Above: Teams Elite junior performs its "Swan Lake" routine. Photo credit: Cynthia Slawter
By Robyn Clarke
Teams Elite junior synchronized skating team has a reputation for hard work and high execution. The evidence is clear in their on-ice results: Last season, it placed first at both of its Challenger Series events, and it repeated that accomplishment this season.
Their dedication to elite performance is also evident on the club’s website, with their “Junior” page proudly stating that the squad is “part of the top tier of synchronized skating where execution is expected to be intricate and flawless.”
Coach Danielle Ostrower said an unwavering commitment to top-tier performance is intertwined in the team’s DNA.
“The most impactful thing I've seen is that they have all embraced the grind of training,” she said. "Obviously, they're a high-level team, and obviously high-level athletes train, but I think embracing it versus being told you have to do it is totally different.
“Their attitudes and their willingness to just literally do things over and over until they're right [are incredible]. That mentality has just catapulted them, and it is so refreshing.”
Yet when it came time to conceptualize programs for the 2024-2025 synchronized skating season, Ostrower knew their passion for excellence had to serve as a bridge for something new. They had to perform programs that would push the envelope, routines that would propel her athletes to grow into the skaters she knew they could be.
The first step toward accomplishing that goal was selecting musical pieces that would allow the team to portray a story and transport the audience into an alternate world. When she found a remix of music from Swan Lake, she knew she had found what she was looking for. Not only would the music be familiar to those in the crowd, but the creative twist on the classic sound offered space for Ostrower and her skaters to try something unprecedented, too.
“I wanted to have a nod toward the classical Swan Lake piece, and I knew that we needed to show range and variety in our program,” Ostrower said. “And so, I think we found a way to sort of blend the two and keep it interesting.
[When I first heard the track] my heart kept pounding, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is it. This is it.’”
She was not the only one immediately entranced by the sound of the piece. Skater Evie Stuckey recalled a ripple of jubilance flowing across the team when they first realized what music their long program would be performed to.
“It took everyone a little bit longer to realize what it was, but the instant reaction was everyone [was] just so excited,” she said. “People were jumping up and down. A lot of people have wanted to skate to this piece of music for a long time, so the excitement was at its peak right then.”
The classic ballet shares the tale of a young princess who is forced to live as a swan by night due to an evil baron’s curse. To fully encapsulate the story, Teams Elite worked with theater coach Michael Lee to gain a thorough understanding of the emotions and characters involved. They did not want to create a performance about a woman transforming into a swan — they wanted to embody the characters themselves and make the audience feel as though they had just watched a human to swan transformation.
Lee’s detailed approach to depicting the storyline allowed that to happen.
“With Michael, when he was in, we kind of broke down each [aspect] element by element and talked as a team of which emotions to feel when,” Teams Elite skater Zsofia Katona said. “That kind of helped us understand the programs more and which emotions to feel [during each section].”
Lee’s expertise also served invaluable to understanding the team’s short program. Set to Mozart’s “Lacrimosa,” the Catholic funeral piece evokes emotion through its portrayal of the five stages of grief. Over the course of the song, the skaters take the audience through the journey of losing a loved one: initial denial, intense anger, internal struggle over past actions, immense anguish and eventual acceptance of their loss.
The sharp juxtaposition between the two programs served as another challenge for the skaters. Stuckey admits that figuring out how to transition between the two took time.
“At first, it was a little difficult,” she said. “[Now], we really all understand the characters and are able to use each other for inspiration — for faces and body movements and other things.”
Katona agreed.
“It was hard when we first started training the programs to know what to feel,” she said. “Then, toward the end of the season, as the programs went on, it was easier to bring out each emotion. We didn’t have to think about it as much.”
Their intimate understanding and effective storytelling of each piece have paved the way for the squad’s success this season. They notched an impressive second-place finish at the Santa Claus Cup before earning first-place honors at both the Dresden Cup and the U.S. Synchronized Skating International Classic. They are looking to refine each performance and build upon their accomplishments with the U.S. Championships and Worlds right around the corner.
“We are constantly looking at things and going, ‘OK, what looks different? OK, your head is turned this way. Why is it turned this way?’” Ostrower said. “You think about [the season] like a kaleidoscope. You see the picture becoming more and more clear as the season goes on, and as we approach nationals and Worlds, the goal is to have maximum clarity and just true performance, where people feel something when they’re watching the programs.”
However, regardless of the results, accepting and overcoming the challenge of portraying two distinctly unique programs will allow the members of Teams Elite to grow in ways that will remain with them long after the last note plays on the 2024-25 season.
Don't miss Teams Elite compete at the 2025 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships this week. For tickets, results, how to watch information and more, visit ussynchrochampionships.com.
