What was the impact of Jackson Haines on figure skating?

Answer 1

Jackson Haines had a background of Ballet dancing in Europe. He applied music by hiring an orchestra here in the US, and he made his own costumes. He was an inventor of the first two-stancion blades which were screwed to his boots.

Perhaps from his admiration of Russian dancing, he crouched on his left leg and learned to spin in that position, which is often called the Haines-sit spin. He also adapted many position jumps which he took from ballet, and the gliding on one foot backward with the other leg extended up behind, which is called "Arabesque" in ballet, giving credit to the Arab rope dancers; but in skating it's a "spiral."

In 1864, he returned to Europe, and performed his invention of "The International Style," in most of the larger cities. In Vienna, he premiered his adaptation of the waltz on skates, and they believed that he must be Viennese; and of course, it was helped by his small orchestra.

He met Axel Paulsen in Oslo, and encouraged him to adapt his revolution-type jump from racing skates to figure skates. After a few falls, Axel conceived of adding a pick or rake to the front of the figure skates. After that pick was welded to his figure skates, he could land backwards easily. When Axel competed in a Vienna "meeting" in 1882, an Englishman named Henry Bosworth observed the new pick, and took that invention back to England, where he manufactured several pairs of ice skates, which he quickly sold. Other skate makers copied that form in England, but it was already popular in Norway.

In summary, Jackson applied ballet dancing, costumes, better blades and music to ice skating - not only figure skating, but to speed skating and roller skating.

Jack Johncock - 1311 Brightwater Ave - Apt 18L - Brooklyn, NY 11235-9524.

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