by Anne Calder | Photos by Daphne Backman

Maggie Blackstone and Tait Light credit siblings for their figure skating genesis.

Blackstone began skating in Birmingham, Alabama when she was four years old because her brother played hockey. She skated singles until two years ago when she switched to ice dance. Light was five when he joined his sister in a Knoxville, TN Christmas ice show.

Today Blackstone (15) and Light (16) are Novice ice dancers who train in Nashville, TN with Coach Rob Peal.

Nashville coaching staff attracts skaters.

“During the Covid 19 Pandemic, a lot of our (Alabama) rinks closed and many coaches moved to Florida,” Blackstone said. “We started looking around and found some good coaches in Nashville. First we went a few days at a time and eventually bought a house. I train there five days a week and then go back down to Alabama.”

“In Knoxville, TN we didn’t have any ice dance coach who was really competitive,” Light noted. “We went to Nashville for a few partner tryouts. That’s when we met Siobhon (Godwin) who I then worked with.”

Blackstone explained how the partnership with Light developed. The skaters, who trained at separate rinks happened to be on the same ice one day in December 2023.  Blackstone was practicing on her own while her coach was working with Light. A suggested “mini tryout” led to another one, and finally a real tryout.

The Tennessee-trained duo officially became partners at the Intermediate level in January 2024.

The new team faced challenges. Blackstone was previously a free-styler, and didn’t have training in ice dance technique. Light on the other hand had a background in the discipline, so he worked mainly on adjusting her strengths and weaknesses. By the end of the season, the team was proud of its accomplishments.

Blackstone & Light expressed their thoughts about Ice Dance in general, Patterns in particular and their Free dance.

Ice Dance

Blackstone: I like how all the focus is on a performance, like a show. You watch other ice skating, and it’s like jump, another jump, a spin. I really like how everything goes together. It tells a story. In my opinion, It’s one of the most beautiful disciplines in figure skating.

Light: I like it because it’s harder than freestyle in my opinion. You have to make sure you have the right edge going in and out, and you have the lifts and landings right. You have to have all this technical stuff behind you. I think it’s more challenging.

Patterns

Blackstone: Patterns have definitely been my biggest struggle. I didn’t have the technique. It’s what we have to work on the most. We’ve come a long way in our patterns especially since where we were last year. There’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Light: I usually am not the biggest fan of patterns. I’ve never really liked them. I tolerate them. I’m happy we’re improving on them. However, I’m truly happy and love our patterns this year. (Starlight Waltz / Quickstep)

Free Dance

The Divergent Series is a dystopian science fiction action film series. It’s kind of fighter, warrior. It fits their ice skating style. Both agree the program is their strong suite this year.

Light: It’s what makes us different from the other skaters. It  helps us climb up or stay where we are. It kind of depends. I really like it.

Blackstone: Our coach is very good at choreographing to our specialties. One of them is lifts, so we have really good lifts and strong power.

The partners each chose a dance team for a private lesson.

Blackstone chose Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir. “I think they’re popular for a reason – just the way they were able to stay so consistent over three Olympics, and how they worked so well together. To have a private lesson from them would be a Dream, honestly.”

Light chose Jean-Luc Baker & Kaitlin Hawayak.  “I love his artistry and strength.”

The athletes discussed personal goals.

Blackstone would like to reach her potential – to see how far she can go. “I don’t want to put pressure on myself to get anywhere specific – like I have to get to the Olympics, or I have to go to Worlds. Skating is an amazing opportunity. If you push yourself as hard as you can, you train as hard as you can, it will take you where you need to go.”

Light would say the Olympics. “I would like to have a great coaching career as well as one in skating – also to help others reach what they want to achieve.

Blackstone and Light shared a few things about themselves for the fans.

Blackstone: I share a birthday with Nathan Chen. I think that’s kind of cool!

Light: I kind of just do my own stuff. I’m at the rink all day. I worry about skating, but once the skating is done, I do my own thing – music. What I want to do in the future is music – be a song writer and singer.

Blackstone: I’m fifth cousins with Taylor Swift. There were two brothers. The brother on my side actually killed the brother on her side. We have some generational beef with Taylor Swift. My cousin did an ancestry thing, so we can actually trace it back and verify it. I went to a Swifty Concert – The Eras Tour –  and cheered for her.