On Saturday night, students of Class of ’23 gathered in Harrison rink to attend the class exclusive disco-themed free skate. Students wobbled, glided, and even spun their way across the ice to ABBA, Boney M.’s “Rasputin,” Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” and other popular disco hits. Uppers spoke to The Phillipian about this opportunity to relax, socialize, and take a break on the ice.
Fred Javier ’23 (Class Rep):
“[The Class Reps] were deciding on a couple of themes. We were thinking of doing something like the “roaring ’20s” and just with a general theme of extravagance and something similar, something, I guess, fashionable. We had the idea of doing a photo booth originally before the theme so we wanted to kind of do something that would go along with that. We had a very loose disco theme that we would have with the music and then maybe some decorations for the photo booth. So we thought that the disco theme would work well with the skating and just the general ambiance of the whole event.”
Dakota Chang ’23:
“I think that Free Skate, especially one that’s a class specific event, would be a great way for me to have time to hang out with my friends and reconnect with them. After all, Upper year’s really hard and Free Skate would be a great segue for us to have some fun and take some time to ourselves because after all, you can’t do an essay on the ice… the class reps, they did a great job organizing an event like this, I know it’s really hard, because getting the ice rink to be available, getting all the people to come here, getting the transport and all that, getting enough skates.
In previous Free Skates, [there were] never any skates, even if you come 45 minutes early. So this time, because it’s class specified… it gives an actual opportunity for people from class of ’23 to skate and I think that’s great.”
Daniel Zou ’23:
“The people who organized it did a great job in bringing people together… and I think that [Free Skate is] a good opportunity to meet other Uppers… [I’m planning on] getting on the ice and acting like an idiot…[I’ll] try not to fall and try to learn how to skate, because I’ve never skated before.”
Ethan Sun ’23:
“[I came to Free Skate] mostly because there wasn’t a lot to do today, and then a lot of my friends were coming, so I thought it would be interesting. Also because I wanted to learn to skate for the first time. I figured, now that I’m a lot further north, it would be good to take advantage of the opportunity… I think when I started on the ice and I actually felt the ice, I got really scared…and I was like “Oh, I don’t think I’ll even be able to not touch the wall.” But then my friends pushed me out and now I’m able to walk [on the ice]. Not skate, but walk.”
“I really liked just my friends helping me out, holding me so that I could balance on them. Also occasionally being annoying and pushing me or something.”
Rebecca Yang ’23:
“[I came to Free Skate because] I used to skate as a very small child and I was like, “Well, I wonder if I am still okay at it.” Also, a bunch of my friends were going… I think it’s an opportunity to do something we don’t normally get the chance to do… Also midterms just ended so it’s nice being able to just [mess] around on ice for a bit.”
Claire Wang ’23:
“I did ice skating last term for my sport, so I wanted to come back to the ice rink to skate again… You can do [Free Skate] with your friends, and watch them fall over, or fall over yourself, and have fun… On top of skating I filmed some videos with friends… It’s nice stress relief.”
Editor’s note: Claire Wang is a Digital Associate for The Phillipian.
