Competitive EDGE
Dancing duo puts age on ice
As the Winter Olympics near, a local ice-dancing duo is working diligently on their own intricate lifts, twists and turns — all at an older age.
Dr. Keith Clark, 65, and banker Cindy Tipton, 56, are training for the U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships from April 10-14 in Marlborough, Massachusetts. An estimated 400 individuals are expected to compete in separate ice dancing and skating categories, competition Chairwoman Donna J. Wunder said.
Competitors are as old as 85, she said.
Like the Olympics, the adult event includes gold, silver and bronze medals.
Friends Clark and Tipton plan to ice dance a fox trot and a flamenco in the competition.
There’s also a dance called the ”Killian.” It’s a set-pattern dance and music like a march with certain steps and beats per minute. The two are using the music “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars.
At the national competition, judges will decide which team performs the best ice dances with power, deep edges, synchronicity and expression, Tipton said.
“I like the speed, control of forces, sensitivity of movement, and the complexity and difficulty” of ice dancing, said Clark, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at St. Anthony Hospital. “Mostly, I like the sensation of continued accomplishment with practice. It’s satisfying to continue to make progress, and with two people, it’s more fun,” he said.
“We are both experiencing it together so it adds to the enjoyment.”
Tipton says her love of ice dancing comes from “the power, flow and freedom of movement. It is thrilling!”
She works for MidFirst Bank in credit risk management.
They have been an on-ice twosome for eight years.
Currently, the pair mostly trains for a few hours five days a week during the early mornings at Arctic Edge Skating Rink and sometimes at Blazers Ice Centre in Moore.
“When we are finished practicing, we feel inspired, warmed up, flexible and ready to tackle the day,” noted Tipton, of Edmond.
Their partnership happened because “we have been the only adults consistently skating in our age group and at the same skating-skill level,” Clark said.
The two both skated in the mornings before becoming a pair.
“We are compatible, good friends, and have our spouses’ encouragement because they understand the enjoyment it brings,” Clark said.
Originally from the Detroit area, Clark went to medical school at the University of Michigan.
“Some of the medical students would skate at noon, and so I joined them for four years,” he said.
However, after a 20-year hiatus from skating to become a surgeon in Oklahoma City, get married to wife, Debbie, and have two children, he began skating again at the age of 45.
During his life, he has enjoyed swimming, diving, snow skiing and now ice dancing.
He tries to encourage other adults to try skating.
His wife is an attorney for the Oklahoma Civil Court of Appeals. Their oldest son, Nick, is a third-year, medical-school student.
Alex, their youngest son, is working in the manufacturing business and focusing on mixed martial arts.
Clark and Tipton also have hopes of using a computerized skate-sharpening machine, as well as a Tipton was born in Tulsa, and went to Sand Springs High School and Oklahoma State University. She became an accountant in 1985. Her oldest daughter, Lauren, is a former ice skater, and now works in Houston.
Her youngest daughter, Renee, was a competitive soccer player and is now a nurse at the University of Oklahoma
Health
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Center hospital.
Tipton's athletic background includes skiing, ice skating and ice dancing.
“I train in the mornings before work as a way to keep in shape, see my good friends and improve my skating skills,” she said.
At Arctic Edge, she has been a substitute teacher in the rink’s “Learn-toSkate” program.
As a young girl, she joined the Tulsa Figure Skating Club at a time when Dorothy Hamill, and her coach, Carlo Fassi — both legends — were there.
Later, she took lessons until high school.
“I didn’t skate in high school, college or the beginning of my banking career,” she said.
“But after my daughter was born, I decided to go to the rink in 1990. I needed to lose my pregnancy weight and planned on going to public sessions to just skate and have some alone time,” she added.
She then met Arctic Edge coach Jackie Brenner and was introduced to "the discipline of ice dance,” which is very similar to ballroom dancing on ice.
She also studied an icedance
curriculum — which includes 23 dances, each one becoming progressively harder. She plans to test for number 21 this spring.
It was Brenner who encouraged Tipton to pair up with Clark for ice dancing.
Tipton has strong opinions about skating and ice dancing.
“I like skating because it’s exercise, but much more fun than running on a treadmill. It is a difficult sport, and it keeps the nondedicated away,” she said.
“It’s cold, it’s early in the morning, you risk getting hurt and the progress is slow.
“The sport is one in which improvement happens very slowly and incrementally, little bits of improvement daily. Even for elite athletes, it’s a slow progression, and at our age, even slower. But we enjoy the process,” she added.