Ice-dance.com would not be possible without the volunteer staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes. 


Daphne Backman, Owner, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief [ contact Daphne ]
Since co-founding ice-dance.com (IDC) in 1999, Daphne has spent the last decade focusing the spotlight on all things ice dance and overseeing the massive growth of the website. In addition to taking care of the day-to-day updates, she coordinates IDC's coverage highlighted by the year's banner event—the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships (not surprisingly, her favorite skating event). Daphne's web design portfolio includes sites for athletes from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Italy, Israel, Japan and Great Britain, and she currently created and maintains 95% of the websites hosted at IDC. In addition, Daphne works as a Co-Administrator and Webmaster at Figure Skaters Online. As a journalist and photographer, she has been published in SKATING Magazine and International Figure Skating, as well as on USFigureSkating.org and IceNetwork.com. Daphne lives in southern Maine.

Melanie Hoyt, Assistant Administrator & Managing Editor, Chief Canadian Correspondent [ contact Melanie ]
Not wanting to see Canucks short-changed on the ice dance coverage, Chicago native Melanie Hoyt joined the staff of IDC to develop and oversee our Canadian beat. Melanie earned a B.A. in English in 2008 from Olivet College and is currently at Roosevelt University, pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing with an emphasis in nonfiction. Her articles and photography have also been published on the U.S. Figure Skating, IceNetwork, Skate Today, and Golden Skate websites and in Newsday, Milwaukee Magazine, Windsor Life, and Whitby This Week. She can often be found boardside and heavily-layered at the coldest rinks in Eastern Ontario, shooting for Phil Culhane Photography. She has maintained Tracings.net, an archive for skating results and skater profiles, since 2004. When she's not traveling for skating, she's working on her first book, a travel narrative chronicling her road trip across Canada. Melanie's "favourite" event to attend since 2005 has been the Canadian Championships, but EOS events where the volunteers bring her food between flights are climbing the rankings.

Michelle Wojdyla, Managing Editor, Copy & Photography [ contact Michelle ]
Michelle has been a professional figure skating journalist and photographer for over a decade. Her work has primarily been featured both online and in print for U.S. Figure Skating publications and Blades on Ice, including a dozen magazine covers between the two. Michelle's photos have appeared in mainstream publications like The New York Times Magazine, The Advocate, and Carnegie Mellon Today, as well as countless newspapers across the U.S. Since the early days of ice-dance.com, Michelle has been a strong supporter-turned contributor-turned editor, and helped oversee IDC's major expansion into event coverage. When asked to choose her favorite event, Michelle could not make up her mind (shocking!) and came up with "U.S. Nationals and anything that brings me to Lake Placid. But ask me tomorrow, and that will probably change again. Maybe."


Katie Weigel, Staff Photographer and Journalist [ contact Katie ]
Originally from Iowa, Katie began photographing skating events in 1999. While living in Russia, Katie took advantage of the opportunity to shoot competitions and shows in St. Petersburg and Moscow, including the 2005 World Championships (her favorite event to date). In 2006, she upgraded to a digital SLR camera and enrolled in digital photography classes in Chicago. After volunteering with ice-dance.com at the 2007 Lake Placid Ice Dancing Championships, Katie became a prolific contributor to IDC. Since 2007 Katie has covered such events as the Midwestern Sectional Championships, U.S. Nationals, Stars on Ice, Superstars on Ice, and Skate for the Heart. Katie's photographic and journalistic work has been published in Blades On Ice magazine as well as on IceNetwork.com and USFigureskating.org. Katie holds a B.A. in Russian and Communication Studies from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in International Education from The George Washington University.


Liz Chastney, Staff Photographer [ contact Liz ]
A New Jersey native who began doing skating photography in 2006, Liz (and her dog, Fenway) recently moved to Orlando, Florida where she is pursuing a full-time career in photography. Her photos have been published in Blades on Ice and iSkate magazines and can be seen on numerous official sites for skaters around the world. Liz mainly covers events in Europe and Asia and will jump at any opportunity to shoot in Japan. In her spare time, she heads over to Disney World, racking up the miles walked and frames shot. Her favorite event? Anything that takes her to Japan.


Robin Ritoss, Staff Photographer [ contact Robin ]
Robin has been covering figure skating since 2005.  She has regularly provided event reports and photos for Skatetoday.com since 2006. She joined the staff of ice-dance.com after getting sucked into the IDC photography vortex at the 2009 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. Robin's work has been published in the International Herald Tribune, multiple skating magazines, and around the Internet. Currently residing in California, Robin has racked up more miles on airplanes than in her 1990 Acura Integra. She covered 14 international events during the 2009-2010 skating season alone and has no plans of slowing down now.  Her favorite event was the 2005 Grand Prix Final where she got to work with Tatiana Flade as part of the ISU media team and tour her favorite city of Tokyo.


Natalia (Natasha) Ponarina, Staff Photographer [ contact Natasha ]
For Natasha, the world of figure skating is great and interesting. Her desire to leave moments of sporting events in photos started gradually with fil im 2000.  In 2005, she graduated to semi-professional and then professional equipment and has taught herself with each event as her photos became better and better. Because of her desire to share her photography, she cooperates with the official websites of figure skaters from around the world.  Her favorite event was the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, Russia, where she began her professional career.  She has photographed competitions, shows, practices and advertising photography for figure skating sportswear.  Since 2006, her photography has been published in magazines and newspapers including L.E.D, Figure Skating, Soviet Sport in Saint Petersburg, Zenit-Life, the official programs for Russian Nationals and Art on Ice (Switzerland) as well as news and sports online portals.  She has been a staff photographer and journalist for the Italian figure skating magazine, Doppio Axel.  She was also a two-time finalist in the sports photography contest "Discover the World of Sports" in St Petersburg for photos of Pechalat & Bourzat (2009) and the Kerrs (2010).  Natasha resides in St. Petersburg, Russia.


Julia Komarova, Staff Photographer [ contact Julia ]
Julia started covering figure skating in 2007 and started photographing a year later.  Julia loves the world and traveling and normally attends 10 events during the season.  Her favorite events are Worlds, Russian Nationals and especially Nebelhorn Trophy, which is held in beautiful Obertsdorf.  For Julia, all competitions are enjoyable, whether it's an adult event, junior, a B competition or a small Russian event.  Her photographs have been published in Figure Skating (Russia) magazine and on skater's websites. In addition to figure skating. she also enjoys attending and photographing tennis and track and field events.  Julia was born and still lives in her home city of Moscow, Russia.


Mombo #9, Blogger Extraordinaire
One of the early pioneers in ice dance blogging, Mombo combines her world as "Freelance Writer, Educator, Mother of Skater, Dreamer" into one of the most popular features on ice-dance.com. She was a former undercover State Police sergeant and a current American Kennel Club dog show judge. Mombo blends this chaotic background with her daughter's 12-year year involvement in competitive figure skating to offer her unique take on life surrounding the blade. She has captured numerous writing awards, including a prestigious win from The Atlantic Monthly. Besides writing Op-Ed pieces, Mombo has a non-fiction essay in an anthology to be published in August 2008, and she is working on her first novel. In her free-time, Mombo, who received her BA and MFA from Goucher College, is a high school English teacher. Mombo lives with her husband in the Mid-Atlantic region with their two dogs, Izzy and Atticus, and two cats. Her son attends the University of Maryland (home of the Mighty Terrapins) while her daughter continues to skate, attend college, coach, and find comfort in all things Tory Burch, David Yurman, and Joe's Jeans.


Tammi McManus, Researcher, Proofreader and Moderator
Tammi joined the IDC staff in 2007 and researches background information on upcoming events as wells as serving as a discussion board moderator.


Jean Wyble, Profile Manager
Jean joined the IDC staff in November 2010 to manage and maintain IDC's profile section.


Laura Marshall, Journalist
On the IDC staff since October 2010, Laura is a journalist, photographer and editor specializing in figure skating, cultural events, and science and technology; she has gained extensive writing, photography, videography, editing, blogging, website management and newscasting experience at a variety of media outlets. Laura was born and raised in Central New York but received her undergraduate degree in languages & linguistics from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and did grad work at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. All that time spent in the Great White North cemented her love for ice, snow and all things frozen. She currently lives in Western Massachusetts with her wife and their mischievous cat.

Jacquelyn Thayer, Journalist
Jacquelyn’s future was foreshadowed when, at the age of 8, she penned a thrilling figure skating mystery set at the 1994 Winter Olympics. In present day, she is pursuing an M.A. in Communications at DePaul University in Chicago, and freelancing as a writer, editor, and fact-checker. In addition to Chicago, Jacquelyn has lived in locales including Texas, Vancouver, New Jersey and Arizona, a background which played a key role in shaping her love of travel – including to any well-timed competitions and shows across North America.  Jacquelyn joined the IDC staff in October 2011.


Katie Wyble, Profile Assistant
Katie joined the IDC staff in November 2010 as a page editor and assistant profile editor.


ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS & JOURNALISTS:
Jay Adeff
Dee Eggert
Europe on Ice's Sean & Hiro
Karen Frank
Barry Gropman
Susanne Kempf
Anna Kondakova
Howard Mager
Michele Peltier
Alexandra Sherman
Wendilee Walpole

TECHNICAL SUPPORT WIZARDS:
Ben Nykiel
Adam Stein


SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Emma Abraham
Brett Barden
Bash Beard
Jamie Blanchard
Tanja Brand
Nick Buckland
Isabella Cannuscio
Stefano Caruso
Bob Cepican
Penny Coomes
Katie-Katherine Copely
Phil Culhane
Monica Cusick
Ashley Deavers
Ashley Duenas
Nikki Georgiadis
Jonathan Guerrero
Lindsay Higgins
Sherrie Hiner
Marie Hughes
Frederike Hylla
Tanja Kolbe
Perry Levine
Kerstin Maier
Denise Manzagol
Kate Manzagol
Elyse Matsumoto
Colin McManus
J. Barry Mittan
Cathy Reed
Amy Salamey
Alex Shibutani
Maia Shibutani
Isabel Silva
Vicky Smith
Paul Tortland
Jayar Walker
Sonja Wendl
Jennifer Wester
K. Yuda

 

A final thanks to those who have visited: the fans, athletes, parents, coaches and officials! Thank you for letting us know of the "gremlins" that need to be fixed within the web site, as well as suggestions you have for new ideas and content. As all skaters know, feedback is crucial, because it makes us improve. When we are buried in photos and html, getting those little notes that say, "thanks, we're enjoying your site and keep up the good work!" mean so much.