How ski ballet helped shape modern freestyle skiing

Long before modern freestyle skiing became famous for massive jumps and spectacular aerial tricks, another discipline brought spins, choreography and music onto the snow. It was called ski ballet, a sport that could look like figure skating performed on skis. Competitors combined athletic technique with artistic routines, costumes and carefully selected music while judges evaluated their performances. Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley recently demonstrated some of those unusual movements, offering a glimpse into a discipline that once occupied an important place in freestyle skiing. Although ski ballet eventually disappeared from major competitions, its influence can still be recognized throughout the sport today.

Ski ballet developed as freestyle skiers began experimenting with ways to make skiing more creative than simply racing downhill. By the 1980s, the discipline had developed its own stars, including three-time world champion Bob Howard. Performances featured spins, pole flips, balancing movements and sequences of connected tricks, often accompanied by energetic music. Howard remembers routines being performed to rock and roll, turning the ski slope into something closer to a performance stage. Behind the colorful clothing and entertaining presentation, however, was a demanding athletic discipline. Skiers needed exceptional balance, coordination and control to complete complicated movements without losing stability.