About the Sur La Glace Figure Skating Program
Our school is proud to offer an innovative program for figure skaters in grades 6-12, called Sur la Glace. The program allows for valuable ice time, cuts training costs, eliminates daily travel, and creates time for extracurricular activities.
How does the figure skating program work?
Skaters receive regular ice time, dance and pilates training in the school’s studio and off-ice conditioning in the weight room. Skaters who work with private coaches are afforded the opportunity to work with them on ice during their scheduled skating time. Sur la Glace courses earn students a wellness credit, count toward high school graduation requirements, and are recognized when applying to college.
All of this, plus eliminating travel between school and training, gives skaters time for music, arts, clubs, after school sports, additional academic help, and other extracurricular pursuits.
Fast Facts
- Only school-based training program for figure skaters in Rhode Island
- Affiliated program with US Figure Skating as an official USFS High School Club
- Co-ed program available for students in grades 6-12
- There are 2 levels of programming for skaters with varied levels of experience
- Highest level of training at lowest cost
Figure skating schedule
Skaters are blocked into two periods of skating during the school day, and training also begins before school a few times per week. Optional ice time is offered on weekends.
The Sur la Glace figure skating program is mainly based out of our on-campus ice rink, Adelard Arena, with some portions occurring in the school’s dance studio and weight room. The on-ice time is spent participating in private lessons, small group instruction, whole group instruction, skating with peers, and independent practice.
High School Program
Our school is registered with the US Figure Skating’s High School Skating series. Our high school skaters compete together as a team at USFS high school competitions. They compete individually in freestyle, moves in the field, and in a team elements category. The competitions are both local and national. Most recently, our school placed 3rd out of 33 teams in the 2021 USFS National High School competition series.
Special Events
Our Sur la Glace skaters are able to participate in local shows throughout the school year, such as the tree lighting in downtown Providence. They have also participated in Q&A sessions with well known skaters, including Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan, Jason Brown, and Ashley Wagner.
Periodically they will participate in on-ice clinics at the rink. Past guests have included Olympians Mirai Nagasu and Kimmie Meissner, and professional skaters Colin Grafton and Nobahar Dadui.
Sarah DiNardo
On-Ice Coach & Sur la Glace Director
Sarah has been teaching competitive figure skating for 20 years. She is a United States Figure Skating gold medalist in freestyle, moves in the field, ice dancing, and free dance. She is also a Canadian gold medalist in ice dancing and has completed all 10 international dances. In 2007, Sarah began Ocean State Ice Theatre, the only theatre on ice time in Rhode Island, which has been selected to represent the US at the world level three times. She has coached the team to five national championships, and world silver and bronze medals. Sarah coaches all disciplines of skating and especially loves sharing her knowledge of choreography and musical interpretation with her skaters. In 2015 Sarah began co-producing the City of Providence’s Tree Lighting show, a position passed on to her by Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan. She has enjoyed collaborating on this show with many Olympic, world, and national competitors, in addition to local up and coming talent. Sarah has a master’s degree in elementary education and was a fourth grade teacher in Mansfield, MA, for 11 years. She is thrilled to combine her love of skating and education as the Sur la Glace program director.
Kate Louth
On-Ice Coach
Kate started figure skating in 1990 and was hooked. Shortly after she joined synchronized skating. Through the Novice, Junior, and Senior level teams, Kate was able to travel the world and win gold medals in both England and Sweden at International events. Kate’s team went on to be 1997 Novice National Champions and 1999 Junior National Champions. Also, during this time Kate worked hard on her individual ice dance and became a USFS Gold Medalist in ice dancing. She graduated from Bryant University Magna Cum Laude with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. Kate began coaching in college and loves sharing her experiences and knowledge of this sport with children and adults of all ages. Kate is the Assistant Coach for the Ocean State Ice Theatre teams. In 2019, Kate had the privilege of traveling to Epinal, France with the Novice team who captured second and became Nation’s Cup World Silver Medalists. Kate continues to coach private lessons at various rinks throughout RI and MA. She feels blessed that her career in ice skating has taken her to so many places and is excited to share her experiences with Mount Saint Charles Academy’s Sur La Glace skaters.
Jennifer Menard
On-Ice Coach
Jennifer has 26 years of coaching experience in freestyle, choreography, and moves in the field. She has taught all levels including regional, sectional, and national competitors. She has over 15 years of competitive amateur experience and trained under world and Olympic coaches in Boston. She is an international professional competitor and soloist in many professional ice shows worldwide. This is Jennifer’s third year coaching in Mount Saint Charles Academy’s Sur la Glace program. Her coaching philosophy is to help skaters find their inner strength to achieve their goals and be the best they can be, on and off the ice.
Heather Martinez
Ballet Teacher
Heather received her dance training at the Festival Ballet Center of Dance Education. In 2001, she placed in the top ten in the senior classical ballet division of the national finals at the Youth American Grand Prix in New York. She went on to perform for seven seasons as a member of Festival Ballet in Providence, RI, performing a variety of principal roles including Micaela in Carmen, Sugar Plum Fairy, Pas de Trois in Sleeping Beauty, Juliet in Yves De Bouteiller’s Romeo and Juliet, Le Corsaire, Swan Lake, as well as Balanchine’s Rubies, Allegro Brilliant, and Donizettie Variations, among others. Heather became a guest principal artist with Dance Alive National Ballet and Kentucky Ballet Theatre, where she was featured in numerous classical and contemporary works. Heather is a ballet instructor with Heritage Ballet, in Lincoln RI. She is thrilled to be able to pass on her knowledge and inspire the new generation of dancers.
Jacqueline Ambrose
Pilates Instructor
Jacqui is a certified Pilates instructor in the Classical Method. She received her comprehensive training from the Jen McWalters studio in 2011. Jacqui teaches at the Providence Pilates Center in Providence Rhode Island. Jacqui was a member of the United States National Champion Synchronized Skating team, the Haydenettes from 2002-2006. She was honored to represent Team USA at 4 world championships. Jacqui was introduced to Pilates as a young athlete to increase core strength. She also used Pilates to rehab and strengthen her knee after an ACL reconstruction in 2010. Her favorite Pilates exercise is Teaser. She believes it combines all of the Pilates principles, Breath, Precision, Flowing Movement, Control, Centering and Concentration. Jacqui plans to continue her Pilates training and complete The Bridge Program certification through Power Pilates this fall. Jacqui lives in Oak Hill, Pawtucket with her husband, 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter.
