A Figure is an on-ice artwork that is made up of one or more identifiable ingredients (like flour when starting to create a cake). A Figure has a pattern with a specific shape/form for instance: creating a line called Drawing a Flat with the heel of the blade which is comprised of 2 lines that exist on the length of a skate blade (called the outside edge and inside edge). Think of a train track that is comprised of two parallel straight lines and this matter occurs at the bottom of the blade. A skater can also glide on a flat on one or two feet and skate straight lines (where both edges are touching the ice) and this can occur while skating forward or backwards.
So, Figure & Fancy Skating is built around a specific skating alphabet – a language that starts with a line, half circles, curves, whole circles and then other shapes just like an A, B, C, O, 8, 3, +. These and more shapes create a language in skating with very specific Figure Artworks that are linked together and named specific patterns of shapes with movements occurring while gliding on any of the 8 edges or 4 flats (straight lines). One can actually skate 8 total edges (4 edges on each leg – 2 forward and 2 backwards – for a total of 8 edges) which built and still builds the entire structural foundation of skating.
Do you know that a skater can be striving to skate on an edge (think half circle or whole circle shapes) and one can actually still be skating on the flats of the blade around a circle where both edges are touching the ice? Yes, it is actually a fact. It is not technically correct to be on the flats while skating on a curve but many skaters pass many tests today and have never skated on a clean edge. A clean edge can be proven or disproven when looking at the imprint on the ice.
The Figure & Fancy Skating alphabet empowers learning and progress for all ages and levels because it imparts the awesomeness of skating’s artwork from the human experience of holding a pencil, crayon or pen while learning to write a line on paper. In skating one learns how to draw a line with one’s foot and then progresses to more shapes that create a specific alphabet that builds a language. Great technique is not haphazard but proven from the artworks that are imprinted on the ice – the actual proof of World Class technique.
Why is Skating unique?
Skating is unique because every movement results in an imprint on the ice. A duality developed between the act of performing a Figure and the artwork/pattern left on the ice afterwards, with value placed on the quality of technique while performing a Figure Artwork which is proven in the precise tracing/imprint left behind. Fancy Skaters draw with their blades the artworks on the ice. All skaters leave an imprint on the ice but many do not realize this phenomenon. With better honed technique, Fancy Skaters produces more precise tracings within the artwork. These improvements in technique will serve skaters in any discipline as future skating educators and coaches.
For example, when learning how to color one goes out of the lines as a beginner but the process leads to the progression of being able to learn how to color neatly and stay within the lines. The same occurs with Figure and Fancy Skating – the results start as messy coloring and then develops into being beautiful, precise and sometimes intricate.
Spectators at today’s World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice watch our Fancy Skating Artists create Figure Artworks before their eyes, and then marvel at the imprint left behind along with mesmerizing Fancy Skating performances choreographed to music.
Figure Artwork Terminology:
Figure Artworks: All types of Figure and Fancy Skating Artworks create an imprint of art on the ice (even flights of fancy and spinning artworks).
Figures today may be classified as Figure Artworks to Place and Figure Artworks in the Field.
- Figure Artworks to Place occur when Fancy Skaters repeatedly return to a center and are able to trace and re-trace the imprint of the artwork on the ice. The best Fancy Skaters today, competing at WFS World Championships, can retrace complex Figure Artwork with centimeter precision. This feat occurs on the smallest instrument in sport and develops the greatest athletic art visually seen on the ice combined with a body’s core and mind.
- Figure Artworks in the Field (also called Free Figures) occur when Fancy Skaters do not return to the same center but creates an artwork on the ice that does not need to repeat in the same location. Any combination of turns, flights of fancy and spinning artworks are some examples. Fancy Skating choreography built from the knowledge of Figure Artworks is another. Plus, dancing on ice in set patterns is related to both Figures to place and in the field.
Fancy Skaters today practice both kinds of Figures; and use them in competition and choreographed performances.
Other important Figure Artwork terminology:
- Fundamental Figures: These are primarily Figures made of circles. For example, any figure with a “figure 8” pattern with turns or Loops, originally no more than 3 circles called a Serpentine. The Quadruple Figure Artwork consists of 4 circles and has expanded Figure knowledge so it is an exception to the base rule and is normally classified as a Special Figure because it is beyond the Fundamental Serpentine consisting of 3 circles. The circle is the most fundamental shape for skating because it is the result of holding a keen edge while gliding.
- Special Figures: The building blocks of Special Figures begin with lines and curves but the end result may consist of a combination of elaborate artworks with interesting shapes, for example the Maltese Cross.
- Creative Artworks: A unique Figure Artwork created by an individual, for example the Shepherd’s Spiral (Shepherd Clark, 2024), Beacom Blossom (Gary Beacom, 2016 and the Swans (Katherine Mangiardi, 2024).
- Free Figures: Free Artworks can create an amazing shape with a staggering center such as the Ball of Twine and any combination of circles, other shapes, turns, flights of fancy and spinning artworks. Fancy Skating choreography is comprised of Free Figure Artworks and other types to music.
- Spinning Figures: Figure Artworks that involve “spins” or pivots. Spinning figures may be to place or in the field.
- Flying Figures: Figures that involve “flying,” or jumps. Flying figures may be to place or in the field and have small or large flights of fancy with or without multiple rotations.
The following term is considered obsolete and not used by World Figure Sport:
School Figures (also called Compulsory Figures): The International Skating Union (ISU formed in 1892) had the goal of limiting the art of figure-skating by strategically forming a limited competition box. The ISU ultimately kept eliminating everything elaborate from the vast knowledge of Figures in competition built previously to their founding. This took time but their fracturing pattern of eliminating the Art of Skating remained by choosing to deliberately eradicate the Special Figures first and only use the simple—— circles. This was a great injustice to all the knowledge drawn from the highly developed Figure and Fancy Skating scenes by limiting figure-skating to the only simplified use of the most basic circle patterns and eliminating all other monumental Figure Artworks. By 1897, there was a simplified set of figures to place for their ISU competitions, known as both School and Compulsory Figures. These circular Figures did not cover all of skating’s technical knowledge already built but was described at the time as a “grammar” of figure skating which was partly true while omitting the rest of the grammar. School Figures initially formed the core of ISU skating competitions.
However, due to the ISU’s limited vision of only using circles, over time they kept diminishing their value in competition to the demise of the remaining organic and technically precise foundation of figure-skating. In 1990, the ISU removed from their competition brand even the basic circles (their limited grammar) that together with the Special Figures completed the second monumental fracture to the knowledge and Art of Skating that also developed the original knowledge of flying and spinning over centuries.
Remember everything in skating begins with a line and develops into curves and other shapes with a precise artistic imprint, so the ISU negated the organic roots of skating that pre-dated their founding. So, slowly the root rot of knowledge continued to set in that eradicates a healthy foundation and understanding of the Art of Skating. Now the World Figure Sport Society, not-for-profit, global brand expands the knowledge, art and sport with current exams and world class competitions that organically produces and develops the awesome and vast repertoire of Figure Artworks and Fancy Skating techniques with 4 major art genres so each skating artist can be unique and not be forced into and stuck in a limited competition box with only one brand. Thank goodness now more than one global brand exists for a healthy bio-diversity in skating for a wider global stage.
So, now are the previous school figures called the Fundamental Figure Artworks today?
Yes, the previous school figures consists of entirely what World Figure Sport calls Fundamental Figure Artworks today. All Fundamental Figure Artworks were practiced long before the name school figures became standardized in 1897, and are also included in the World Figure Sport’s global knowledge and curriculum of exams and competitions today. World Figure Sport (WFS) is the healing antidote that offers to the world its global cultural heritage of art, sport and goodwill. Join World Figure Sport’s prestigious global family and enjoy unprecedented opportunities with the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice and add to our vast collections and knowledge in modern times.
Where are we now in 2025?
Whether in practice, competition or performance, Fancy Skaters create art every time they put blade to ice. Fancy Skating Artists can participate in the ultimate Athletic Art and Sport and compete representing their country of birth or heritage in the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice from October 8-12, 2025 in Lake Placid, NY.
World Figure Sport inspires Fancy Skating Artists to be leaders and ambassadors who use their skills to bring people together to enjoy culture, art, sport and goodwill on a global stage. Fancy Skaters help others in their local communities to learn and enjoy the iconic Athletic Art of Figure & Fancy Skating.
World Figure Sport’s Fancy Skating Artists and Ambassadors encourage others in formal and informal ways. They enjoy sharing their talents and knowledge with others informally by getting together with other Skating Artists, or by teaching others and inspiring new artists to Worlds. Skating Artists may also perform their Fancy Skating choreography in shows and exhibitions worldwide. Fancy Skaters should promote their experience when announced in shows and add it to their resumes for work and scholarship applications both on and off the ice.
World Figure Sport works tirelessly with its artists, ambassadors, members, coaches, volunteers, donors and sponsors for the unlimited expansion and opportunities in the Art of Figure and Fancy Skating in all its forms as the ultimate art and sport.