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"From Lutz to Lather" from International Figure Skating Magazine
Hollywood- "General Hospital" actress Rebecca Herbst's first public performance wasn't in front of a camera; it was on the ice.
Herbst, 21, who playes Elizabeth Webber on the daytime drama, began skating at age 3 and started taking lessons a year later. She competed at the 1989 Southwest Pacific Championships as a juvenile and at the 1990 Southwest Pacifics as an intermediate. Among the other girls in her group: 11-year-old Karen Kwan and 9-year-old Michelle Kwan.
Watching this year's Olympics, according to Herbst, was "amazing. I just couldn't believe I'm watching Michelle Kwan, the girl I used to skate every morning with."
Unlike her competitors, Herbst usually practiced skating just a couple of hours a day. She had a conflict: From the age of 6, she'd also been auditioning for and acting in television commercials. (Those commercials also helped pay for her skating lessons.)
By age 15, the combination of skating, acting and high school proved too much. When she realized that what she loved most about skating was performing, not the competing, Herbst decided to give up skating for acting. Eventually she landed roles in the TV series "Brotherly Love" and "Space Cases."
Herbst conceded that acting, like skating, is very competitive, but she insists there is a difference: "In acting, when you go for an audition, you're only challenged by yourself. You do the best you can do. You're not being put up against anybody else. With skating, you're competing your skills against other people. You each had to do X amount of jumps, and you each had to do them perfectly."
In 1997, Herbst became a regular on the popular soap opera "General Hospital." But she still finds time once in a while to lace up her Harlick skates and take to the ice.
Herbst said, "My very best friend in the world, Amy Buccellato, used to skate with me. It was so much fun for the two of us to do it together. I always had a good time. when I look back on it now, it was just friendship more that anything." -A.S.
