Michigan’s First Black Female-Owned figure Skating Club Now Open In Detroit.
Dream Detroit Skating Academy, a figure skating company owned and operated by Angela Blocker-Loyd, Candice Tamakloe, and Crystal Stewart, officially opened last Saturday, January 29 right here in Detroit. DDSA is the first black owned figure skating company in Michigan and is ran by all women. One of the owners Candice Tamakloe spoke with the Detroit Free Press saying, “There has never been a skater at the national or international level to come out of the city of Detroit.” She would like to change that. Tamakloe believes that there are many talented skaters in Detroit, but may lack access and/or the tools necessary to improve and harness their skills. She also believes that the city of Detroit is a city full of hard workers and she would love to continue installing that quality of working hard into the children at DDSA.
Angela Blocker-Lloyd began figure skating at age 9. She was one of the youngest skaters at Berkley Ice Arena and Recreation Center. During that time, there weren’t many black figure skaters, so another skater, who was around her age decided to take Blocker-Lloyd under her wing and show her the ropes. Candance Tamakloe, who was 14 at the time, decided she needed to be a mentor to Blocker-Lloyd. Tamakloe said during her conversation with Detroit Free Press, “Angie was the little skater and I was the big skater. We were also only two of a few African American skaters at Berkley, and I had been skating there for a few years, so I took her on as a little sister.” Together with some help from Crystal Stewart, Tamakloe and Blocker-Loyd have decided to take on all the young, aspiring figure skaters as their little siblings.
As mentioned earlier, Dream Detroit Skating Academy (DDSA) opened last Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Adams Butzel Recreation Center-Jack Adams Memorial Ice Arena. According to Blocker-Lloyd, DDSA is the only Black-owned figure skating club in Michigan. What is DDSA mission you might ask? It’s clear (and posted on their website) they want, “Exposure facilitates many of our youth’s interests. Interests are the seeds that inspire dreams, and dreams fuel our drive for success. Unfortunately, figure skating is an opportunity to which few Detroit youth are exposed, but Dream Detroit is working to change that.” Detroit, 105.9 Kiss FM would like to celebrate and commend these three beautiful black queens for what they are doing in the community and how they are helping change the culture of figure skating for black young women and men.