NANCY ARMOUR,AP National Writer
A cup of coffee still in her hands, Lori Nichol steps onto the ice and begins doing some footwork.
At first, the noted choreographer appears to just be playing, warming up before getting to work. As you watch her, though, it becomes clear there’s an idea in her head and she’s thinking it through with her skates.
Over and over she does that one patch, tweaking this step here, that turn there, accentuating the use of her edges, adding movements of her arm and head. The section will be, at most, 20 seconds in world champion Evan Lysacek’s 4½-minute free skate. But she works and reworks it as if it’s the cornerstone of the program until, finally, what she’s doing on the ice mirrors the image in her mind.
“I’m trying to do layer upon layer,” Nichol said of choreographing a program. “I’m trying to appeal to those that I know have spent the hours and time and really understand the incredible difficulty of some of the things we’re doing on the ice.