This includes teaching them about different genres of music and dance, as well as beats and syncopation. Sometimes they watch videos. Also, she’ll discuss the history of the genre and bring in dancers to teach certain styles. Throughout, she makes it fun for young skaters to explore.
“We talk about and practice body movement that expresses the different styles,” Joseph said. “Sometimes, we make up bits of choreography.”
She learned about the National Academy of Sports Medicine because of its success with injury prevention and injury treatment. The information helps her sprinkle in balance and stability exercises as well as pay attention to proper alignment.
“I have a different way of looking at the skater,” Joseph said.
Joseph grew up in Michigan and began skating as a small child. Mitch Moyer was her first coach. In 1990, a group of Russian skaters seeking political asylum in the U.S. came to coach in the Detroit area. Gorsha Sur was her first ice dance coach. When he relocated to Colorado, Igor Shpilband became her coach. She remembers when Naomi Lang and Butler, who had been skating in Kalamazoo, Michigan, came to the Detroit Skating Club.
“I watched it get built and grow into international recognition,” Joseph said. “From my perspective I was a part of what was going on in a community and an environment. I was fortunate to be where I was at the time.”
It went from one ice dance session a day to frequent sessions with seven teams on the ice. She even recalls occasionally sharing the ice with a young ice dance team, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who went on to make history of their own as the first U.S. team to win World and Olympic gold. Back in the 1990s, “their cuteness factor was unreal,” Joseph said.
Heading into the 1998 World Junior Championships, there had not been a U.S. team on the podium since 1984. This was Joseph and Butler’s fourth trip to World Juniors, having previously finished 17th, 10th and sixth. Winning was awesome.
“Earning that respect was hard fought and I kind of loved it,” she said. “I got to live out an underdog story, and that’s a lot of how I feel about my place in American ice dancing.”
She declines to describe herself as a vital part of propelling the success of U.S. ice dance, preferring to say that a lot of talented people have demanded excellence of themselves in representing the country on the world stage. Since she and Butler claimed gold, 10 more teams have won the World Junior title. Nineteen World Championship medals have been claimed, including three World titles, and U.S. ice dance teams have earned five consecutive Olympic medals.
“I remember a different reality for the United States and I much prefer this one,” she said.
Joseph and Butler finished second at the 1998 U.S. Championships and represented the U.S. at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano and the World Championships. After competing at the Goodwill Games that summer, Butler retired from the sport. She refers to him as a great partner.
“When I was young, I chose to dedicate my life to a goal, I worked extremely hard and I was able to achieve the honor of representing my country at the Olympic Games,” Joseph said. “I have some cool memories.”
She walked in the Opening Ceremony, met athletes from other sports and got to see the U.S. women’s hockey team win gold.
Joseph returned to the U.S. Championships with Brandon Forsyth for two seasons, winning the bronze medal in 2001. She attended and graduated from college, and coached figure skating for several years, eventually taking a break due to lingering injuries.
About a decade ago, Joseph felt frustrated as doctors offered limited answers on how to effectively address her injuries. That sent her on a journey studying holistic approaches and adding them to traditional medicine. There was a deep dive into anti-inflammatory diets, which for her included eliminating gluten, dairy and lectins. Taking certain dietary supplements also had an impact on her physical wellness as well as various treatments.
“I have to set myself up each day,” she said. “I regularly dry brush (dry brushing gets the lymphatic system moving), do infrared sauna and yoga. If we could support our athletes to take a holistic approach to athleticism, many tools are an opportunity to prevent future problems.”
Away from skating, Joseph is a passionate salsa dancer, loving the sense of community it provides. Twenty years ago, she created a nonprofit organization, YA Salsa, that still exists, organizing salsa events.
Joseph said she’s still a competitive person, and she loves giving kids tools that will help them skate better. This fall, she started graduate school to earn a degree in counseling.
“I am most inspired by the idea of giving tools that will help them in life in general,” she said. “It is incredibly cool to watch young people set goals and then as a coach I get to help guide them to get there.”
