The 8 a.m. class has begun. Tracie L. Brown '92, a champion ice skater and a Harvard instructor, has her students--approximately 20 of them--line up against the wall. Half of them come forward at the signal and attempt to do backwards turns on two feet.

Somebody falls.

The other half of the class attempts to perform the same feat, but with the security of the wall behind them.

"Good! Good!" Brown shouts, trying to encourage the timid. The scraping of razor-sharp blades on ice continues as Brown reminds the students about that all too important law of gravity: "Don't get too far forward, alright? Otherwise it's kissing-the-ice time."

Not Quite Hockey Gods

While most Harvard students are savoring that last hour or two of peaceful slumber at this time of morning, a handful of dedicated individuals bundle up twice a week and head across the river to the Bright Hockey Center. The adventurers are not varsity hockey gods or Olympic skaters. These daring few head for the frosty ice of Bright to slide around, but more often, to simply fall down--hard.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Bright Hockey rink opens at the menacingly early hour of 7 a.m. for free skating. On Mondays and Wednesdays, free lessons for beginner to intermediate skaters are given from 8 to 8:30 a.m., and lessons for advanced beginners and advanced intermediates are held from 8:30 to 9 a.m.

"It's sort of an offbeat thing you can impress everybody with," says Danna Z. Harman '93, who takes both the beginner and advanced classes twice a week.

"It's an outlet," says Maria Daniels, who works in the Classics department. "I think recreation is as important an element in anyone's life as academic pursuits."

Before the first lessons of the morning begin, around 7:45 a.m., there are various levels of ability represented on the ice. A few skaters glide across the rink effortlessly--some of whom actually are hockey gods--while others inch along with their arms out at their sides, staying close to the walls.

"I just want to learn how to skate," says Guenter J. Meyer '92, lacing up his skates. Meyers says his roommate, a varsity hockey player, took him to Bright for an "open skate" during intersession, and the experience convinced him to take lessons.

But, Meyer laments, "I've skated five days of my life now and I still suck."

Others who started out like Meyer are now feeling a little more confident about their performance on the ice.

"If you don't make ice skating in itself stressful, it's wonderful. Just moving on the ice--it's a weird sensation," says Scott A. Hanna '92, a skating enthusiast who began his new hobby at Bright last year. Since then, Hanna has moved up through the ranks, graduating from both the beginner and the advanced classes.

Now that he is a full-fledged skater, Hanna still goes down to Bright most mornings, to hang out on the ice and hone his newly acquired skills, he says. Presently, he is working on speed, to help in his intramural hockey games.