PJ Kwong

Favourite skating moments, and we all have one or two, are not always about the making of today’s champions…they sometimes say as much about the speaker, as they do about the skating event or skater featured in that moment…in today’s Edgework:

MEL MATTHEWS

Technical Merit - Personal and professional highlights

· 25 years as a figure skating coach of all levels, including having trained Canadian and World Professional Champions

· Owner of Lighthouse Associates, creator and webmaster for Dresswright.com

· Owner and creator of Skatehistory.com, a website devoted to the history of the sport of figure skating.

Artistic Impression - The essence of their story

‘In the early 1990s, as one of the last live skating shows that I ever produced, I was in Ottawa, at Winterlude, rinkside, as the stage manager. It was a beautiful night, clear and cold, with snow falling softly, and I remember watching a pair as they did an outside spread eagle together. The simplicity of the move, their grace and elegance, the beauty of the setting, and the reflection of the spotlights on the snowflakes as they illuminated the skaters. In my mind, this represented figure skating at its’ very best. Simply put, the magic of performance to music for it’s own sake, without benefit of judging.’