Free Program

The pairs are completely free to show their technical skills, the interpretative abilities and their creativity, with music and choreography of their own choice. They can also use sung music. Some compulsory elements are required in ice dancing even in the free program. The couples use changes in position, a variety of complicated holds, small lifts and difficult steps to show their skills. The time limit is 4 minutes.

After the great controversy raised in the world of international skating competitions with regard to methods of assessment of skaters' performances, since 2005 the ISU has established a completely new scoring system. Set points and levels awarded to single elements of the program now mean that judges' assessments are more objective

Synchronized Skating

Synchronized Skating is a variant of figure skating. The classic features of this discipline (grace, speed, technical skills, pirouettes, lifts etc.) are performed by teams of 16 athletes who skate together, synchronizing their movements perfectly, forming geometric figures on the ice or performing intricate step sequences.

The basic figures are the circle, block, wheel, line and crossover.

The competition has the same structure as other figure skating events: a short program (which must include compulsory figures and techniques) plus free skating.

 

Editor:Liu Anqi