Imagine yourself spinning in a pirouette; there is no noise except the crackle of ice as it is cut by a blade as sharp as a knife and the music as it plays. This is the reality that Marilene Rojas experiences when she performs as a figure skater.

Marilene has figure skated for eight years, starting when she was eight years old.

“There was a party at the Jones Center (a quincenera) and my cousins went down to the ice arena and started skating and I wanted to go to so my parents took me that weekend and I joined a little group of classes and it kinda started from there,” said Rojas.

Marilene practices whenever she can while she juggles school, band, and figure skating, but the ice is a refuge for her  

“It’s a good feeling; it’s like your second home, and you are just happy to be there,” said Rojas.

Rojas has won 5 competitions as an ice skater, but those aren’t her favorite memory like one would think, the memory that she is most fond of is “going to the Razorback games for the fundraisers and just being there with all of the girls, working in the concession stand,” said Rojas.  

Her coach said that “ Marilene Rojas is an excellent skater and very talented. She is currently preparing for our annual Christmas show and just landed her double salchow jump. She really excels in spins. She’s an amazing spinner.” Those jumps and spins is exactly what she likes about figure skating.

“When you do your tricks and jumps and spins you defy laws of gravity; you do stuff most people’s bodies aren’t meant to do,” said Rojas.

This is her favorite thing about figure skating. The hardest part about performing for Rojas is how nerve wracking it can be but it can be fun especially when she gets to do her favorite style, which is lyrical, because you get to choose your music and you get to interpret what the songs. The song she likes to perform too or in this case wants to perform to is Chandelier by Sia.

At the end of the day Rojas just wants to be like her figure skating idol, Johnny Weir, who she said really gets into his character and music when he performs. Rojas will be in the Christmas program at the Jones Center and will have a chance to do just that.