
Born
to a well-to-do New York family in 1840, he studied dancing in Europe as a
youth before returning to New York City to work as an actor and ballet master. According
to newspaper accounts, he was living in Troy when he won the first “national”
skating championship in 1863 under rules formulated by the New York Skating
Club. In 1864, he won the championship again but his skating style was not well
received by the American skating establishment.

The
ballet dancer inside the 24-year old Jackson Haines rebelled against this rigid
skating norm. He added leaps and spins to his routines and used his arms
expressively to the dismay of the American skating authorities. Spectators in
the U.S. dismissed Haines as too flamboyant, too theatrical, and too
effeminate.
In
search of more appreciative audiences, Haines left America in the winter of
1864-1865 and took his skating style to Europe. He also brought with him a new
kind of skate that he had designed. Instead of being attached to the boot by
means of straps or clamps, the steel blade of the skate was screwed on to the
heel and toe of the boot by means of plates. In addition, the blade had a
rounded toe rather than a sharp point and two supports rather than three.
Skating
to music and adding more turns, jumps and spins to his routine, Haines toured
all the capitals of northern and central Europe to wild applause. Billed as the
“celebrated American ice dancer,” he astonished and surprised audiences with
his jumps and pirouettes which were described as “poetry in motion.” One
observer described Haines as “now gracefully swinging, now carried away like a
whirlwind, now leaping from the ice, all with inimitable charm and grace,”
In
1868, the blue-eyed, curly-haired 28 year-old electrified skating fans in Vienna
when he gave an exhibition for the Vienna Skating Club to music—a march, a
waltz, a mazurka, and a quadrille. Haines’s style soon became known as the
Vienna Style, and in later years, the International Style.
For
his performances, Haines invented a new spin which the skating community
initially called the “Jackson Haines spin.” To do this spin, the skater bends
the skating knee while spinning and sits down during the spin, keeping the free
leg pointing straight out. Today, a “Jackson Haines spin” is commonly referred
to as a “sit spin.”
Haines
wore various costumes including those of a Russian count, a prince of
fairyland, a lady, and sometimes even a bear. When he finished performances, he
usually skated backwards with his cap touching the ice as he bowed to
spectators. After the applause died down, he would cross his arms and skate in
a large curve or spiral, standing at the finish, motionless as a statue.
Haines
was a European superstar for eleven years. Ice skating rinks and babies were
named after him. In either 1876 or 1879, the records are unclear, Haines died
after catching pneumonia while traveling by sleigh from St. Petersburg to Stockholm.
He was buried in Kokkola, Finland. The inscription on his gravestone reads, “In
remembrance of the American Skating King.”
Jackson
Haines’s style of skating did not become popular in the U.S. until many, many
years after his death. The first U.S. figure skating competition that included
the International Style was not held until 1914. Haines eventually received the
honors due him from the national and international skating establishment in
1976 when he was inducted into the World Skating Hall of Fame and the U.S.
Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
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