Balancing Act

David Mitchell has never broken a school record, he has never been the Daily's "Athlete-of-the-Week," and he has never earned a Tufts varsity letter. He has never even played on a Tufts intramural team.

Yet the senior is one of the most accomplished athletes currently at the university, and with his sights set on the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Mitchell has a chance to become one of the most successful athletes in school history.

Mitchell's sport is ice dancing, and while it may be unfamiliar to, or misunderstood by most members of the Tufts community, it has been central to Mitchell's life for the past eleven years. Most recently, Mitchell and his skating partner, Loren Galler-Rabinowitz of Brookline, placed third at U.S. Nationals, which were held in Atlanta, Georgia last month. Now, Mitchell said, qualifying to compete in Turin is the pair's primary goal.

The United States usually sends at least two ice dance pairs to the Olympics. Based on the national championship results, Mitchell and Galler-Rabinowitz would actually be the first U.S. qualifiers, because neither team that beat them last month -- Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto (first place) and Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov (second place) -- fulfills the citizenship requirements for representing the U.S. in the Olympics.

Mitchell and Galler-Rabinowitz have skated together for six seasons, but this winter was their first competing at the top level internationally. Mitchell said that the move, which was required when he turned 21, meant four finishes "in the middle of the pack" at international competitions this year.

In Atlanta, the Mitchell-Galler-Rabinowitz duo took fourth in the compulsory dance, third in the original dance, and third in the free dance, which was an entirely original piece that Mitchell described as "a kind of abstract tango" to music by the Bajo Fondo Tango Club.

The compulsory dance is a preset piece determined by the International Skating Union, and the original dance is one in which the style of music is preset (this year it was blues and rock and roll), but where each pair's dance is an original work. Mitchell said that he has a good deal of influence in creating his and Galler-Rabinowitz's programs.

"We have coaches and choreographers, but it's very much a collaborative effort," Mitchell said. "We all have input and try to let everybody known our ideas and what we think would be good where, to try to make the best program."

Back when they competed in lower divisions, Mitchell and Galler-Rabinowitz enjoyed huge success. The pair was crowned Novice National Champions in 2000 and Junior National Champions in 2002.

The duo has gone far, both literally and figuratively, traveling as far away as Bulgaria, China, Norway, Japan, and the Czech Republic for competitions. While the travel time involved with such competitions -- usually between a week and ten days -- certainly makes balancing athletics and academics difficult for Mitchell, he said that most professors have understood his situation.

"Sometimes it takes sacrificing one for the other," Mitchell said. "Skating takes a little of a backseat when finals come around, and vice-versa when I'm building up to a competition."

During the season, Mitchell spends several hours a day in training. He is on the ice at 5:30 in the morning, and usually returns to Tufts by 10 a.m. In the afternoons, he works out at Tufts' Lunder Fitness Center.

"I'm on a pretty general lifting program but I do a lot more reps so I'm not getting bulkier as I get stronger," Mitchell said. "And I probably do a little more stretching than most guys do."

Mitchell's frequent, intense training is necessary for a sport in which the importance of physical prowess is matched by the need for precise artistry.

"[One] challenging aspect is trying to bring out the character of the music on ice," Mitchell said. "There are styles of dance from every different part of the world, and to try to translate them onto a surface like that and have them look authentic is very challenging, but a lot of fun to try because of it."

Lifts and footwork sequences are Mitchell's favorite aspects of ice dancing, he said, adding that it was the uniqueness of the sport that first attracted him to ice dancing. He began to skate when he was ten, after spending a lot of time at the rink while his older sister practiced with her synchronized skating team.

"I got bored and decided I'd like to try it," Mitchell said. "I started out in singles skating but wanted to try everything. I tried ice dancing and enjoyed it [because] it's got a different focus [than] singles skating, where everything's focused on the individual jumps in a program. [In ice dancing], it's spread out a little more and lets you be more creative with the footwork and artistry, and I enjoy working with someone else on the ice and in training."

Mitchell, a native of Cortland, N.Y., said that his family is extremely supportive of his ice dancing, though he jokes that it took his sister, four years his senior, a little time to come around.

"When I first started skating, my sister told me I should find another sport because I wasn't very good at it," Mitchell said, laughing. "Now she swears she didn't say it, but my mom [agrees that] she did."

Prior to his junior year of high school, Mitchell decided that he wanted to get more serious about skating. He made a solo move to Massachusetts and joined the Skating Club of Boston, where coaches first paired him with Galler-Rabinowitz.

While attending the Belmont Hill School for his final two years of high school, Mitchell rented a one-bedroom apartment in Arlington, and later in Cambridge's Porter Square. He said that living alone at such a young age was "a bit of a culture shock."

"My parents raised me to be pretty self-sufficient, though," Mitchell said. "So I didn't have any major issues other than having to do all my own cooking, which wasn't so bad once I figured out how to do it."

At Tufts, Mitchell said that his friends and DTD fraternity brothers have been very supportive of his ice dancing, and some have even shown up at competitions and shows in the area. He is unsure of his post-graduation plans, but the political science major would like to find a job. He realizes, though, that his and Galler-Rabinowitz's Olympic goals could make that search difficult.

"I'm definitely going to keep skating, but it remains to be seen the quality of the job that will let me do that," Mitchell said. "It's hard to tell an employer you're going to miss two months a year."