Palisades’ Ice Princess

Grace Koplin’s “Theater on Ice” Team Heads to France for Nations Cup

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Grace Koplin remembers being “4 or 5 years old” when  she saw the movie Ice Princess and ever since then she’s wanted to figure skate.

Ten years and thousands of  practice hours later, she’s headed to  Colombes, France with the Los Angeles Ice Theater’s nationally-acclaimed team to represent the United States at next week’s Nations Cup, the world’s premiere Ballet on Ice event.

“After I saw Ice Princess I begged my mom for skating lessons and she took me to Culver City Ice Arena when I was 7. I probably started competing at 9 or 10 and I got first in compulsories in my first one and I’ve been competing ever since.”

Now a 14-year-old sophomore at Brentwood School, Koplin has been with the Burbank-based Los Angeles Ice Theater for four years and was one of the youngest girls to make the Senior team. She’s represented the USA once before in international competition –– two years ago in Spain when her team was ranked sixth in the world.

Los Angeles Ice Theater will be one of three U.S. teams at the Nations Cup, which consists of teams from across the globe, including Russia, Australia, Italy, Mexico and France. The U.S. Figure Skating Association selected Koplin’s team along with Harmony Theatre Company in Michigan and Act I Skating Club from Boston.

Koplin and her team fly across the Atlantic on Monday and the competition is April 24-25. Each team performs a three-minute short program and six-minute long program and a panel of judges awards points based on artistic quality and technical difficulty.

One of the fastest growing areas of figure skating in the U.S., ice ballet incorporates the techniques of individual and pairs skating into a theatrical performance.

“Our coach sets all the programs and I’m in a pairs group so I’m lifted a few times,” says Koplin, who went to Seven Arrows Elementary and lives in the El Medio Bluffs. “It’s different –– you have to be in sync with the people on your team –– but it’s tiring. I’m definitely out of breath at the end of the program.”

There are eight levels of skating and Koplin just tested to Juvenile. She hopes to make Intermediate (the fifth level) by the end of the year. There are competitons every weekend over the summer and Koplin is dedicated to her sport.

“I love individual competitions because if I mess up I know it’s on me. There’s pressure in Theater on Ice because you’re on a team and  you don’t want to let anyone down.”

Koplin’s team qualified for the Nations Cup by finishing third at last year’s U.S. Nationals in Dearborn, Michigan.

“Every skater’s dream is to go to the Olympics and that would be great, but my goal is to get an international assignment and get to Senior Level.”

Koplin is well on the way to achieving her goal. So what does it take to be a successful skater?

“You need to have self-determination –– you can’t give up in the middle,” she says. “Everything you do is a foundation for the next thing.”