Simon Mintz loves music. The Lexington High School junior started playing the saxophone in the fifth grade, rising to the district’s highest level of band. His penchant for finding a rhythm also plays a key role in a unique sport: the 16-year-old Mintz is an accomplished ice dancer and recently secured a spot at the 2025 Prevagen US Figure Skating Championships. Mintz and partner Annie Huang, of Newton and a Newton North High School junior, will compete in the Novice Ice Dance competition in Wichita, Kansas from Jan. 20-26.
“I have a pretty good ear, and I think that definitely helps with ice dance,” Mintz said. “You grow into it athletically because you’re training. I like dancing, acting and musical stuff, and this kind of puts that into a competitive fashion.”
“It’s one of the few sports where you do something athletic with music and compete.”
Ice dance, which debuted as an Olympic sport at the 1976 Games, looks like ballroom dancing on ice. US Figure Skating describes the discipline as a male and female “skating in unison,” like regular pairs skating, “but instead of performing jump and spin elements, the team completes difficult dance patterns, step sequences and maneuvers while showcasing exceptional interpretation of music and precise steps.” Not only is technical skating a must-have for ice dance, so is a strong musical sense. In ice dance, jumping is outlawed.
Five levels of skaters compete at at least the regional level each year in the United States: juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior and senior. Only skaters at the novice level and above can vie for a chance to compete at the US Figure Skating Championships.
At the novice level, the ice dance competition is split into two segments, one for two pattern dances and one for the free dance. For the patterns, this year the tango and Westminster Waltz, skaters compete to specific dance patterns to a specific tempo range. In the free dance, the skaters perform using the music and tempo of their choice and creative choreography. The free dance includes lifts, spins, twizzles, a step sequence, and other maneuvers. Mintz’s affinity for music keeps him on track with timing.
Another Lexington High School student, freshman Henry Gao, is also an accomplished novice men’s singles figure skater. Henry placed third in the recent Eastern Sectionals competition. He did not make the US Figure Skating championships but his placement earns him a spot in the US Figure Skating National Development Camp.
Mintz’s initial exposure to ice skating was at age four, skating with cartons for balance at the Edge Skating Center in Bedford. Soon after, Mintz began group lessons at the Hayden Recreation Center in Lexington. His first private coach was Tina Noyes, who competed in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. At age seven or eight, Mintz started synchronized skating. His coach suggested ice dance lessons to improve posture, and a year or so later, Mintz partnered up for the first time and took the rink for competitions.
Mintz and Huang, ranked No. 4 in the nation among novice couples despite only training together for a year, qualified for the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships after a strong performance at an event in Plano, Texas in early November. They were fifth at the Plano competition, and the top five novice couples get to compete at the championships in January.
The pair practices together at rinks in Marlboro and Boxboro with coach Dmitri Boundoukin in addition to a weekly ballroom dancing session. About once a month, the pair travels to Connecticut for specific choreography work with coach Svetlana Kulikova.
Boundoukin began working with Mintz two years ago, but started working with Huang for twice as long. He paired them together last year when both sought new partners for their discipline. Boundoukin’s philosophy is to team skate “as one,” a single unit. The duo gets along well in the eyes of their coach, despite the occasional classic teenage “he said, she said” banter.
“Obviously I’d known Annie longer than Simon, but I could see potential,” said Boundoukin, who grew up in the former Soviet Union and was a member of their national team and the United States national team. “They had similar body structures, and I was thinking I could teach Simon my way how to skate and could see how their styles would match too.”
For Huang, she needed a new partner when her former one went off to college last September. They previously skated on the same ice with different partners and knew of each other. It took a couple months to find a groove together, but once they did, momentum has only built. They took second place in their first official competition in June. They placed fourth in another one in July and won gold at the US Challenge Cup in September before the fifth-place finish at the US Ice Dance Final in Texas.
“I feel like we click pretty well because we’re around the same age, in the same grade and go to public school,” Huang said. “Our schedules work together and we do well in the same environment.”
“As we’ve gotten more used to skating with each other, we’ve gotten better and better,” Mintz said.
Outside of skating, the honors student plays in the high school’s wind ensemble. He’s working on getting official coaching certifications to complement the existing group lessons he instructs at the Hayden Recreation Center and Nashoba Valley Olympia Ice Rink, a potential part-time career path. Mintz also likes the sciences in school and anticipates majoring in something like biochemistry or on a pre-law track. Colleges generally don’t field ice dance teams, so Mintz will continue skating outside of the school environment.
Ice dance skaters reach their peak in their late 20s and early 30s. Mintz hopes to compete in ice dancing for that long with the big goal of competing in the Olympics.
“Obviously, that’s where I want to be aiming for,” Mintz said. “I want to be in the top level of skaters at the senior level.”