As the group of rowdy students had finally taken their seats, I see my grandmother emerge from a row to my far right."Greetings everyone. I hope you are enjoying the orientation so far—" in the back I heard a guy scoff, but my grandmother ignored it and continued, "and are looking forward to what the new school year has in store for you." Scanning the crowd, she finally spots me. "Mr. Grace, I don't believe you were at this morning's presentation, but no matter. You are here now."
Grateful, I nod my head and avert my eyes. It could've been more embarrassing, I thought.
Clearing her throat, "As a fine example of our academy's standards, goals and expectations; an event has been planned especially for today. Ladies and gentleman, please remain quiet and we will begin shortly." Elizabeth Grant then seated herself.
Some din arose, despite my grandmother's plea for some obedience. I had just finished checking my phone for missed messages from my dad, when the lights dimmed and a eerie silence descended on the crowd. In front, I could see lights shining brightly, their rays reflecting on the ice. They alternated between white, blue and purple while the speakers started playing. Entering the ice were two very familiar people: Dakotah and Talutah.
Talutah was still dressed like a Grecian woman while Dakotah looked like a Roman gladiator—if armor could become a body suit. Dressed in shimmering gold and translucent white, they matched beautifully. As I was staring in awe, the music played: "Carry Me" by Eurielle.
The beginning looked simple: starting in the middle, back-to-back and clasping hands. They then push each other away; Talutah performing an inside Ina Bauers while Dakotah does a beautiful Triple Salchow. His skates gliding across the ice like a wave across water. Afterwards, both of them skate around the opposite ends of the rink before meeting in the middle once more. Touching like the lovers they depicted, hands clasping while Talutah poses like a ballerina—performing an Arabesque—and Dakotah crouches. Pivoting, they start circling clockwise, Talutah's body becoming parallel to the ice: a Forward Inside Death Spiral.
The smooth transitions were captivating: the music and lights made it seem surreal. The whole thing had put me into a trance. After the spiral, they performed a Side-by-Side Spin—one leg behind in the air, body tilted forward and arms outstretched; spinning together in tandem before doing a sitting spin that was so fast, figure skaters called it the "Bullet Spin". From there, they transitioned into a jump combination using crossovers—a leg-over-leg move, to gain speed and distance. The jump itself was great: a Triple Lutz,, one Euler to add a half rotation and a Double Toe Loop to finish. With feet flying like they had wings, their movements had me mesmerized…Dreaming of skating on the ice again, I almost missed the next part.
From the jump combination, Talutah skated towards Dakotah and they performed a really cool lift called the Twist Lift. It's where a person gets thrown into the air either lateral or vertical to the ground. In Talutah's case, Dakotah threw her high up into the air and after a leg split, she performed a Triple Lutz rotation before being caught and landed gracefully. A Triple Lutz Throw soon follows, the toss kind of terrifying. I thought she'd hit the wall, but she simply glided away from danger and together, did a parallel Spread Eagle. With Dakotah on the outside, and Talutah on the inside, it looked kind of funny to see two people with legs spread apart and almost leaning towards each other.
The next part looked dangerous: from the Spread Eagle, Talutah was lifted a second time. With Dakotah's hand on her hip, she precariously hung in the air, balancing as he performed another Spread Eagle before placing her back on the ice with a spin. Doing crossovers to gain speed, Talutah was thrown again, a Double Axel Throw this time. The move had impeccable timing and Talutah seem to love being thrown around. What a strange girl…
Joining together once more , hands clasped tightly, both do an Arabesque before Talutah pivots to glide backwards and is lifted from behind, her body cartwheeling as she ascends for a few seconds before getting placed down on the ice again. The momentum sending her forward. Walley Jumps are then executed along with parallel crossovers before being lifted anew by Dakotah. Her body posed like the shape of a star. Bearing most of the weight, Dakotah did more crossovers and then spun his sister over his shoulder to exit the lift.
As the song was nearing its end, they glided towards the middle, as if the center of the rink had its own gravitational field. A parallel Side Spiral was done before they pivoted to a stop, their backs against each other. The routine ending like it had begun. With the empty silence from the absence of sound, we all sat gaping. The brother-sister duo had just performed an Olympic-worthy routine as a free skate and I knew one thing for certain: this was going to be a challenge.