Oh, hey, nothing to see here, just a dancer casually executing complicated figure skating moves in pointe shoes attached to skating blades.
POINTE SHOES. ATTACHED TO SKATING BLADES. SHE IS SKATING ON POINTE .
Is this real life? It is. Or it was, rather, a few decades ago, as evidenced by the jaw-dropping vintage footage of multitalented artist Darlene Gilbert-Parent.
Apparently the gifted dancer/skater—who performed in NYC in the '50s and '60s, and skated in Dick Button's Ice Travaganza at the 1964 World's Fair in Queens—invented the hybrid skate herself.
We don't know a ton about figure skating, but we sure as heck know about pointe shoes, and even with that limited perspective: This is one of the most hardcore things we've ever seen. And we say that as people who've seen tap dancing on pointe .
(H/t to Sheri Leblanc for the brilliant #TBT find!)