I get to the 6th Avenue Skating Place a little after noon. The spot is already hopping with skaters and music, courtesy of my friend Alex and their very loud bluetooth speaker.
A newer skater Cassidy is there and she wants to work on “the Smurf.” So we review that footwork and drill it together. Tom and another beginner skater join us to try it out, and pretty soon we’re all doing it.
Dee soon arrives with his much larger and louder speaker setup, dressed as always in a sparkly long coat and matching top hat. A familiar mix of 90s and 2000s hits fill the park. Locals and tourists gather at the edges of the rink to watch and take pictures.
I see a 30-something dude sitting on the bench with a big smile on his face. I recognize him from past sessions.
“Hey, where are your skates?” I jokingly ask him.
“I’m planning to get a pair,” he explains. “I’m hoping for a deal on Black Friday.”
“Okay, but I expect to see you out here with us next week.”
My friend Lainie greets me and she wants to do “The Tap,” a choreo I taught folks a few months ago. I’m embarrassed to have forgotten it, so Lainie has to teach me the routine that I taught her not too long ago. Soon Marjorie and Molly are doing it with us, and we’re all good in the hood.
Lainie introduces me to a couple of skaters who were at a dance skate workshop I was at last week. They want to do the beginner choreography together but can’t remember all of it. So I pull up an Instagram video of it, and we collectively figure it out. Then we do it together a few times and high five each other at the end.
An hour or so later, my friend Claire arrives. “I’m ready to do some ground work,” she tells me. Pretty soon Claire, Kim and I are working on hexes and other jam skate moves. I show them another entry to a vogue dip that might work on skates and Claire tries it out. She looks great!
Claire and I are chatting and we hear shouts and laughter near us. We look around and see Kim, Dan, Jose, and May Gi all doing this crazy trick involving the two girls being held aloft by the two dudes, who are spinning together like tops. They nail the trick and everyone cheers.
It’s about 4pm and I’m about ready to go. Then I remember that Deep and I have been talking about waacking. He wonders what that would look like on skates. So I show him some of the basics and pretty soon his arms are flailing as he spins around, which looks pretty interesting already. I’m exciting to workshop it with him soon.
Just a normal Sunday at the Skating Place.