ESPN Figure Skating

ASTON, Pa. -- It would be easy to miss the low-slung, industrial-looking building tucked away on a quiet back road in this Philadelphia suburb, but extraordinary things sometimes come in very plain packaging.

Inside the Ice Works complex, several world-class ice dancing tandems -- including the best U.S. team in 30 years, 2006 Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto -- are pushing their limits daily in an effort to peak for February's Vancouver Games. It's a respectful but intense competition that makes any dance-oriented reality show pale by comparison.

Belbin and Agosto left a career-long comfort zone in the Midwest last year to position themselves for what they say will be their second and final bid for the top step of the Olympic podium. They were drawn here by a married couple who know how to get there, having done it themselves.

Legendary Russian coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponossov won ice dancing gold in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980. Belbin and Agosto will travel to the same tiny northern hamlet next month for Skate America, part of international skating's Grand Prix Series.

Belbin and Agosto's soundtrack for the original dance rang repetitively, even hypnotically, through the rink Thursday. The discipline, one of three in which ice dancers are judged, requires all teams to compete to the same rhythm with music of their choosing. Folk is the motif in 2009-10, and the two will perform to a Moldavian folk song.

They did a full run-through, giving their peasant-themed white, red and black costumes a test run as well, then changed into black warm-ups and concentrated on specific elements. The animated Linichuk, who choreographs their routines, occasionally stopped them and demonstrated posture or expression that needed refining.

Under the same roof, in a scenario that would be unthinkable in most other sports, the famed coaches also train a Russian team expected to contend for an Olympic gold. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin edged the Americans for the world championship last March.

After Belbin and Agosto's training session, a small audience of reporters and fans listened to Linichuk explain why she and her husband don't feel torn between their two sets of talented pupils, who have been competing against each other since they were juniors. Linichuk and Karponossov have coached numerous Olympic medalists, some with overlapping careers, and seldom heard they weren't giving one team or the other sufficient attention, Linichuk said.

"What I heard was, 'Too much, too much, enough, enough,'" Linichuk said. "These are two teams that are very smart, very professional, very friendly, very educated … They teach each other. For me, it's not difficult. I learn from them something myself."

Belbin said the benefits are tangible.

"It's a pleasure to train with [Domnina and Shabalin], and as a competitor, it helps me and drives me," she said. "When I see them do a free dance run-through, after that of course I want to do a better job than they just did.

"I think there's a stigma attached to ice dancers, that we have the claws out and we rip each other's costumes in the dressing rooms. This generation of ice dancers has set a new precedent for support and camaraderie. It's just really nice to be a part of it."

The Ice Works dance troupe also includes U.S. bronze medalists Kim Navarro and Brent Bommentre. They hope to compete for the third spot on the U.S. Olympic team, a luxury the country has thanks to Belbin and Agosto's results, along with those of the Michigan-based team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who placed fourth at this year's worlds. Davis and White also won the 2009 U.S. nationals in Belbin and Agosto's absence as Agosto was idled by a back injury.

Navarro and Bommentre likely would have to leapfrog Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, another U.S. team that trains in Michigan, to book a trip to Vancouver.

Top Italian ice dancers Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, who were eighth at the most recent worlds, call Aston home now as well, along with the emerging Swiss team of Leonie Krail and Oscar Peter and Israelis Brooke Frieling and Lionel Rumi, who are in their first season of competition together.

The Canadian-born Belbin, who gained U.S. citizenship just before the 2006 Torino Olympics, and Agosto, a Chicago native, were first paired in 1998 by Igor Shpilband, the Canton, Mich.-based Russian coach who has long drawn top skaters to that area. After a disappointing fourth-place finish in the 2008 World Championships, the two decided they needed different voices to guide them.

"We feel refreshed and renewed," Agosto said.

Five-time U.S. champions Belbin, 25, and Agosto, 27, have not yet decided whether they will retire after the 2010 Games, but say they will not compete professionally for another full four-year cycle.

Karponossov is known for his ability to improve skaters' technique in the onerous and technical compulsory dance, which will be set to either a waltz or a tango at next year's Olympics. Belbin and Agosto have previously struggled with that portion of the competition, digging themselves into a points deficit, then trying to scramble out of it with verve and showmanship in the original and free dances.

Going back to basics has helped strengthen all of their routines, Belbin said. The team's free dance music this season will combine two religious-themed selections: an alternative arrangement of the classic "Ave Maria" and Gioacchino Rossini's interpretation of "Stabat Mater," a medieval poem.

Bonnie D. Ford covers tennis and Olympic sports for ESPN.com. She can be reached at bonniedford@aol.com.