Aaron Singletary excels in his professional skating career

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Aaron Singletary first took to the ice to play hockey at age 5. He started figure skating around age 7 at the suggestion of his mother. “It was something I excelled at very quickly,” said Singletary, now 27, who gave up ice hockey within a year.

As he progressed in the sport, he sought out better coaching, often working with coach Craig Maurizi at the Ice House in Hackensack, N.J. He frequently competed in the Middle Atlantic Championships at SkyRink (Chelsea Piers). “I enjoyed competing a lot,” he said. As he got older and the pressure intensified, though, he began to feel the stress.

Around age 17, he’d grown tall and was approached to try pairs skating. He trained and competed with a partner for several years and was eager to see how far he could go, but his second partnership dissolved when his partner’s mother had a car accident. “We weren’t the best pair skaters, but we were definitely getting better and over time, we would have turned into something,” Singletary said. 

RELATED: Aaron Singletary first took to the ice to play hockey at age 5. He started figure skating around age 7 at the suggestion of his mother.

Spotted at a competition by someone from the Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY), an ensemble skating company, he was offered the chance to skate in some of ITNY’s shows. A year or so later, he joined the company. Shortly after he began performing with ITNY in 2019, other professional performing opportunities started coming his way, including a holiday show in California. That was followed by the opening of the American Dream mall in New Jersey. From May 5–8 of this year, Singletary skated in ITNY’s shows at SkyRink.

“The preparation was very nice,” said Singletary, who skated in the programs “Aquata” and “Ensemble for Peace.” The latter was dedicated to victims of the war in Ukraine and throughout the world. “‘Ensemble’ was something I enjoyed doing because we’d done it before. ‘Aquata’ was a new style of skating, which was very fun to learn. Doing something new in that way, I found very exciting,” Singletary said. 

When not performing, Singletary coaches, primarily at City Ice Pavilion in Queens and as a guest coach at other rinks in the area. He instills a sense of pride and performance in all his students. His performing career resumes in June, when he travels to Japan for three months of touring with “Disney on Ice.”