♪ MUSIC ♪ Up next on State of the Arts, synchronized swimming makes a splash, artistry on ice, and finding identity through dance.

Stay with us as we look at the artistry of movement.

♪ DREAMY POP MUSIC ♪ The elegance of motion.

It can be an art unto itself.

I'm Mary Paul, and this week we're bringing you three stories that explore the expressive side of athleticism.

Up first, we kick off summer with a trip to the pool, where we'll meet the 'Rhinestones.'

They're a synchronized swim team that's learned to finely tune their athleticism in the water, performing choreographed routines that blend artistry and movement.

And what else makes the Rhinestones a sight to behold?

It's a group that welcomes swimmers of all skill levels, so that even beginners have a chance to share in the joy of sport and art.

♪ SOFT PIANO ♪ To become a Rhinestone, there is no audition process.

And it's based on the idea that we can do things as we age and grow up, and we can learn and we can celebrate and we can do crazy things, just for the pure joy of it.

My name is Pam Kravetz.

I am an artist and art educator and art advocate in Cincinnati, and my role on the Rhinestones synchronized swim team is co-creator.

I created the team seven years ago with my friend Carla, and we have been swimming ever since.

We reached out to the community and said, "Come join us.

We want to do this."

And we got swimmers, non-swimmers from the age of probably about 25 to 75.

The philosophy behind the Rhinestones is based in joy.

It's based in the idea that you come any way you can, whether you're a really strong swimmer like our coach Beth, or were on a kids' swim team like me, or our friend that had never put her head underwater before.

And Beth took us from where we were, pulled us together in a way that celebrates and supports each one of us and our ability.

I'm Beth Kreimer.

I am an engineer by trade.

I contract at Procter & Gamble, and I am the Rhinestone's head coach.

Beth has used all of the skills that she's learned from being a synchronized swimmer and taught us those skills and the way of training.

I swam for the Cincinnati Syncrogators from the time I was eight until I graduated high school.

And then I went and swam at Ohio State.

And while I was at Ohio State, I also made the second national team in 2002.

My name is Casey Miller.

I am a photographer and freelance artist around Cincinnati, Ohio.

I am a member of the Rhinestone's swimming team, where I also do the social media content for them.

The baseline of being able to swim was my starting point with the Rhinestones.

So I had nothing prior to everything that our coach taught us.

I have a little bit of a background in partner acrobatics doing lifts and stuff, so I think that they thought it would be a good add-on to the sort of skill set of the team.

So I've been sort of bringing the lifts and a few other fun elements into the team.

We meet at Ziegler Pool over at Ziegler Park every Sunday.

(BETH) I pick the music for the routine and cut it and choreograph it, and then kind of herd the team while we're there.

(CASEY) From the beginning of summer, we are just running drills, getting our technique back after we've been not in the pool for all of the non-summer months, and slowly incorporating the choreography that we're going to be performing at the Ziegler Park's Adult Swim event at the end of summer.

For the Olympics, you train eight plus hours a day for years.

And Rhinestones, we do one hour a week.

It's primarily shallow water.

In the Olympics, you cannot touch the bottom at all, not a toe.

(PAM) Okay, truth be told, little secret, the Rhinestones do touch the bottom of the pool.

(BETH) The fact that people look at us and they're like, "Oh, look, they look like they're having fun.

They look like it's easy.

They're smiling."

And it is work under there.

(CASEY) So it's a very different way of moving through the water.

I was always taught swim as a way to not drown.

In artistic swimming, you're swimming to be beautiful, to make these pretty lines, to create these fun shapes, to create patterns with your fellow swimmers.

So it was a unique experience to be introduced to it and have to think of swimming less as just getting from one side of the pool to the other and more to think about what your body is doing while you're doing it.

(BETH) We have to pick music that sounds good.

We have to pick music that everybody can hear the same and count the same.

Some-some pieces of music are like impossible to swim to, and others are like so straightforward.

There's these clear beats and you can all hear them.

Because when you dive in the water and there's bubbles and it makes it hard to hear, you have to still count in your head.

And so there's this performance aspect to it because you have to be presentable, you have to smile, you have to convey the theme of the music.

And that, in itself, right there is all performance art.

(PAM) We also don't want to be the clown car of synchronized swimming.

We want this to look professional and tight, and we take it very seriously.

We bring in the joy, we bring in the laughter, we bring in the silly, we bring in the acceptance, but ultimately we really do want to look good.

I think that one of the really cool things about being on an artistic swimming team is, I don't know anyone else on an artistic swimming team.

It's something that's truly unique that who gets the chance to do that.

The Rhinestones are different than your average synchronized swimming team because we invite everyone.

Unfortunately, the Olympics has had a little bit of a back and forth on allowing men on the team to have mixed gender teams, and we don't really worry about that.

We invite as many different people as possible.

I'm very masculine-presenting, so that would usually deter other synchronized swimming teams, but the Rhinestones welcome it.

(PAM) I just want us to come and have fun because so many of us have very high-stress jobs outside of the pool.

It's high-stress lives.

Our most recent project this year was a sort of introduction of the team members' lives outside of the pool, but introducing it into the pool, and I mean that in a literal sense, where we had them jump into the pool fully dressed in their work attire.

So it was some people in full engineering wear, or one of our teammates is a usher at the Aronoff and she jumped in her full usher garb.

It was a really, really fun project that kind of got to highlight our team both in and out of the pool kind of at the same time, and just have a lot of fun with it.

(BETH) One thing that keeps me coming back is just that it's joyful.

I get there to coach, and we do a new skill, and the sounds that just come out of the pool, the joy, the clapping, the cheering.

It's pretty amazing to see how happy doing this makes the people in the pool.

And I've also heard people say, "It's my happy place.

It's what I look forward to every week in the summer."

(PAM) We love what we've created kind of very much by accident, and I think the authenticity of the 'why' is what makes it so successful.

From a team sport under the water to a solo sport on the ice, you've probably seen figure skating on the Olympics.

These routines, judged both on technical skill and artistry, last only a few minutes, but represent the culmination of years of hard work.

Now we take you to a figure skating club to peel back the curtain on what it takes to succeed as a competitor.

Going out on the ice by yourself is actually, it's really scary.

When you're out there on your own, it's all on you.

It's really a big mind game.

If you start doubting yourself, that's when it really gets hard.

The skater has to have that inner push in themselves to train so hard.

You really have to want it, and I just want it so bad.

[ BIRDS CHIRPING ] I think a lot of people look at it as an easier sport.

That's because we train for hours a day on ice and off ice.

Our job is to make it look effortless.

I typically get to the rink and do a good 20, 30 minute warm up.

And then I'll skate sometimes two, three hours a day.

My name is Landice Mullins.

I am a national qualifying and collegiate figure skater.

We really have to practice what we're going to compete, so it's running our programs every day.

Do sections over and over.

I love jumping, and I love training jumps.

I did have to grow to love my spins and edges.

When I was little, I wasn't a huge fan of them, but now I think they're really fun.

♪ MUSIC ♪ A lot of people don't realize how hard it is on your body.

Knees, ankles, hips, common injuries we have on the ice.

We have a weight room here and certified strength and conditioning coach.

We're going to go wobble run, forward through backwards.

There's a lot of strength that's needed to be able to stay on the ice and stay healthy.

(LANDICE) He gives us exercises that are meant to help strengthen our knees and our joints.

Any athlete that comes to train with me, I'm always thinking long term athletic development.

I want them to want to be a durable, resilient human their whole life.

(ELIZABETH) Well, I get the benefit of being Landice's, coach but first and foremost, I get to be her mom.

She has a love of it.

There's not a single day that she doesn't want to be on the ice.

When I was younger, my parents had the Winter Olympics on the TV.

Figure skating was playing.

And I bothered them for months until they put me into Learn to Skate.

(JACKIE) She was one of those very coachable, eager-to-learn athletes.

She showed up on the ice signing up for Learn to Skate just like athletes do across the country.

When they're young, they fall in love with it because it's super fun.

It's fun to be with your friends and out there continuing to grow and learn.

And then you have these checkpoints of competitions and tests along the way that continue to inspire them.

What can become anything that you wanted to become can be where you skate once a week or you skate six days a week.

We learn together, get the Learn to skate level.

And then some athletes will branch off into private instruction.

Nice, good.

That coach has been hopefully part of your life for many, many years to come.

Through and in.

There's athletes I've trained for 20 years.

So don't think about lifting many up and down when you convert.

Make sure you feel like you just get those ankles together.

I love it so much and it feels so freeing and fun.

When I feel my music, all my thoughts just kind of like go away and I get into the zone of just skating and enjoying it.

I really love the sport of figure skating and just the friendships that I built along the way.

(JESSICA) We try to be very intentional in building that relationship and that rapport.

Even though a lot of figure skating is a solo sport, that's about building those relationships and cheering for each other.

The first moment you step on the ice for me is just, it's magic.

The glide, the feeling of the wind, the crisp coolness, the smell.

I'm not only club president, I'm also a figure skating coach.

It's been a lifelong passion.

So for me, it's just continuing that journey and making sure that we're protecting our core values as a club to continue on for the next generations.

There you go.

You're gliding.

I'm so proud of you.

Yes, I got you.

(JACKIE) That family aspect where you're invited to the graduations and you're invited to the weddings and you celebrate all the life milestones are fostered through that athlete-coach-parent relationship.

Today we're celebrating Valentine's Day and you'll see there's going to be a big party going on for our Learn to Skate classes.

Things like that, it brings everyone together connected through sport.

I want my kids to still have a fun experience celebrating holidays.

Again, that's just part of building the community.

Jackie's done a really good job at creating a culture of coaches and skaters that all support each other.

I am 26 years old.

I came back to skating as an adult three years ago.

I'm training for my fourth adult national championships.

It's been really fun getting to do jobs that I didn't do as a kid.

(LANDICE) When we're in our spin, we're thinking about our positioning, so we're not looking around us or ahead of us.

If you start looking out while you're spinning, that's when you get dizzy.

But we just think about our position, so our focus isn't on the fact that we're spinning really.

I think a really proud coaching moment is also when they not only have success on the ice, but then they grow up to be this like wonderful person in the community.

Definitely a full-circle moment to watch your kid grow up in the program and then be able to give back to the program.

She's had such grace-filled and wonderful mentors.

She's able to now pass that on to the athletes she works with as well.

♪ SOFT POP MUSIC ♪♪ It was really hard at first to watch athletes fall, like repeatedly fall.

A lot of times people equate falling to failure, but how are they failing if they pick themselves back up and they go and they try again?

When I was growing up, if I had a bad day or if I had a death in the family, I would come out here and I would just take it all out on the ice.

I call it ice therapy.

♪ MUSIC ♪ (LANDICE) I 100% want to keep skating as long as I can.

I've never stopped loving skating.

I just keep loving it, even on the hard days.

It's just a sport about grace and strength and it's not always pretty, but I love it.

Finally, we explore the intersection of movement, identity, and expression.

Dancer, choreographer, and creative director Richard Buda Brasfield learned to dance because he needed an escape.

That escape led to a passion for dance and performance art.

I've been a dancer for 15 years professionally.

The best thing that I get out of dancing is just being able to be my authentic self.

Just as a creative in general, it is always great to just be yourself and hope that people either take it in or not and it be okay all the time.

So growing up, my main focus was hip-hop.

Over time, it grew into contemporary, modern.

But outside of that, I do do a lot of advocacy work within the LGBT community.

I think that where I am now, it is important to pass the torch to the younger generation and let them know that there are spaces for them to be able to be their authentic self, and I want to be able to create that.

We are Paradise Social Lounge.

It is a lounge that pretty much is a space for creatives to just either showcase themselves or prepare to showcase themselves.

Upstairs, we have a couple of dance studios.

Right here is the event space that we are in.

The person that owns the building, her name is Vanessa Moore.

I have known her for about 15 years.

I'm just glad to be in a space like this because we don't have enough spaces like this here in Milwaukee where you can just create and just really cultivate your craft.

I'm just happy to have known her all these years and know that she is staying true to just like that mission, making sure that she keeps a space here for us to be able to build and grow and create and just be ourselves.

I owned a dance company called Revamp Dance Company.

Within Revamp Dance Company, my proudest moment was being able to dance on the Pride Fest stage at the Summerfest Ground.

The biggest stage I believe they had was the Johnson Controls Stage, and we pretty much headlined that stage for about eight years.

It was a lot of work, but we've had some great times.

I've met some great people.

One of the best experiences that I've had.

With that company specifically, I am so thankful for it because I've met some of the most profound, important people in my life right now.

I call them my super friends.

They know who they are.

They help me become the person that I am today as far as dance, as far as the passion behind it.

Everybody, let's start back.

Thank you for a very good morning, and we're going to turn it over to Buda.

Hello ladies and gents.

Today's the day.

I was reached out to by Maria Gillespie, who was spearheading it with David Resolve, a series called the UWM Winter Dances, which was a series of dances that had different styles and different perspectives of what that style means to them.

At the end of the show was a ballroom-style concept of dance.

Ballroom is a culture within the LGBT community where people within that community were able to just be.

Ballroom is a safe space as well for people to just be able to talk about whatever they're going through with their selective family.

Within those selective family, we call those houses.

Within those houses, you compete at balls, as they call them.

You compete for prizes, notoriety, representation.

[ CROWD NOISE ] (RICHARD) The space is just so lively.

It's almost like organized chaos, if that makes sense.

Some people are either going to get it and some people aren't.

And sometimes that can be uncomfortable, but people feel what they don't understand.

So you have to lay it out in the best way possible to be able to do that.

♪ DANCE MUSIC ♪ (RICHARD) I was very shocked because I've never done anything as grand as this ballroom ours.

But obviously I jumped on board.

I was ecstatic to be able to do it.

Ballroom can be a raunchy culture.

It can be.

Just in general, everybody's not going to be able to take that.

That's just what that is.

Everybody's not going to be able to receive that.

It doesn't mean that they're negative or malicious about it.

It's just out of their norm.

So they may just impulsively be like, "Whoa, that's too much."

Right?

So I think that David did a more humble job at making it a little more positive and comical and open and engaging and warm.

I thank David for that because I was very scared about how this is going to come out obviously originally.

But he did a great job at conveying that message.

[ CROWD NOISE ] This is not that kind of a ball.

Well, it is now.

(RICHARD) The thing that I love the most about dance is that it was inviting.

I have a competitive spirit.

And even when I was being competitive with it within the dance community, with my friends, it was always friendly.

[ CHEERING ] It's not just about dance.

I know creatives that can sing.

I know creatives that can play instruments.

I know creatives that can paint.

The creatives here need to be seen.

♪ DANCE MUSIC ♪ Love this program?

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Thanks for joining us this week on State of the Arts.

I'm your host, Mary Paul.

Goodbye.