My husband Jon and I immigrated to Canada in 1984. Previous to this, I had been lucky enough to teach for several summers at the Ice Dance Centre of Ontario, where many fine teams came to train under the direction of Bernard Ford, Marijane Stong and Rosina Watt. I loved Canada from the start, and when I married Jon I was able to convince him that he would love it too!

In the beginning we taught at the Silver Blades Skating Club in Etobicoke, where we were lucky to work with many fine coaches who initiated us in the mysterious ways of Canadian skating. We remained at Silver Blades for eight years, along the way producing a sectional champion in singles and our first nationally competing dance team. Jon, being a male dance partner, was in great demand in the city and beyond, and it wasn't long before the Scarboro F.S.C began to use his services. Ultimately we moved to the east end of the city, and settled in to Scarboro as full time coaches.

Around this time, our son was also beginning to skate and show an interest in dancing. We had always wanted to coach dance teams, and we sensed that Scarboro would be a good place to put a program together. We began with one session at 6am on Sunday mornings! We would pick up quite a lot of the kids and bring them in with us, supplying hot chocolate and Timbits to make the time of day a bit less cruel. From this small beginning came the nucleus of our program as it is today. Slowly and steadily we have built our teams and our program, until today we have 13 teams in training! Our club ice time is supplemented by city ice, and our off ice program has expanded to include ballet, ballroom dancing, hip hop and our "commando course" conditioning.

The addition of Juris Razgulajevs to our coaching team in 1999 revitalized our program, and brought new direction to the choreographic process. Donna Iijima continues to unearth new talent on what seems like a daily basis and our development teams are blossoming under her watchful eye.

At Ice Dance Elite we understand that it takes teamwork, time, and effort to produce success. "There will be no white flag above our door!"

Become part of our team as we dance in to the future!