How important is ballet for figure skating? Has the IJS caused it to be disincentivized with so many other things to work on?
Ballet develops a number of things that are essential to figure skating, and are easier to develop on the floor vs on ice. For that reason it should be at the top of the list a choices of “off-ice” training; in fact, I recommend adult beginners spend more time in a ballet studio than on the rink, at least for the first year or two.
Separate from the technical value of ballet is the aesthetic. Jackson Haines was a ballet dancer and set the aesthetic for free skating that continues to this day with the International Style. Some (John Curry) embrace that aesthetic more than others (Gary Beacom). If you want to look like John Curry, then study of ballet is essential. If you want to look like Gary Beacom, maybe less so. If you want to skate like AIT, then the study of modern dance would be essential.
But given that ballet informs the “default” aesthetic of figure skating, the port de bras I see are almost universally embarrassingly bad, even at the higher levels. There is no excuse for that, it is not THAT hard to fix. Spiral (arabesque) position is another thing that is commonly terrible, and that ballet class teaches systematically (and correctly). Apart from the aesthetic things, ballet practice produces strong ankles and high arches, both of which are essential for injury prevention while skating. It also teaches your feet to work actively, which carries over even in a skating boot. And it teaches your body how to land jumps safely, aligning the forces correctly through the feet, ankles and knees so as to avoid injury. All good stuff if you want to skate. Ballet also works the body in a way that’s more balanced in stretch vs. contraction, whereas skating is all go-go-go; ballet class is restorative for the skater’s body to continue training at a high level, even if nothing is expected to be learned from it.
Yea… neat picture but not ballet. Those poses would all get an F in a real ballet class. I would say it working on a “ballet informed” line that will work on ice. As for the concepts of form and line implicit in the OP, here is an article that addresses it. This is the kind of stuff ballet dancers think of when we watch and engage in figure skating:
Form, Movement Quality and the Ultimate Waltz Jump
IJS has cemented figure skating’s status as “definitely NOT an art!” From a dance critic’s point of view, almost all of what happens under IJS is a dumpster fire. Even if the skaters have great skill and “artistry,” only so much is possible working with choreography within the confines of the IJS sport. If you want real art, you need to ditch IJS, ditch completion, create actual dance on ice, and then hope you can sell enough tickets to not go broke. But competition sucks up all the oxygen in the room, creating a culture where people would rather watch “amateur” kids throwing tricks, than the same people a decade later actually SKATING in a mature and wonderful way as professionals.