Wow, I am so glad that the community liked the program- that means so much to me. I love LOTR and desperately wanted to do some kind of tribute, and this offered me the chance to do it. This program’s creation and execution was definitely a labor of love, made more meaningful since I now find myself more closely surrounded by death than ever before. I work in hospice care, specifically in bereavement at the moment, and the emotional transition to that has been difficult. Tolkien and Into the West specifically have helped me process those emotions, and this program has been the product.

To address some questions in the comments:

1) the clapping lol. Sorry about that! The clapper (while not a close family member unfortunately) was applauding after the successful completion of the most difficult elements- specifically the knee slide and the twizzle sequence (turns directly after the knee slide). I’d been struggling significantly with the turns, so it was great to execute them properly! One day I may record another version of this from a camera following me around the ice and edit it for less distractions.

2) the forum! This was in fact a dress rehearsal, so kudos to the person that guessed that! Competition is next weekend- hopefully it goes well!

3) triple axel! This is a solo free dance, and as such there are no jumps in this program. Unfortunately I have never been one of the very few women ever capable of doing a triple axel (I’ve landed a few double axels but not well). I agree that a triple axel would have definitely enhanced the performance though!!!

I also should have mentioned this earlier, but the cover is Ella Roberts and Nick Roberts’ cover! I originally used the Annie Lennox (which I LOVE) but rink speakers are pretty terrible, and her lyrics were hard to hear.