I have decided that the adventures of a figure skating family are so very entertaining. The entire world needs to know the ups and downs, and the joys related to ice skating. As often as possible I will update this blog with my figure skating family's unusual and unique day to day ice skating adventures!
The Schneider-Farris Family is truly a skating family!
My late father, Dr. Arthur Schneider, not only loved figure skating, but he believed that passing figure skating tests and working towards becoming a US Figure Skating Gold Medalist was more important than winning competitions. He felt that working towards excellence and achieving a final goal truly meant something.
This is a photo of my husband Dan Farris and my father D. Arthur Schneider proudly holding up my book MY SKATING LIFE
He was very involved not only in my skating, but my three children’s skating.
He was at about every test session being a supportive father and then a supportive skating grandparent.
My son Joel Schneider-Farris’ recent accomplishment of earning the senior free skate test, the gold dance test, and the partnered senior free dance test all in one US Figure Skating calendar year added to the two gold medals he already earned, the senior moves and the senior solo free dance test, so now Joel is a US Figure Skating Quintuple Gold Medalist!
Paul Spruell posted this photo today on Facebook and I MUST share it!
This photo was taken in 1976 or 1977.
In the center of this photo is Charles Schulz. Sitting next to him is Peggy Fleming and of course Snoopy, but between Snoopy and Charles Schulz is my lifelong friend Robert Steiner.
Rob was an amazing singles skater.
The Steiner family lived in Denver at the time my brother Billy went to train in Colorado with Carlo Fassi when I was 15 years old. Billy was 13 at the time so my dad rented a small apartment for our family across the street from the CIA Ice rink.
My dad spent a lot of time talking to Irwin Steiner and even though Paul had a skating partner, I skated with Rob’s brother Paul a bit that summer for fun.
Paul introduced us to Richard Griffin who became my skating partner.
Anyway…I dated Rob a bit that summer. I think Rob picked me because I was short, but eventually he chose Dorothy Hamill over me.
Rob took me to the only rock concert (it was a YES concert) I ever went to in my life when I was 15 years old. Mr. Steiner drove us there. I remember the stadium smelled like POT and when I returned to our Denver apartment, my clothes smelled strongly like marijuana even though I did not partake in a puff of that stuff or cigarettes.
Rob and I remained friends throughout life and Rob calls me about once or twice a year.
Paul and his wife Judy are like family and are like an uncle and aunt to my three now grown children and have gone to about every figure skating test that my kids took! They even traveled to Sun Valley to see Annabelle pass her last international ice dance and celebrated with us when she became a US Figure Skating Septuple Gold Medalist!
Anyway…what an amazing and historical photo! Paul Spruell…thank you for sharing it!
This is one of the most exciting posts I’ve ever written!
My son, Joel Schneider-Farris received the news that he is now a US Figure Skating Quintuple Gold Medalist! He finally passed his Senior Free Skate Test after four tries!
Below is the video of the passing test. Notice that a coach that was teaching on the session got in his way over and over, but still Joel was so determined that he did not stop and skated great! We flew to Australia that afternoon, so Joel knew this was his last chance to prove to himself that he could do a clean program. That is an achievement in itself!
Also, below are Joel’s test papers:
Perseverance has to be mentioned here since this was no easy task for Joel.
On Wednesday, July 14, 2014, Joel was hired by Disney On Ice to join the cast of Disney On Ice Frozen. This was very exciting news, but…he was scheduled to take his senior free skate test in August of 2014, and that test was put on hold. We thought perhaps he could work on that test and his other senior and gold tests on the road, but show and tour life made that difficult.
So…every time Joel came home between tours, he worked on passing the tests he did not complete before beginning his career with Disney On Ice.
(He passed the senior moves in the field test on July 20, 2014, the day before he left for this first tour. Disney allowed him to postpone his airline flight to Florida for rehearsals for one day so he could complete that test. He’d originally been told to he’d begin work on July 21, but fortunately. Disney On Ice allowed him to travel on July 21 and begin work on July 22, and he passed the senior moves test on July 20.)
Joel smiles with his coaches Ryan Jahnke and Dalilah Sappenfield the day he passed his senior moves in the field test 7/20/14
And…below he smiles with another one of his coaches Eddie Shipstad just before he left for the show
Below is one of the senior moves Joel did on July 20, 2014 , the day he passed his senior moves in the field test. He left the next day to join the cast of Disney On Ice.
On July 15, 2018, four years later, during a break from the show and tour life, Joel passed the last dance in the pre-gold dance test, the Paso Doble, and passed the Pre-Gold Dance test.
Pre-Gold and Senior Solo Free Dance Passed! 7/15/2018
He also worked on the senior solo free dance during that break and passed on the second try during that break and became a US Figure Skating Double Gold Medalist.
Joel continued tour life, but decided he wanted to work towards getting other gold medals since his sister Annabelle has seven gold medals and his sister Rebekah has six.
This goal kind of was put on hold since the four gold dances in the gold dance test are so, so difficult. Perfection is required. Getting the senior free dance test passed required a partner and also the prerequisite of passing the Gold Dance test first and although Joel passed the Junior Free Skate before he left for his first Disney On Ice tour on May 4, 2014, getting the Senior Free Skate seemed daunting since it was hard to get practice in while traveling, performing, and touring, but in the back of Joel’s mind, he was still determined to work towards completing the gold medals he had not completed before leaving for his first tour.
In 2020, the Pandemic came and skating was next to impossible, but once ice rinks opened again, Joel was determined to work towards his goal. Even during the Covid lockdown, when limited ice time was available, Joel took lessons on his gold dances. The two of us had fun practicing the Quickstep and Argentine together.
Finally, during the summer of 2022, when both Joel and I were in Sun Valley (Joel was in the ensemble cast of Sun Valley On Ice and also worked Bell Service at the Sun Valley Hotel), one of the officials and adult skaters in the Sun Valley Figure Skating Club suggested Joel consider taking his gold dances that summer since there was a couple test sessions during the summer.
I know how Joel learns, so we decided together that Joel would work on just two gold dances during the summer, the Quickstep and Argentine tango, which coaches Brent Bommentre and Natalia Zaitseva. The end of the summer came, and Joel tested those dances and passed on August 31, 2022 at a Sun Valley Figure Skating Club virtual test session.
Below are films of those dance tests.
When we left Sun Valley in early September (since the Sun Valley Ice Rink suddenly closed) and returned to Colorado, Joel decided to work towards passing the Viennese Waltz and Westminster Waltz. We only had to the end of November since Joel was hired to teach skiing in Sun Valley beginning in early December.
The Viennese ended up passing, but the Westminster didn’t pass, so in December, even though Sun Valley had no ice time, Joel was able to skate a bit with Natalia Zaitseva and got a few lessons with Brent Bommentre and finally passed his Westminster Waltz and the Gold Dance test on January 2, 2023!
After passing his Gold Dance test Joel was determined to get the senior free dance and the senior free skate passed, so even though there was limited ice time in the Wood River Valley, choreography on both programs happened and he took the senior free dance virtually. Passing the senior free dance took three tries, but finally passed the senior free dance on May 1, 2023!
This now brings us up to date to June 2023. I wrote the following post below on Facebook the evening of 7/6/23 as soon as I heard Joel passed:
“We were just notified tonight that my son Joel passed his Senior Free Skate test and is now a US Figure Skating Quintuple Gold Medalist in Moves, Solo Free Dance, Dance, Free Dance, and Free Skate!
This was no easy task. There was really very little ice time in Sun Valley this winter while he was teaching skiing there this past season.
Joel decided to squeeze in getting the senior free skate passed when we returned to Colorado Springs in late April when the ski season ended and only had until the first week of June to get the test completed.
Due to the virtual test option, Joel tried the test four times and the fourth try which was filmed on June 5 passed and he did that on the day we left for Australia! (The day before, Joel tested the same test in person, but did not have a good skate, and was determined to skate a good program again the next day and he did! Talk about perseverance!).
Joel is teaching skiing at a Vail owned resort called Perisher for the Australian winter season. There is no ice rink there so getting this done was so important to Joel.
Our whole family is SO HAPPY since this had been a goal for Joel ever since he left to tour with Disney On Ice in July of 2014. For those who don’t know skating, this accomplishment is SO HUGE. In my opinion five US Figure Skating Gold Medals is equivalent to a PHD!
My late father, Joel’s Grandpa, would have been so proud. I feel he is smiling right now from above! Daddy “Grandpa” felt that skating tests and test gold medals meant more than wins. He supported my three children as they grew up as competitive skaters and the fact that my daughter Annabelle earned seven gold medals, my daughter Rebekah earned six, and now my son Joel earned five, is because of all the love and support that came from Dr. Arthur Schneider, the best skating grandpa ever!
I also want to thank the coaches that were part of making this senior free skate gold medal happen: Linda Alexander, Dalilah Sappenfield, Ashley Clark, and Dianna-lynne Webster Wells. Joel couldn’t have done this without you!”
Below are videos of two of the other tries Joel submitted that did not pass (he passed by one judge each time). If you watch the videos you will see how much Joel wanted this! Each test was so close.
The video above was filmed on June 1, 2023
Below are the test papers that went with that test. Joel was so close!
This video was filmed on private ice on May 24, 2023
And, below are the test papers that went with that try…it was close too. Both of these tests that didn’t pass did pass by one judge. You can see that it seems skaters just have to get two of the right judges to pass a test that is this hard.
I’m not including the video of the live test that Joel took on 6/4/23 since it just wasn’t a good skate, but here is the warm up video:
I’m so glad Joel wanted to prove to himself he could skate well and filmed the test the next day on June 5, 2023. That good skate turned out to be “the one!”
Also below are photos of Joel smiling with his coaches Linda Alexander and Dalilah Sappenfield after he filmed the tests. Joel worked with Linda at Sertich Ice Center and Dalilah at the Monument Ice Rinks. Both coaches made this happen!
Also, thank you to my dear friend Anne Baldy Murphy for your encouragement and support and to my former ice dance partner Richard Griffin for encouraging Joel too!
Joel now wants to try to pass the senior pair test when he returns to the USA after teaching skiing in Australia. I believe if we can find the right girl to do it with he can do it.
Again, I believe my family may have more gold medals than any other family in US Figure Skating,
I just was notified that my very first ice dance skating partner Corey Isenberg suddenly passed away on April 4, 2023. I’m devastated. I cried so hard.
This is a photo of the two of us when I was 13 years old. Corey was 21 and seemed “so old” to me.
I was so happy since as a singles skater I’d never won a trophy before, but I was good at ice dancing and earned many more medals, not only with Corey, but with my other ice dance partners Gary Forman and Richard Griffin. Both of them met Corey I recall.
Corey’s voice is the “The next dance will be” voice on social ice dance music CDs and tapes that have been used all over the USA!
Those who know or knew Corey, please pass the news of his death on. We were all part of the coach Howie Harrold’s team of ice dancers. Howie died after his home made sauna blew up after a lesson he gave to Corey and I on a Friday night at the old La Habra Ice Rink Polar Palace when I was 13. Corey was devasted and never had the same joy of ice dancing after Howie’s death and left for the Air Force shortly after.
I was left without a partner then, but what is so incredible is that Corey always stayed in touch and credited my wonderful dad for giving him so much.
I’m crying so hard. It is like a part of me is gone.
Wow! This photo is almost historical since so many of these “kids” went on to do great things!
This amazing “army” of pair skaters were coached by Dalilah Sappenfield and Leina McLaughlin.
My three kids, Rebekah, Annabelle, and Joel Schneider-Farris are sitting right in front of Leina and Dalilah.
There was such a sense of belonging during this event. I especially remember how all of Dalilah’s and Leina’s students cheered for one another!
Also in the photo are photos of skaters who became US and World Champions and Olympic Medalists: Caitlin Yankowkas, John Coughlin, Brandon Frazier, Chris Knierim, Keauna McLaughlin, and Rockne Brubaker!
Others in this photo became coaches and professional ice show skaters: Larry Ibarra, Nick and Amber Kole, Stephanie Kuban, Drew Meekins, Rebekah Schneider-Farris, Joel Schneider-Farris, Nathan Miller, Brittany Chase, and others…
