n May 2, U.S. pairs champion (2005) and three-time World competitor (2003‒05) Ka-tie Orscher signed onto Navigator of the Seas for her second cruise ship contract. She is cur-

rently cruising around Europe with boyfriend Michael Felding, three-time Danish men’s champion, taking in the sights in places such as Rome and Athens and per-forming in Navigator’s skating show, Ice Dancin’. “The show transitions through many types and styles of dance,” Orscher said. “One of my favorites is a ‘Stomp’-inspired hockey number, which is something I’d never have thought I would do. Then it goes straight into a tango section, which is also great and changes up the pace of the show. “My favorite part is the finale, which is a modern, high energy piece of Amadeus with a dance section incor-porated within the number. It’s very upbeat and the crowd loves it,” she added. “Michael and I skate to a Santana bit,

which is our interpretation of ‘Capoera,’ a Brazilian art that incorporates martial arts, sports and music.” Coming up the skating ranks, Orscher, 27, who skated with Garrett Lucash, could not imagine a world of international travel and adventurous curiosity. She was a rising young singles competitor when Lucash contacted her and asked her to team up. When she was little, a for-mer pairs skater that coached at her rink in Connecticut used to do lifts with her and she loved it. “I always wanted to skate pairs, but I never had the opportunity until Garrett contacted me,” she said. “He told me he noticed me at one of the local competitions.” By their second season together they were on the World team. At those 2003 World Championships in Washington, D.C., Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of Chi-na performed one of the great free skates in history — with the audience rising to their feet nearly 30 seconds before the end of the program.

OORSCHER F INDS LOVE , HAPP INESS EXP LOR ING THE WORLD by LOIS ELFMAN

W H E R E A R E T H E Y N O W ?Orscher and boyfriend Michael Felding

enjoy the perks of their skating gig aboard the “Explorer of the Seas” cruise ship.

St. Peters Square in Rome offers another ideal sightseeing opportunity for the skating couple.

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“The whole emotional effect when you watch something like that … I knew, I want that,” Orscher said. Orscher described the short program she and Lucash skated at the 2006 U.S. Champion-ships as one of her best skating memories. “That was the best program we skated and the most enjoyable performance we ever did,” she recalled. “That was a really good feeling because we trained pretty hard to come back because I had broken my foot the summer before.” Unfortunately, the free skate did not go as well and the pair finished third, which left them off the Olympic team in Torino. In April of that year, they called it quits. “Not making the Olympic team kind of crushed my hopes and the love for my sport,” she admitted. “I needed to be away from com-petitive skating for a bit.” A unique opportunity arose when Orscher was offered the opportunity to go to Germany and serve as a skating double for skater-turned-actress Tanja Szewczenko on the German soap opera “Alles was zählt,” where Szewczenko por-trayed an inline courier given the chance to train as a figure skater. She got the job thanks to former German ice dancing champion Henrik Schamberger, a longtime commentator for Eurosport, who re-membered Orscher and Lucash’s performances. “They were looking for a blonde, strong singles skater that was lefty, so he called me up and asked if I wanted to come there,” Orscher said. “I said, sure, why not.” As one year turned into two and Orscher’s circle of friends grew, she became comfortable with conversational German. “I can’t talk any political stuff, but I could get along,” she said. Learning the behind-the-scenes goings-on of a television show was interesting, but some-times tiring. “It’s crazy how long it takes to produce a 45-minute episode,” she said. Orscher tried to make a competitive come-back in 2008 and began training with a new partner, but he was from Bulgaria and after months of trying to sort through his U.S. status he gave up and returned to Europe. “I turned a new page and said I’m going to try shows,” Orscher said. A longtime acquaintance connected her with the producers of a skating show in Wolfs-burg, Germany, and she spent November and December 2009 performing in a Christmas show. Her life changed off the ice as well, when she fell in love with Felding, a castmate that had been touring the world with Holiday on Ice. They’ve been inseparable since. Until now, Orscher’s professional gigs have been as a singles skater, but she and Felding are working on becoming an adagio team. The San-tana routine in Navigator’s show is their first step. It is just in time for Orscher, who said she doesn’t feel like herself when she’s skating singles.

“I caught onto pairs really fast,” she said. “It felt like I grew as a skater in pairs skating. It was really hard for me to transition the emotional as-pect of pairs skating into singles skating. I’m used to projecting the choreography to someone.” Orscher said she misses competing and the satisfaction that comes with training and get-ting results. “The whole working your butt off before the competition,” she noted. “The anxiousness of getting out there to compete. The pressure of having to skate clean. “Here in the show, I push myself with my elements, so I get that anxiousness. I put pres-sure on myself.” The upside to less pressure is a friendly and relaxed environment and camaraderie among the crew of the massive cruise ship. Despite occasional urging from Lucash, now a coach in Boston, to team up with one of his young male skaters (Lucash has shoulder problems that preclude a competitive come-back), Orscher said a return to competition is highly unlikely. “I’m really happy with my life right now,” Orscher said. “I don’t have the stress of bills. That’s huge.” Building a life with Felding is also a prior-ity. Prior to this contract on Navigator of the Seas, they spent the summer of 2010 skating in the Hot Ice show at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England and then did their first six-month cruise ship contract aboard Explorer of the Seas, which cruised around the Eastern Caribbean. “The ships are like a paid vacation,” Orscher said. “We get to stay in shape and do what we love and also get paid to see the world, which is what I really want to do before I settle down and start a family. You get to meet so many people and experience the world. I love it.” Orscher and Felding will finish their con-tract on Navigator in November, and she’s look-ing forward to spending Christmas at home in Connecticut for the first time in three years. Then they hope to sign at least one more cruise ship contract. Ultimately, the couple plans to settle in Copenhagen, Denmark, which Orscher said is the ideal-sized city — busy, but still peaceful. She may coach there. “When I was in Denmark, I noticed they don’t have any pairs,” she said. “There are a bunch of little girls that look like they could be potential pairs skaters. It would be really nice to have a pairs camp and introduce them to pairs skating. See if they want to push it further and look for partners. “When I met Mike and we went to Co-penhagen, I said, ‘I think I found my spot,’” she added. “We lived in Copenhagen for three months and I fell in love with the city. I like the way of living. There are trains and buses I can take everywhere. I love the people.”

Orscher and Felding have some fun with castmates Marek and Yukiko Sedlmajer. in front of the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece.

Katie Orscher and Garrett Lucash perform their free skate at the 2006 U.S. Championships.

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