# Ice Dance Rules, Law 3: Lifts, spins and other movements (ISU Sports Rules)

Figure Skating · Law 3: Lifts, spins and other movements · Insporta Book (https://book.insporta.app/figure-skating/laws/ice-dance-law-3-lifts-spins-and-other-movements/)

What a Dance Lift is and how its types and combinations are told apart and valued, the jumps a couple may use, spins and their positions, the named movements from the Ina Bauer to the Pivot, and the poses that are illegal.

## 3.31 Lifts, spins and other movements

Dance Lifts and jumps; spins, positions, movements and illegal poses.

### Test 1: Dance Lifts and jumps

- A Dance Lift raises one partner with the other's help, holds the height and sets the partner down; its minimum requirement is three seconds. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16)
- The lifting partner travels in a straight line in any position, on one foot or on two feet. The Curve Lift allows the same on one curve. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16.b)
- In a Rotational Lift the lifting partner rotates in one direction, clockwise or anticlockwise, while travelling. A lift turning on one spot is a Stationary Lift. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16.a, d)
- A Combination Lift joins two Rotational Lifts turning in different directions, two Curve Lifts on two curves in a serpentine, or two different types of Short Lift. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16.e-g)
- A Combination Lift is valued as one unit: the base values of the first two executed types of Short Lift are added, and its GOE is the sum of their GOEs. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 353.1.i.i)
- Overlong lifts are an ice-dance-only deduction of 1.0 per Dance Lift. The permitted durations themselves are set in the season's ISU Communication. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 353.1.n (deduction table))
- A Dance Jump has at most one revolution and no assistance; a Dance Jump of more than one revolution is illegal unless it is a Jump Entry or Jump Exit. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rules 704.17.a, 704.21.g)
- A Dance Lift elevates one partner with active and/or passive help from the other, sustains the partner there and sets them down; any rotations, positions and changes of position are allowed during it. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16)
- Two Rotational Lifts make a Combination Lift only when they turn in different directions; two turning the same way are one type twice. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16.d-e)
- A Curve Lift travels on one curve, one lobe (B). A is a Straight Line Lift, C a Stationary Lift turning on the spot, D a Rotational Lift turning as it travels. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.16.a-d)

### Test 2: Spins, positions, movements and illegal poses

- A Dance Spin is skated by the couple together in any hold, on the spot round a common axis. A Solo Spin is on one foot by one partner, or by both at once round separate centres. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rules 704.13-704.14)
- In the Camel the skating leg is straight or slightly bent, the body bends forward and the free leg is extended or bent upward on a horizontal line or higher. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.14.b.iii)
- A Passé brings the free foot up to the side of the skating leg from a closed hip, parallel to it. In a Coupé it touches the leg at a right angle from an open hip; an Attitude bends the free leg up behind. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.15)
- In both, one foot is on a forward edge and the other on a matching backward edge. In a Spread Eagle they share the same tracing; in an Ina Bauer the tracings differ but run parallel. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.18.b, f)
- Shoot the Duck travels on one foot with that leg strongly bent and the other leg forward, parallel to the ice. A Lunge bends one leg with the other behind, touching the ice; a Crouch bends both. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.18.a, c, e)
- Lying on the ice is on the list of illegal elements, movements and poses for the Rhythm Dance, the Free Dance and the Pattern Dances, with sitting on the partner's head and standing on the shoulder. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.21.h)
- Standing on the partner's shoulder is illegal, but a brief movement through such a pose is permitted when it is not established and sustained, or serves only to change pose. That allowance covers the lift poses a) to f), not jumps of over one revolution or lying on the ice. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.21)
- A Hop is a small jump with no revolution, a Dance Jump has at most one, and a Jump Entry or Jump Exit by one partner at most one and a half, unless an ISU Communication says otherwise. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.17)
- New elements, variations and combinations, of illegal elements too, are those approved by the Ice Dance Technical Committee and published in an ISU Communication when applicable. (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.20)
- In a Pivot the toe picks of one foot are dug in as a centre while the other foot circles round it, leaving a circle round a point (C). The others are two feet travelling: on parallel tracings (A, D) or on one shared tracing (B). (Source: ISU Sports Rules S&P/ID 2026, Rule 704.18)

Sources: ISU Sports Rules, Single & Pair Skating and Ice Dance, effective 12 June 2026, Part III, Rule 704 paragraphs 13-21, Rule 353 1.i and 1.n (paraphrased in original wording; original questions authored from the rules, not reproduced)

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