Douglas Webster
Douglas Webster is one of the most sought-after professional choreographers in the world today. He has produced a huge body of work over more than 2 decades. Doug has worked with all the major skating companies in the world including Disney On Ice, Holiday On Ice, Stars On Ice, and the Sun Valley Ice Show.
He has also choreographed many TV shows including Skating With The Stars. He has also helped create, choreograph, and direct many park shows including shows at Dollywood Theme Park in Tennessee and Autostadt Park in Germany.
Doug has worked with many celebrity skaters including US National Champion Ryan Bradley, Olympic Champion Sarah Hughes, and Olympic Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen. Over the last 20 years Doug has been a driving force behind Ice Theatre of New York and he currently serves as their Artistic Director. He is also on the staff of Grassroots to Champions.
For a more thorough and complete list of Doug’s accomplishments, please see his biography at the Ice Theatre of New York website.
We are very fortunate to have a choreographer of Doug’s caliber on the website, sharing his knowledge and creativity.
Most recent videos are at the top…
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Warming Up (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster teaches a class of skaters a warm-up sequence. He begins with some breathing exercises, followed by a simple relaxation exercise that includes an exhale and bending of the ankles, knees, and hips. Next he does a series of squats or dips and holds the last in the down position, and then […] Continue reading →
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Building Powerful Pushes (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a class on ways to generate more power from basic pushes. Many of these concepts are similar to those Doug has already shared here at iCoachSkating. To begin this class, Doug explains that skaters can move across the ice without doing correct pushes. This is somewhat unfortunate, as many […] Continue reading →
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Drills and Concepts for Improving Basic Skating (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster teaches a class of young skaters some basic skills concepts and drills. He starts by stating “always bend before you push” and he makes it clear that skaters need to bend from their ankles, knees and hips. The next concept he discusses is “your feet always come together before you push.” […] Continue reading →
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Advanced Concepts For Improving Expression (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his step sequence lesson with a skater. In the first part of the lesson, Doug focused on the mechanics of the step sequence itself, and in this part, he shares insights about performing and improving expression. In the initial discussion, it’s clear that Doug has “developed a story” for this […] Continue reading →
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Deep Edges in Steps and Footwork (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater to improve the step sequence in her program. The focus is on deepening her edges, generating more power, moving smoothly from one movement to the next, improving the look of turns, and using the eyes to project to the audience. Doug makes a point of addressing the […] Continue reading →
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Creating Power In Turns (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster gives a lesson where he explains exactly how to generate power during a turn in skating. In this case, the turn is a 3-turn, but the concept applies to any turn (3-turns, brackets, rockers, and counters). This is the missing ingredient when it comes to lower level skaters simply lacking power […] Continue reading →
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More Details About Cross Strokes (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his lesson on cross strokes. In the earlier part of the lesson, Doug focused on leg and hip position. In this video, he focuses more on the actual push and movements to create power. As Doug notes, “The push is the key to pretty much everything in skating.” He offers […] Continue reading →
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Some Fundamentals of Cross Strokes or Cross Rolls (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster gives a skater a lesson on cross strokes. Doug focuses almost entirely on the free leg and hip position on the preparation of the entry edge of the cross stroke. This information is rarely discussed in this kind of detail, and Doug does a nice job of correcting the skater so […] Continue reading →
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Footwork Illusion (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his work with a skater on her footwork. The first part of this lesson is here. In this part, the primary focus is on improving the illusion and getting the exit direction correct to improve the edge quality of the rest of the sequence. To improve the illusion, Doug wants […] Continue reading →
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Footwork Sequence Fine Tuning (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater on a footwork sequence. This process of fine tuning is usually necessary to create a more advanced footwork sequence with better edge quality and overall presentation. Doug focuses on a wide range of issues in this video, including head position, knee bend and rhythm, pattern and edge […] Continue reading →
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Improving the Execution of a Footwork Sequence – Part 2 (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues working with a skater on her footwork sequence. See Part 1 here. In this part of the lesson, Doug focuses again on edge quality and power generation. He gives very specific feedback to the skater to improve the knee and ankle bend, including detailed instruction on exactly when to bend. […] Continue reading →
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Improving the Execution of a Footwork Sequence (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater on her footwork sequence. This is not an advanced skater, but she is also not a beginner. Skaters at this skill level usually struggle with power generation, knee and ankle bend depth and timing, overall edge quality, as well as slowing the tempo of movements to properly […] Continue reading →
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Deepening Edges for Skating (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster gives a skater a lesson on the concept of deepening edges. The concept is explained in the context of a three-turn and also in the context of back inside edges (salchow). When performing three turns, most skaters simply glide above the ice and initiate the turn and check the turn with […] Continue reading →
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Forward Cross Strokes and How They Relate to Axel (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater on cross strokes, particularly in terms of edge pressure and power generation. Doug begins the lessons by explaining and demonstrating what he wants for the forward cross strokes (gather, push, reach). He wants the skater to “bend and extend” on the the first half of the lobe, and then […] Continue reading →
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Mastering The “Scotty Turn” (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater to improve a section of her program. The focus of this video is an unnamed turn or step that is sometimes called the Scott Hamilton turn, the Scotty turn, the flip-flop, or the helicopter in the USA. Doug offers some excellent tips to help master this skill. First […] Continue reading →
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Choreography – Polishing a Footwork Sequence (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a skater to improve a circular step sequence in her program. In this video we see Doug teaching and offering insights about a program put together by a different choreographer. The value in this video is mostly a result of how Doug teaches the skater to improve the execution of […] Continue reading →
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Edge Pulls to Generate Power (Doug Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster works with a class on power generation from edges. He notes that almost everything in figure skating relates to these kinds of edge pushes. He says, “You’re always in a push, unless you’re in a spiral or a one foot glide or a hydroblade or something.” He begins with alternating forward […] Continue reading →
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Look Where You’re Going (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his class on warming up properly after stepping onto the ice. In the first video, Doug focused on exercises intended to warm up the knees and ankles. In the second video, he focuses on the cross stroke as a warm-up exercise. In this video, he discusses visual focus and looking […] Continue reading →
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Warming Up with Cross Strokes (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster continues his class on warming up properly after stepping onto the ice. In the previous video, Doug focused on exercises intended to warm up the knees and ankles. In this video, he focuses on the cross stroke as a warm-up exercise. (Although many ice dancers may argue that cross strokes and […] Continue reading →
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Warming Up the Knees and Ankles (Douglas Webster)
Professional choreographer Douglas Webster teaches a class on warming up properly after stepping on the ice. Instead of racing around the rink to warm up, Doug offers a set of exercises that are more effective at engaging the ankles and knees while still getting the heart rate up. He takes a few moments to explain […] Continue reading →
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Large Group Choreography Example – G2C 2014 Supercamp
This is the final edited version of the G2C 2014 Supercamp group number, performed in July 2014. The head choreographer on this piece was Doug Webster, and Doug utilized a number of assistants. Notice how the entire group is split up into smaller groups and the smaller groups have separate music and choreography. These group […] Continue reading →