IN SYNC(HRO)

BY BILL MCLEAN THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

Elizabeth Flatt has her one-way staredown with synchronized skating judges down pat. But the Winnetka resident and Sacred Heart School seventh grader isn’t a meanie. Far from one.

The fun-loving athlete and her Starlights Novice synchronized skating mates—all clad in Victorian-era dresses—glare at super-serious officials because it’s an integral part of their innovative, highly entertaining “Haunted Dolls” free skate program.

“We’ve heard that we’ve scared some judges,” says the 13-year-old Flatt, who also competes with Starlights Juvenile figure skaters, including her younger sister, 11-year-old Ellen.

The Flatt sisters’ mother, Grace, describes the “Haunted Dolls” routine as “creepy.”

So does Buffalo Grove-based Starlights Synchronized Skating Teams Director Heather Paige.

“They’re bringing old Victorian dolls to life on ice, telling a story, and all 16 of them are skating to haunting music,” says Paige, who opened Starlights in 1999, and works with Starlights Assistant Director Jenny Cherry. “It’s creepy and eerie.

“How would you feel,” she adds, “if you saw a doll staring right at you?”

Hands-covering-my-eyes frightened.

But there’s more to synchro skating, the fastest-growing discipline in figure skating, than theatrics. So much more. It requires athleticism, artistry, stamina, balance, precision, timing, persistence, and teamwork.

A total of 11 North Shore residents on five Starlights teams—Juvenile, Novice, Junior, Adult, and Masters—showcased all of the above at the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships in Peoria March 1 through 4.

And 2019 Highland Park High School graduate Brittney Rivelli, a former Starlights standout, performed as a member of the Miami (Ohio) University contingent in the Senior division. In 2019 a Starlights Junior crew featuring Rivelli placed seventh at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Switzerland.

Her U.S. Nationals appearance in Peoria last weekend marked her 10th and final one.

“Elite coaches,” Rivelli, 22, says of Starlights’ staff. “But they don’t just care about skaters’ goals on the ice; they’re also just as committed to helping skaters shine off the ice.

“I’ve made so many meaningful connections through Starlights, through the sport of synchronized skating. The best part of synchro, for a former young figure skater like me, is that you get to do something you love on the ice and not be alone while doing it.”

Rivelli coached Elizabeth and Ellen Flatt at the Flatt sisters’ home rink, Winnetka Ice Arena, last summer. The Flatts and Winnetkans Ainslie Chapman, 12, and Jorie Thornton, 14, spun and glided and jumped and danced for the Starlights Juvenile team that captured a Midwestern Championship in January.

“My daughters’ confidence, because of synchro skating, continues to grow,” says Grace Flatt, a gymnast when she attended Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette. “They’re making friends easily, their social skills are strong, and they’re doing everything with determination and grit.

“I’m just so happy my girls have the best role models. It’s crazy to think they’re just at the beginning of their journeys and they’re being supported by the best athletes and coaches in the sport.”

New Trier High School senior and Starlights

Junior team member Kiana Eickbush, of Wilmette, competed with sister Mia, a sophomore at NTHS, for the final time last weekend in Peoria.

New Trier senior Mia Jackson, of Glencoe, also laced up her skates for Starlights Junior at nationals.

“My sister and I made eye contact during our last (free skate) program together,” Kiana recalls. “Looking at her then gave me exactly what I needed, a spark. It was like we both said, without speaking, ‘Okay, we’ve got this.’ Starlights’ focus on teamwork establishes a foundation that you get to display to judges and audiences. I’m so glad I got to experience the sport at such a young age.

“Synchro skating to anyone who watches it for the first time is mind-blowing,” she continues. “It’s fast-paced, with a lot of things going on, with beautiful choreography. Synchro skating is hypnotizing.”

Kiana and Mia Eickbush and Jackson helped Starlights Junior earn a bronze medal in January at the Britannia Cup in Nottingham, England. One month later, at the Hevelius Cup in Gdansk, Poland, the same squad took fifth place.

The Flatt sisters, as well as the Eickbush siblings, got introduced to the sport of synchro skating at a young age at Winnetka Ice Arena. The team was a small one.

It did not vie for medals.

But the skaters considered their “Olympics” to be the annual exhibition they staged for their parents, coaches, and friends.

Speaking of “Swifter, Higher, Stronger,” the International Olympic Committee hasn’t approved synchronized skating as an official sport. That could change, though. Soon.

What’s more dynamic than a team of buzzing skaters, in unison, dazzling and entertaining spectators with soundly choreographed, scary-good, themed programs?

“It’s hard, putting a program together and then practicing it for hours every week to make sure we’re ready to compete,” admits Elizabeth Flatt, who knew she wanted to reach the next level of synchronized skating as soon as she watched a Synchro Illinois event in Oak Lawn a few years ago. “You’re skating fast, moving your arms a certain way, making facial expressions at the right moments, and focusing on tough moves.”

One such move is a whip intersection, which is as dangerous as it sounds. Two lines of eight skaters whip around the ice, in close proximity, in small circles. Collisions happen. So do falls.

But, when performed smoothly, it’s quite a crowd-pleaser.

“Your brain,” Elizabeth Flatt insists, “has to be tuned in at all times on the ice.”

Results from Nationals: Starlights Masters Team member Maria Shapiro returned from the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships in Peoria with a bronze medal. The 40-year-old lives in Glencoe. The Starlights Juvenile Team—including Glenview’s Mia Vick and Winnetkans Elizabeth Flatt, Ellen Flatt, Ainslie Chapman, and Jorie Thornton—took fourth in its division. Elizabeth Flatt and Deerfield High School student Sloane Farber, 16, skated on a unit that finished sixth in the Novice segment. New Trier High School students Kiana Eickbush, Mia Eickbush, and Mia Jackson placed eighth as Starlights Junior Team skaters.

Great, Britt: Former Starlights blade maven Brittney Rivelli helped Miami (Ohio) University’s squad garner silver in the Senior division at Nationals last weekend and land a berth in the International Skating Union World Synchronized Skating Championships March 31 through April in Lake Placid, New York.

Visit starlights.us for more information about Starlights Synchronized Skating Teams.