When Jimmy Ma takes the ice in Everett, Washington at Skate America this week, he will be two skaters in one: a swaggering, head-rolling, finger-wagging showman; and a ballet-trained athlete who jumps with textbook pointed toes and interprets music with the acumen of a classically trained musician.
"It's a shock to some people," said Darlene Cain, who, along with husband Peter, trains Ma at Dr. Pepper Star Center in Euless, Texas. "It's two totally different ends of the spectrum, and he does both well."
The dual personas thrive in the irrepressible Ma, a charismatic skater in the vein of Ryan Bradley and Jason Brown, who at age 23 may just be on the verge of a breakthrough season.
"Sure, I'm a little bit nervous about Skate America," Ma, a native New Yorker, said. "This is the first time I've been (assigned to) anything big, let alone a Grand Prix. I called Nikolai (Morozov) the other day, talked to him about it. And there's this 10-second pause, I thought he cut out. Then he said, 'So what? Who cares? Just go out there and take it one element at a time.'"
The skater, 11
th in the U.S. last season, made noise at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships when his Morozov-choreographed short program set to Lil Jon and DJ Snake's raucous trap song "Turn Down for What" went viral, gaining 500,000 YouTube views.
"He's a dude diva," said three-time U.S. champion and NBC commentator Johnny Weir, who trained alongside Ma for years in Hackensack, New Jersey. "He's got a lot of moxie when he walks through the rink. He plays the rap (music) on every practice."
Ma's free skate, choreographed by Morozov to Rachmaninoff's "Concerto No. 2 in C minor," was more typical figure skating fare and – truth be told – a bit more up Ma's alley.
"Believe it or not, I prefer this (classical) kind of skating more than I do my hip hop," Ma said. "Hip hop is very difficult to put out on the ice."
This spring, Ma and his longtime mentor Morozov were challenged to design a new short that kept the spirit of "Turn Down for What," yet staked out new ground.
"Last year was a rave, all of the energy I could put out there," Ma said. "But now I have to conserve a little bit. There's a lot more finesse to it this year."
The answer is a
caliente medley including "Mi Gente" by J Balvin, Willy William & Beyoncé mixed with "Sahara Tango" by Sarah Louise Ings.
"We were looking for the kind of song that when you're at the club, and you're getting tired, it comes on and then it's 'Screw being tired, let's get on the dance floor and start partying up again, start raving again,'" Ma said. "The (choreography) only took us one day, but it was a lot of yelling back and forth."
Ma is sticking with his Rachmaninoff free skate this season, after jettisoning an earlier program choreographed with Joshua Farris during a visit to Colorado Springs in June.
"I definitely love the program, music-wise," Ma said. "I (incorporated) a little bit of the choreography that Josh gave me, and changed the jumps around some…It was an easy hot fix."
Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), a Russian composer of the late Romantic period, has been part of Ma's life a lot longer than Lil Jon and DJ Snake. Growing up in Great Neck, Long Island, he studied piano at Herald Music School for years, performing several times as a youngster at famed Carnegie Hall.
"I went up there, a little Asian kid with a big head, playing (Chopin's) 'Impromptu Fantasie,'" Ma laughed. "Classical music never has a steady tempo to it, it gives me a lot of freedom to interpret when I play or when I skate to it. Rachmaninoff is more recent, within the last 100 years. He's kind of the renegade composer."
Ma is especially attracted to the story behind "Concerto No. 2," composed by Rachmaninoff after courses of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy helped cure him  of clinical depression and writer's block.
"I really love the story behind this concerto," he said. "That's important to me. I have to tell a story."
Beyond choreography, Ma hopes to put his quadruple on display in Everett. Competing at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in Salt Lake City, Utah last month, he fell on the jump in his short and missed the entry to it completely in his free. Strong triple Axels – including a triple Axel-triple toe loop combination, done from a spread eagle entrance – helped lift him to a bronze medal, his most impressive result to date.
"After Salt Lake, I got new skates," Ma said. "I was PO'ed at what happened there with the quad. But I went home, got some work done on the pole harness, and it kind of reset me and my mentality on the ice. This last week (before Skate America) has been really productive. I'm learning from my mistakes."
Darlene Cain thinks the key for Ma is to take time to finish each element.
"He's very talented," she said. "It's about trying to keep calm, trying to maneuver through the elements and keep the pace. He's very musical as well. His body movement is wonderful."
Ma relocated to the Dallas area last fall, and although he enjoys working with the Cains and training alongside skaters including close friend Amber Glenn, the move isn't without its challenges.
"The pacing of everyday life is different," Ma said. "There are fewer distractions, for better or for worse. The Cains have provided me with a very positive environment; everybody is very supportive. But you have to remember, I'm a New Yorker. I grew up in the Hackensack environment. Sometimes, I miss that kind of energy. Peter and Darlene have been so good about letting me go back, get my lights back under me, get it all out there."
As he heads to Everett, Ma thinks he's striking the right balance between the "diva dude" and the classical musician. He and Morozov shaved a few seconds off his short program music, to avoid the one-point deduction he got in Salt Lake City for a time violation. And his quad is growing more consistent.
"I'm pretty happy with what I have, my programs," he said, and then paused. "But the thing that makes them exciting is me. That's what I need to work on."
