Middlefield Business Profile: The Cardinal Figure Skating School

It's not terribly hard to find a program in Connecticut that teaches figure skating, said Elaine Lyman, co-director of The Cardinal Figure Skating School.

"There are learn-to-skate programs at all local rinks," Lyman said. 

But there's something that her Middlefield-based Cardinal School does that makes it stand out over others: every March, the school's more advanced skaters participate in a "theater on ice" show.

"It's a wonderful big show at the end of the season every year," Lyman said, who noted that the 2013 season ended with a performance of "Her Name is Alice."

For nearly 25 years, the school has instructed scores of children — as young as 3-years-old up to the teenage years — in the art of figure skating through 16-week programs at the Freeman Athletic Center on the campus of Wesleyan University. Anyone can sign up to learn, and while the kids come from the expected towns of Middlefield, Durham and Rockfall, some travel as far as Glastonbury and Haddam, Lyman said. 

"Many of which have chosen figure skating as their life long sport," she said. 

The stand-out program is the school's Cardinal Figure Skating Team, an exclusive group where would-be skaters are asked to take a test to participate. Lyman said it's not a popularity contest, but rather meant to determine each child's figure skating skills and whether they are advanced enough to partake

They then select a group of them to participate in the March theatrical performance, which is held at the Freeman center. The students on the team range from young teens up to college-age, she said.

"This year we have a 7 year old on the team," Lyman said. 

The 2014 production will be "The Secret Garden."

While the theater group is slightly competitive, Lyman said many of the children stay with the school itself so that they can try out for the Cardinal Figure Skating Team.

"The funny thing is that a lot of the kids in the program aspire to that," she said.

And with the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics, Lyman said the school expects to see an increase in participants in 2015 after many of the children see figure skating performed on TV. 

Interested in learning more about the school? Check out The Cardinal Figure Skating School's website. 

And, despite the fact that the 2013-14 program has already begun, they are still accepting applications, Lyman said.