In Aston, an unlikely capital of ice dancing

It's hard to imagine a more macho-flavored chunk of the Philadelphia area than lower Delaware County.

Ride west from the Delaware River refineries to Baltimore Pike's strip malls and you'll pass through a vibrant blue-collar world of bars, parish gyms, street-hockey games, hoagie joints, Eagles flags, Phillies hats, Flyers decals, and rowhouses whose sports-crazed occupants are as rock-hard as the brick facades.

Even the place names resonate with an Industrial Era toughness - Marcus Hook, Eddystone, Clifton Heights, Folcroft.

So it's somewhat surprising to discover that lower Delaware County has become a world capital of ice dancing, a genteel figure-skating discipline that has more in common with ballet than basketball.

The Ice Works, a 12-year-old skating facility in an Aston industrial park, is the unlikely home of ice dancing's leading teachers - Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponossov - and, as a result, three of the world's six top-ranked teams.

Linichuk, Karponossov, and all six of their star pupils - America's Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, and Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali - will be in Vancouver when the 2010 Winter Olympics open this week, the three teams who train together daily suddenly transformed into competitors.

"It's amazing when you think about those three teams all being here," said Joey Suchodolski, Ice Works' figure- skating director. "I mean, this area isn't exactly a figure-skating hotbed."

The 144,000-square-foot structure on Duttons Mill Road is one of the few facilities on the East Coast with four rinks, meaning the 200 or so figure skaters who train there can peacefully coexist with the 500-plus hockey players and dozens of high school and college teams that practice there.

It was opened in 1998 by Uschi Keszler, an accomplished West German skater, and her husband, Aram Boornazian, a Philadelphia-born music-industry executive.

"It was something kind of missing in this market," Suchodolski said. "They knew there were a lot of high schools and colleges here with hockey teams. The location was good, being right along the 95 corridor, and there seemed to be a demand for public skating. They saw those needs and they addressed them. It was a gamble but it paid off."

Keszler was West Germany's champion in 1965. But when tuberculosis ended her career prematurely, she turned to coaching. Eventually, she tutored several Canadian stars, including Elvis Stojko, Brian Orser, and Elizabeth Manley, all Olympic medalists.

After Ice Works opened - its second two rinks were added in 2001 - she and those skaters began splitting their time between Canada and here.

"Because of Uschi, there's always been a high-level figure-skating presence here," said Suchodolski, a South Philadelphia native who himself was an ice dancer. "But there's always been hockey, too. Lots of hockey."

Meanwhile, the road that led Linichuk and Karponossov to Aston also began in Europe, in the Soviet Union, where they were among the pioneers of Olympic ice dancing. The duo won the gold medal at Lake Placid in 1980, married a year later, and went on to coach two-time Olympic champions Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov.

But when the Soviet system collapsed, years of often-violent uncertainty followed, prompting Linichuk and Karponossov to emigrate here.

"I was in a Metro station in Moscow," said Karponossov, 59. "A bullet went through the glass near me. I knew it was time to leave."

He and Linichuk, 54, arrived in 1993 and arranged to coach at the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club in Newark, where they still reside.

Then, in 2007, seeking more ice time for their growing stable of ice dancers, the couple shifted their base to Aston.

"Nat and Gen were looking for a four-rink facility," Suchodolski said. "Plus, because skaters travel so much, it was a good location - close to the airport, close to train stations, close to the city. They still live in Newark, so it's close for them, too. It really offers them optimal training conditions."

In 2008, when, after 11 years and five U.S. titles, Belbin and Agosto went looking for new coaches, they came to the Ice Works, too. That same year, Domnina and Shabalin followed. Then came Faiella and Scali.

In the 2009 world championships, their first with Linichuk and Karponossov, the Russians finished first. Belbin and Agosto, who had been fourth in the event the year before, were the runners-up.

And this year, after never having finished better than fourth, Faiella and Scali finished second, behind Domnina and Shabalin, in the European championships.

"Nat and Gen are able to breathe new life into people," Suchodolski said. "A lot of times, people come to them later in their careers seeking a new direction."

On a typical day at Ice Works, all three of the top teams work out on Rink 2 with Linichuk and Karponossov.

"They are all different," Karponossov said. "But when they compete against each other, it is very difficult for us. We sometimes don't like to watch."

Suchodolski said the coaches' arrival created an immediate uptick in the facility's figure-skating business.

"They're very prominent coaches, in the upper echelon of the world," Suchodolski said. "So when they brought their skaters here, we basically went from having X number of skaters on a Friday to them walking in the door on a Monday with 30 skaters and even more people wanting to skate with them. . . . There are many times when I wish we had a fifth rink."

While Karponossov watched Faiella and Scali on Rink 2 one recent afternoon, the Neumann University hockey team practiced on adjacent Rink 3. The pungent aroma of perspiration allowed visitors' noses to know before their eyes that hockey was being played there.

If skaters have recently brought headlines to Ice Works, hockey has long paid its bills.

The Delco Phantoms and Little Flyers have been based there since its opening, and there are more than 100 teams in leagues ranging from peewee to seniors.

A pro shop sells mostly hockey gear, and the big glass cases in Ice Works' main lobby are overstuffed with trophies and plaques from the sport.

The hockey programs are run by former Flyer Jim Watson and ex-Quebec Nordique Stephane Charbonneau.

"This place is busy well into the night," said Charbonneau, the hockey manager. "We have tournaments here that attract teams from all over the world.

"People say you can't run successful hockey and figure skating in the same building. They're wrong. Just look at this place."