It can be challenging to fit exercise into one’s daily routine, but District 9 Legislator Terry Bernardo always finds the time for her athletic escape: she trains almost everyday as an ice dancer. Waking up before the roosters, Bernardo commutes to Sport-O-Rama, a skating rink in Monsey, New York, to carve the ice. Both as a legislator and an athlete, she would like to see a skating rink built in Sullivan County, but for now she will commute to Monsey and Montclair, New Jersey, where she takes lessons with world-class skating coach Alexei Beletsky. 

Bernardo grew up in Maryland and began roller figure skating as a teenager. When she was 17, she competed in the USA Roller Sports Indoor National Championships in Nebraska. “It was really, really fun- that was my Olympics,” said Bernardo. At the time skating was a fun hobby and a break from scholastics; she had no way of knowing then that this sport would become a mainstay of her journey and a lifeline to mobility, strength, and fitness.

After graduating from the University of Maryland, she earned a master’s degree from Drexel University in business administration. She then moved to Manhattan to work in the hotel industry. After meeting her husband, Bernardo decided to leave hospitality and went to Boulder, Colorado, to study pilates and become a pilates instructor. She moved to upstate NY, where Bernardo reunited with her love of skating and built Skate Time 209 - a roller rink and skateboard park in Accord, NY.

It is at Skate Time 209 where she met New York State Senator John Bonacic, who urged Bernardo to enter into politics. After a few elections she became the first female Chair of the Ulster County Legislature. Bernardo then worked for the New York State Senate for seven years. Today she serves Orange County as the New York State Indigent Legal Services Data Officer and also Sullivan County as the District 9 Legislator.

Bernardo recently moved to Lake Louise Marie in Rock Hill and started ice skating for the first time on the frozen lake. Bernardo said the transition to ice skating was difficult in the beginning.

 “I started skating on the lake and I wasn’t very good, and I thought to myself, if I can get good enough at this so it becomes exercise, I’m gonna want to do it all the time.” 

She enrolled in lessons and eventually started training with Alexei Beletsky, a former Olympic Ice Dancer. Today Bernardo works with Beletsky in developing her skills as she remains focused on the U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) standardized testing track- a series of highly regulated tests that mark the evolution of a skate dancer’s progress. 

Alexei Beletsky

Alexei Beletsky grew up in Odesa, Ukraine and started ice skating at age 4 after his family doctor suggested that he take up winter sports to ward off chronic sickness. When he was 18 years old he switched from single skating to ice dance. At age 20, Beletsky moved from Ukraine to Israel and started to represent Israel in the international skating arena. He began training under legendary coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, who were Olympic gold medalists in 1980.

In 2002, Beletsky competed at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games, where he placed 19th in Ice Dancing. “It was the biggest event in my life because it was 10,000 people and the facility was [sold out]. I can say that was one of my best presentations because I managed my nervousness and used the energy from the audience and applied it to my performance. And when this happens, you get a very good result. I felt like I did my best and the audience was appreciative,” he said. In 2003, Beletsky placed 15th at the World Figure Skating Championships in Washington, D.C., and in 2004, Beletsky placed 9th at the European Figure Skating Championships in Ice Dancing in Budapest, Hungary. 

In 2009, Beletsky moved back to Odesa to start Bergeg-Ug, a metal manufacturing company. While back in the Ukraine, he also began his judging career and has since judged more than 30 international skating competitions. Beletsky is also the author of a multilingual children’s book called Ice Age Figure Skating that combines storytelling with skating fundamentals. 

Recently Beletsky was invited to return to the U.S. to coach skating for the Krigor Studio in Little Falls, New Jersey. He said “I got the invitation from my friends from the past, they gave me the opportunity to coach here; they like to use my experience and my expertise and I’m glad to be part of the Krigor Studio.” The Krigor Studio is located next to Montclair State University’s Ice Arena, where Beletsky meets with Terry Bernardo to develop her ice dancing repertoire and technique.

Terry Time

Terry Bernardo is currently working on a difficult ice dance called ‘Hickory Hoedown’ as she attempts to advance to the next testing level. Her favorite part of the process is working with Alexei, saying she immediately felt a huge difference when she began skating with him. Bernardo said after “one time around with him, it was like driving a Ferrari; it was a luxury experience, because I’ve skated with other guys before and I knew this was something I had never felt, it was absolutely amazing, just mind-blowing; the level of quality of skater in him. When we skate together, it feels like we’re on the same frequency—there’s no need to talk, we just move in sync.” Bernardo says it requires a daily routine steeped in discipline to wake up early for exercise, but if she knows she’s going to skate with Alexei, she is always happy to do it because she loves skating- it’s her ‘Terry Time.’

Finding exercise 

your body likes to do

Skating is a joy for Terry Bernardo, but the desire to be physically fit and healthy is also strong within her. She sits on the Health and Human Services Committee because she believes in fostering healthy habits within her community and hopes that sharing her love of skating may inspire some readers to find a new exercise activity. She urged anyone struggling to develop an exercise routine to find something they enjoy: “You just gotta find that thing, whatever it is, that your body likes to do- and do it. Almost 40% of adults in Sullivan County are obese or overweight and 1 in 3 have mobility problems. I don’t want to be one of them, I want to have good balance as I get older. Any way that you’re moving your body- if you’re riding a bicycle, you’re paddling a boat or a paddleboard. Find something that moves your body because you may not think it’s exercise, but it is.” 

Bernardo says there is discussion in the Legislature about building a new athletic facility, and she and District 8 Legislator Amanda Ward, who was also a competitive ice skater, are lobbying to make it a multipurpose facility that includes an ice rink. “The sports facility is definitely something that is on the drawing board,” she said. Until then, Terry Bernardo will have to commute to Montclair to practice ice skating and develop her skills as an ice dancer with world-class coach Alexei Beletsky.