The Passion to Skate: An Intimate View of Figure Skating

Provides an exploration of the dynamic world of figure skating, with essays on the sport and profiles of some of the world's leading skaters

Bezic, a five-time Canadian pairs champion and competitor in the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, turned her ice-skating talents into a full-scale profession as a choreographer, director, and producer. She has been involved with more than 25 television specials, including the Emmy-winning "Carmen on Ice" and "You Must Remember This," which featured Kurt Browning skating in a downpour to "Singin' in the Rain." She also directs and coproduces the touring show Stars on Ice, which Scott Hamilton founded in 1986. The photographs in this picture book reflect Bezic's career, capturing in mid-spin such superlative individual skaters as Katarina Witt, Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano, and Brian Orser, and such outstanding couples as Barb Underhill and Paul Martini, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and Ekaterina Gordeeva and the late Sergi Grinkov. Costumes are integral to a skater's performance, and several are displayed here along with the designer drawings. Photos taken on the road, during rehearsals, and while performing reveal aspects of the professional skater's life impossible to convey through televised coverage. Jennifer Henderson