Jan 29, 2023 By John Sacco 11 min read

Growing up, Michael Seibert was a creative sort.

“He’d give you little gifts, like an old Clorox box with fur on it to look like an animal,” said Peggy Northrop, a long-time friend of Seibert.

They met at the old Skates and Blades at Washington Park.

As Northrop recalls, she was 15-years-old and on her way to winning a National Junior skating championship with her partner in Providence, R.I.

Seibert, 12-years-old at the time, asked to tag along. He would not be denied.

“He asked millions of questions,” Northrop said. “On the way home, after all the pestering questions, he stated with confidence and sincerity: ‘That’s what I want to do.’ “

That was figure skating.

“Peggy was someone I looked up to,” Seibert said. “She was, to my teenage eyes, successful and poised. They were the cool kids I wanted to be. I had no idea there was the huge structure of a USFSA / U.S. Olympics or competitions. I was a kid and I was able to travel and watch them compete at a National Championship. Who knew?

“You see it once and you know.”

Michael Seibert grew up to skate like few others.

After living in Shaler, Seibert attended Washington High School, where his father Roy was principal. He spent just two years living in Washington before moving with his mother, June, to Ohio as he tried to enhance his skating prowess.

The two traveled anywhere to live where coaches could be most helpful to Michael’s career. The stops included Indiana, New York, Connecticut and California.

The Seiberts supported Michael every skate of the way.

“My parents were great and let me do what I wanted to do,” Seibert said. “I had to attend regular school, with all the time on the ice before or after without much energy. I didn’t get into teenage trouble. They were not stage parents but enjoyed being at the events.”

Michael Seibert found a skating partner along the way who matched him in sincerity, grit, enthusiasm, spirit, great skating ability, and imagination.

Seibert and Judy Blumberg became one of the great American ice dancing teams of all time.

The duo won the gold medal at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships five times, captured the bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships three times, and competed at the Winter Olympics twice – 1980 and 1984.

After his competitive skating career ended, Seibert became a well-known choreographer. He choreographed for Stars on Ice and was assistant choreographer for Carmen on Ice. Other ventures included “Battle of the Blades.”

The now defunct series was like U.S.-based “Dancing with the Stars” and “Dancing On Ice” from the UK. The biggest difference, and the show’s main thrust is that “Battle of the Blades” brought two different styles of skaters together: hockey players paired with prominent figure skaters to perform figure skating routines.

The show aired on CBC television (Canada) originally for four seasons between 2009 and 2013. It was revived for a fifth season in 2019.

Seibert was a force teaching NHL players how to figure skate.

“The hockey players were amazing and I can only attribute it to their being elite athletes in the first place,” Seibert said. “They know how to learn, how to be coached and how to put their heads into the game and do what needs to be done.”

Some of the original eight NHL players to perform included Tie Domi, Claude Lemieux, Robert Probert, Ken Danyeko and former Penguins Craig Simpson, Stephane Richer and Ron Duguay

“For them it was learning new skill sets and that is always interesting,” Seibert said. “Then they get repetition and drills. It was so much fun to watch it click together. Getting through the first show was always the hard hurdle. Then they understood what to expect. These were all top hockey guys and so the competitive switch doesn’t ever fully turn off.

“It was a fun show.”

Claire Dillie of the Washington area, the 1957 national junior ice dancing champion and renowned skating coach, didn’t think Seibert had the ability to be a good skater, let alone a great one.

She admits, she missed on Seibert.

“Michael’s a remarkable man,” Dillie said.

She influenced Seibert from the start – helped bring him back from a disastrous judging decision in the 1984 Olympics that cost him and his ice dance partner a gold medal.

Dillie is different than the other array of coaches who taught Seibert. She was blunt and direct with Seibert from his youthful exuberance to his worldwide fame.

“I told him he would never do anything in skating when he was a boy,” Dillie said. “I wouldn’t coach him. I didn’t think he had talent and he was always creating havoc.

“He was erratic and wild. That turned into freedom of skating that no other male ever showed in ice dancing. He became the best male ice dancer this country ever had.

“Honestly, Michael’s a pain in the (butt). He is so creative, so talented and has a great mind, there are not too many like him.”

Poor Judgement

The 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., were one of the most dramatic and memorable for the United States.

The U.S. hockey team pulled a huge upset defeating the great Russian team in the semifinals and then captured the gold medal defeating Finland in the final game. It was euphoria for the U.S.

For Seibert and Blumberg, their first Olympic foray resulted in a seventh-place finish in ice dancing.

Seibert admits he was not part of the nostalgia or exhilaration in the country.

“I was a kid,” he said. “Honestly, I was caught up in trying to be the best and winning a gold medal. That is the reason we were there.”

He explained he had little chance to watch others compete.

“(Speedskater) Eric Heiden – who won five speed skating gold medals – and the hockey team were the big stories,” Seibert explained. “We could get some tickets to events as athletes but certainly not to those ones. We weren’t involved in the celebration. At the athletes’ Olympic village everyone was separate. You didn’t really know what others were doing.”

The pair continued to compete and earned a second trip to the Olympics in 1984. The road was not easy and ended in despair, confusion and disappointment.

Seibert had suffered injuries and illness leading up to the ’84 Winter Games, but he and Blumberg were in place to win gold in Sarajevo when misfortune hit, highly questionable judging by an Italian judge, Cia Bordogna, who decided their choice of music – “Scheherazade” – was inappropriate for ice dancing.

“Scheherazade” is an orchestral work that combines two features typical of Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East. “Scheherazade” refers to the main character Scheherazade of the One Thousand and One Nights.

Bordogna’s score of 5.5 dropped the team into fourth place and out of medal contention.

The judge was quoted in the New York Times saying: “Unfortunately, they chose music which didn’t conform to the rules of dance. The music must also be able to be danced to on earth. I approved of the couple technically. Technically, they were at a very high level. Their skating was almost perfect.”

The team, which had been hindered by Bordogna’s judging in other competitions, was devastated.

“I was in a fog,” Seibert said. “When it’s your one time to win an Olympic gold medal…”

“It was wrong,” Dillie said. “Michael was crushed. He was depressed. He was hurt and it took a long time for him to come to grips with it. His mother never got over it.”

In 2014, Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first Olympic gold medal for the U.S. in ice dancing. Ironically, the pair danced to “Scheherazade,” 30 years after Blumberg and Seibert were severely penalized for ice dancing to the same music.

Many years later, Seibert can’t help but recognize the shift in the sport.

“The world of ice dancing has changed to the point I don’t even recognize it,” he said. “It’s an evolutionary thing. Our music wasn’t illegal back then and certainly the rule changes have caught up to it. Davis and White were uniquely entertaining, super physical and technical. They were special. We were special as well, probably, ahead of our time. The ’84 Olympics was a bad experience. I believe in our choreography and our music and how we performed.

“I have an ego. I am comfortable with our choices in 1984. I’m happy Davis and White won skating to that music. I believe it proves we were 30 years ahead of our time.”

Design on Greatness

Seibert, 63, lives in Beacon, N.Y., and works as a real estate agent for Houlihan-Lawrence Real Estate, in Cold Spring, N.Y., and is a freelance designer.

“I also teach skating once a week. I teach adults,” he said. “The competition aspect of my teaching has morphed into adult exercise. They don’t have skating dreams.”

In addition to his abilities as a real estate salesperson dealing with homes in a “high-end” area, Seibert continues to create in the areas of interior design, architecture, custom design, and makes furniture.

He maintains his own business to add much needed earning power.

“There’s not enough here to make a living in this area,” he said. “It’s not like I have deep roots.

“I was always interested in design. I wish I had pushed myself while being an athlete to be in school at the same time.”

Seibert and Blumberg were voted to the U.S. National Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1996.

“It’s an honor,” Seibert said. “It’s forever. I’m proud of it.”

He has been recognized for his outstanding abilities in choreography, design and artistry as well.

He won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding choreography in 2003 – his last season choreographing and co-directing Stars on Ice.

“It seemed like a fitting way to move along and something nice to have on the bookshelf,” he said.

Seibert appeared on the cover of national design magazines for his creation and design of apartments in California and in New York.

Seibert’s rise was unconventional as he didn’t begin working with a professional coach until he was considered too old for individual competition.

When he and Blumberg, a Californian, met at the National Figure Skating Championships in Hartford in 1977, they had other partners. They teamed a year-and-a-half later and the Blumberg-Seibert team made history and magic.

Their signature move had Blumberg parallel to the ice while holding Seibert’s leg as he lifted his other leg over her.

They unforgettably ended the “Scheherazade” program with Blumberg forming a human ring, wrapped around Seibert, back-to-back, holding her skates and dropping to the ice.

Blumberg and Seibert returned to the ice after the ’84 Olympics, and they turned professional that April.

When they finally broke apart, Seibert said he no longer wanted the partnership or to skate. Blumberg wasn’t ready to retire.

“It was a divorce,” Seibert added. “But it opened up my world.”

After spending most of his life in New York, Seibert did move to California. While he left his artistic mark on the West Coast, he admits the work waned and it impacted his finances.

“I couldn’t make it anymore,” he said. “I lost all of my money.”

He went back to New York.

Seibert seems comfortable and pleased with his life.

“He’s resilient,” said Dillie, 83. “Michael always had the best ideas with choreography, costume designs and whatever else. He was a great skater and ice dancer.

“While he was a brat and all over the place as a youth, he loved ice skating and it gave him a good life.”

“I’m fortunate she’s been such a significant part of my life,” Seibert said. “We’ve stayed in touch and talk. Claire is a special woman.

“I loved skating, worked hard at it. It’s given me a life I’m happy with.”

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