Anna Kellar
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choreosequence.bsky.social
Anna Kellar
@choreosequence.bsky.social
570 followers 260 following 310 posts
They/Them 🏳️‍⚧️

Democracy reform advocate (Democracy Maine, LWVME); ⛸️ journalist (AnythingGOE), adult pair skater, host of The Future of Figure Skating podcast futureoffs.blsky.social, Team Champéry Community Manager.

Give us bread and give us roses!
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choreosequence.bsky.social
Also from the ISU history book: respect forever to Madge Syers! Beating men in competition and using ambiguous rules to get herself into the ice! 👏👏👏
Book page, with photo: Mrs. Madge Syers GRB Lady I.S.U. Champion 1906-1907 Mrs. Madge Cave Syers, whose husband Edgar had been active in the NSA, and who had already competed against men in English Style competition, where it was entirely accepted, had, at her husband's suggestion, taken up the International Style, and decided to enter the Championship. Although the rules first adopted in 1897 were applicable only to men, by 1901, there was no specific provision in them for the express exclusion of women, the rules themselves being silent as to gender, and the decision was therefore made to accept the entry of Mrs. Syers. Of course, the fact that the Championship was being organized in England by the NSA, and that Mr. Syers was an influential member of that association, could well have had an effect on the decision! In the Championship itself, the defender, Ulrich Salchow, SWE, was an unanimous winner, but Mrs. Syers was a very creditable second, defeating Martin Gordan, GER, and Horatio Torromé, an Argentinian permanently residing in England. There has always been an apocryphal story that Sal-chow was so impressed with the performance of Mrs. Syers, that he presented her with his gold me-dal! The Syers also won an international competition in pairs held jointly with the Championship, one of the first in that discipline and also reflecting a practice that would be common in the years to come, in which the Championship event would be held in conjunction with International Competitions in the opposite singles discipline and/or in pairs. Typically, the 1903 Congress quickly expressed an opinion that women should be excluded from competition against men, but in the absence of an express proposal in the Agenda (there were no "ur-gent" proposals in those days), the rules were not formally amended. As a consequence and despite the opinion of the Congress, Mrs. Syers entered the 1904 European Championship for Men at Da-vos, but skated only the figures (placing fourth), havi…
April 8, 2025 at 2:38 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I knew that the switch from “ladies” to “women” in figure skating was recent. I didn’t know that (as per the official ISU history published in 1992) it was still the World Champion and the Ladies World Champion - only the second needed clarification.
Book page, with photo of early 20th century pair skaters. Text reads: It was also at the Congress in 1907 at Stockholm that recognition was finally given to the figure skating discipline of (mixed) pairs, with the creation of an I.S.U. Championship for it. This event, together with that for women, approved in 1905, as we have seen, remained an "I.S.U. Champion-Ship" through 1923, when both events were finally recognized by the 1923 Congress as *World Championships". As a result, the World Championship in Figure Skating for Men was and remains to this day the "senior" title and the only one not designated by a qualifying identifier, such as "Ladies", "Pairs" and "Ice Dance". The same is, of course, also true in Speed Skating, where the World Champion is the man!
April 8, 2025 at 12:15 AM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I don’t love competing - it’s not what fuels my skating - but it was still nice to debut my new program and see the hard work of so many great skaters at Adult Nationals.
April 5, 2025 at 6:33 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Deniss’ FS was a joy from start to finish and deservedly brought down the house!
March 30, 2025 at 9:12 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
One cool thing was doing the AAPI Excellence event that USFS DEI committee put on - got to skate with Emily and Valentina and we met another enby adult pair skater!
March 30, 2025 at 9:12 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Sometimes it takes a village to build a pair team…I loved talking to these two, and I think their future is very bright!
March 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
First day it’s warm enough to enjoy sitting outside in the sun! Somehow I have the deck at Novare to myself so I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. ☀️🍺
March 22, 2025 at 5:22 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
There is a blizzard outside and I’m cozy watching the Swiss advanced novice nationals.

Somehow that sounds like a metaphor for my life as whole right now 😅
A laptop showing the stream of a figure skating completion is propped in front of a window. Outside is snowy
February 16, 2025 at 1:31 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Night views of Champéry
Night view of snowy mountain, chalet and tree silhouette against starry sky
February 5, 2025 at 9:09 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
The moment Niina won! Every skater in the world hopes that they can deliver a personal best like that in the moment that counts, in front of an adoring hometown audience. Such a big deal for her and for Estonia!
January 31, 2025 at 8:02 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Hello, Europeans!
Ice rink from viewed from the end of the stands Edith four pair teams practicing
January 28, 2025 at 11:54 AM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Went skating on a frozen lake yesterday with friends. There were perfect patches of ice where the snow had blown off. I wish I knew how to do special figures because the tracings were so beautiful!
January 26, 2025 at 7:12 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Erica and I don’t know yet if we passed the adult bronze pairs test (or if USFS will let our test count) but we submitted our video and paperwork! I’m really proud to have gotten to this point after 6+ years of hard work, and lots of help from amazing coaches like Kristen(left)! ⛸️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
January 24, 2025 at 11:42 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I got a surprise book in the mail today, no note or any explanation. Did someone send me an anonymous birthday present? Thank you?

- Confused but not complaining!
Photo of “Voyage of the Damned” by Frances white, a hardcover book with a blue and gold cover depicting a fish skeleton and seaweed
January 15, 2025 at 11:19 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
Hope you also had a great day, whether it is a holiday for you or a Wednesday!
December 26, 2024 at 12:27 AM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I devoured “The Warm Hands of Ghosts” in a day! Katherine Arden uses the WWI setting to examine the nature of evil and humanity, and the importance of memory to the soul. I found echoes of Orpheus and Tam Lin too, and the love between Laura & Freddy and Freddy & Winter had me in tears.
December 24, 2024 at 3:13 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I’m obsessed with Natasha Pulley @natashapulley.bsky.social . “The Mars House” takes a trope-y plot (fake marriage, enemies-to-lovers) and elevates it into an insightful story about disability and power. Plus there are giant space mammoths with insights about political leadership 😂
December 24, 2024 at 3:13 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
A grieving reporter is assigned to cover a baseball player in an epic slump. “You Should Be So Lucky” by @catswrites.bsky.social is true to the challenges of being gay in the 1960s, while insisting on love finding a way. A story about hope and second chances, sweet not saccharine.
December 24, 2024 at 3:13 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
KJ Charles @kjcharleswriter.com has a sharp eye for the dynamics of class and race within romantic relationships. “Death in the Spires” is more a mystery than a romance, though, set in Edwardian Oxford, with shades of Brideshead Revisited and Gaudy Night. I’ve read it 3 times already!
December 24, 2024 at 3:13 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I always enjoy the weird, gothic, subtle, worlds of Sarah Perry. “Enlightenment” has the sublime mixed into the mundane, the story of a comet tying together three times in an Essex town, connecting science and faith, and a wonderful, painful, intergenerational friendship.
The cover of “Enlightenment” by Sarah Perry, featuring a dark blue night sky with golden tracing of constellations
December 24, 2024 at 3:13 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
This is Lucy 🐶 She wasn’t sure about meeting new people or hardwood floors, but she was a very well-behaved guest at my Solstice party.
A short haired white dog looks at the camera. She is sitting under a table on a green striped rug.
December 22, 2024 at 3:53 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
San Diego in December 🌫️🏄‍♂️🌴🎄
San Diego in December 🌫️🌴🏄‍♂️🎄
December 5, 2024 at 5:27 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I hold onto these words from Camus’ Return to Tipasa:
At noon on the half-sandy slopes covered with heliotropes like a foam left by the furious waves of the last few days as they withdrew, I watched the sea barely swelling at that hour with an exhausted motion, and I satisfied the two thirsts one cannot long neglect without drying up—I mean loving and admiring. For there is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that nevertheless gave birth to it. In the clamor in which we live, love is impossible and justice does not suffice. This is why Europe hates daylight and is only able to set injustice up against injustice. But in order to keep justice from shriveling up like a beautiful orange fruit containing nothing but a bitter, dry pulp, I discovered once more at Tipasa that one must keep intact in oneself a freshness, a cool wellspring of joy, love the day that escapes injustice, and return to combat having won that light. Here I recaptured the former beauty, a young sky, and I measured my luck, realizing at last that in the worst years of our madness the memory of that sky had never left me. This was what in the end had kept me from despairing. I had always known that the ruins of Tipasa were younger than our new constructions or our bomb damage. There the world began over again every day in an ever new light. O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. - From The Summer (1953)
December 2, 2024 at 5:48 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
She is 8 years old but kitten-sized and spends all day curled up in front of a wood stove. Patron saint of coziness!
November 28, 2024 at 11:20 PM
choreosequence.bsky.social
I made a pie and pet a cat, today has been good!
November 28, 2024 at 9:55 PM