About The Skating COllaborative
A Philosophy for Sports Success
Our coaching philosophy is to foster critical thinking, attention to detail and self-awareness in athletes as they strive to master progressively harder skills. Qualities like these are found not only in successful athletes, but high achievers in a wide range of fields. When cultivating these qualities is the priority, sport can provide a profound return on investment for its participants.
David DeFazio - Director
David's passion for intensive, detail-oriented training is the driving force behind the The Skating Collaborative. As a skater, David was the 2007 Swiss Ice Dance Champion (Geneva) and reached the final segment of the International Skating Union (ISU) European Championships (Warsaw, Poland) the same year. He ranked in the top 100 in the ISU World Standings with two different ice dance partners between 2007-2009. He was also a 2-time US Figure Skating Regional Champion, Sectional Medalist & US Junior Figure Skating Championships competitor in Singles. He performed in ice shows throughout North America, Europe and Australia.
As a singles skater and ice dancer, David was educated at elite training centers in both North America and Europe under the coaches of World and Olympic Champions including Muriel Boucher-Zazoui & Romain Haguenauer (Lyon, France), Doug Leigh (Barrie, Canada) & Martin Skotnicky (Oberstdorf, Germany).
David has 15 years of experience teaching skating. He was the Learn-To-Skate Director for both Union College and Albany County (NY) Parks & Recreation from 2022-2024. His students include USFS Gold Medalists, senior-level collegiate, ISU Masters Elite & US Figure Skating Championship-level Adult Competitors.
David holds an MA in Sustainable Peace through Sport from United Nations-mandated University for Peace and the International University of Monaco and a BA in Liberal Studies from Thomas Edison University. He has worked extensively in the non-profit sector to promote positive youth development through sport. He contributed to working groups with ENGSO Youth (Budapest, Hungary) and the European Youth and Sport Forum (Larnaca, Cyprus) and was a panelist at the Common Purpose Global Leadership Experience (GLE) at Harvard University from 2015-2017.
David teaches skating skills, singles skating, ice dance and choreography to skaters of all ages and abilities.