History of music & figure skating

Thanks to Alicia from my Algonquin College class for sending along this note about the roots of music in figure skating:

"I got to thinking today after your class. Figure Skating has very deep roots. I was pretty sure that Figure Skating had incorporated the use of music with the sport long before 1929, as all of the patterns and music for Ice Dance were set by the ISU in the 1930's. This would have required years of preparation.

I checked some History of the Olympics books and History of Figure Skating books that I have at home. Here is what I found:

Jackson Haines, who is dubed the father of modern freestyle skating died in 1876 at the age of 36. Before his death he transformed ice skating, he is recognised as being so amazing because he was "the first interpretive skater. He skated to music and performed like a dancer...". As well Sonja Henie among other skaters were part of travelling skating show throughout the late 1920's and early 1930's which incorporated Freestyle skating with music.

I gained most of this info from the book titled "Figure Skating - A Celebration" written by Beverley Smith.

You were talking about the use of Organs in the stadiums/arenas. One of my coaches used to tell me of his training as a child in England, where they had a live organist play all of the music for their practices, tests, and competitions."

Mavs host "Dirk for MVP" night

We saw this on the GameOps.com blog:

"The Dallas Mavericks are campaigning to have player Dirk Nowitzki named the 2006-07 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). There is an official “Dirk for MVP” campaign web site found at myspace.com/official_dirk4mvp. As part of the campaign, the team designated their February 22 game “Dirk for MVP” night. At the game, all fans received Dirk Nowitzki MVP jersey t-shirts. They were encouraged to wear them during the game. In addition, Mavs megaphone noisemakers were placed at every seat in the arena, and special “Dirk for MVP” entertainment elements were held during the game."