- audience love

The emotional relationship of the skater with her audience is a precarious bargain. It is somewhat akin to that between a cabinet maker and the owner of a mansion. The audiences strives for class, or for at least being accepted into the higher class. They are the owners of the mansion (or at least they are paying the mortgage on the place). They lack however a certain actual substance, and are trying to obtain the essence of class by sponsoring the skating and by experiencing the patina of accomplishment vicariously.

The skaters are like the cabinet makers: they are the utility carpenters and general contractors who put in hours of hard work to lend grace and class to the mansion of a skating performance. What do the skaters receive in return? Just love.

And it is this sensitivity and craving for love alone that ultimately motivates the skaters to practice, practice, practice.