Throughout our sixth season, I'll be interviewing members of the Windy City Rollers. Our next bout is Saturday, March 27. Get tickets here!

Loco Chanel: This is your fourth year with the Windy City Rollers, can you compare and contrast the feelings of going into this season vs seasons prior?

Ada Hatelace: Being on the Manics, each season has felt VERY different on the team, as well as the changes in my own development as a skater. As a team, going into the previous two seasons, we were coming off two full years of losses - we had nothing to lose and nowhere to go but up. This year, coming off of a Championship win, we have more of a target on our backs, but our team chemistry and confidence is a lot higher than it has been in previous seasons, because now we know how awesome we are capable of being, and we want to live up to the standard we set for ourselves last season.

On a personal level, this is the first season I'm playing regularly as a pivot. It has been fascinating to really delve into the strategic aspects of this role, which I worked on at the end of last season and over the summer with the WCR B-team, the Second Wind. I love roller derby strategy and the challenges of calling plays, gaining a much greater understanding of my teammates and what their strengths and weaknesses are and how this affects what roles in the pack I am assigning each of us, and becoming a much better communicator and leader on the track.

LC: You're one of the skaters who's been spreading the gospel of aerial/trapeze training and performance throughout Windy City. Can you tell us a little more about how you got into aerial work and how it fits in with derby?

AH: Aerial and trapeze training is awesome! I got into it nearly 2 years ago when the Manics signed up for a basic trapeze workshop at the Aloft Loft (http://aloftloft.com), just as a team-bonding experience, and I totally loved it, so I signed up for classes right away. The cross training benefits are huge. Derby focuses mostly on legs and core, while aerial training focuses on shoulders/arms/back and core - so it both balances out your body in general, while building up your abs like nothing else. My stability and strength for roller derby has increased tremendously since becoming serious about aerial training. It goes the other way too. Having strong derby legs helps a lot with trapeze tricks! The biggest challenge is trying to fit in aerial training alongside a derby practice schedule, but several of us in the league have managed to do it, so it's possible.

After we had taken classes for about six months, Beth Amphetamine and I started learning doubles trapeze - this is where two people share one trapeze and do tricks together. Becoming a trapeze duo with my teammate has helped our derby teamwork as well! We performed in our first circus show in December - check out our act here.

LC: The evolution of the Manictard. Please describe.

AH: The Manictard! How can you not love it? The history of the Manictard is often surprising, especially to people who feel the need to attempt to console us that we "have to" wear it. What most people don't know is that the Manictard was CHOSEN. For the 2009 season, our "official" team uniform was nothing but a loose set of color guidelines. Our intention was actually to let everyone on the team choose their own top and bottoms as long as they were the correct colors. Then, Wreck n' Shrew showed up at practice with a turquoise leotard with a full length yellow zipper, exclaiming about how awesome it was. Not everyone was convinced right away, and some of us started out by insisting we were going to stick with just a turquoise tank top and yellow shorts - but one by one, every Manic ended up deciding that the Manictard was the way to go. Its spread through our team was totally organic.

For 2010, we had to change our shade of blue to be less like the general WCR blue, and this also gave us an opportunity to try a different cut and fabric - so now we have shiny royal blue biketards.

My personal theory is that when a whole team decides to wear something that can be described as equal parts ridiculous, horrible, and awesome, what this really does for us is increase our team bonding. I'm totally serious. The Manictard helped us win the Ivy King Cup, which is one of my favorite WCR memories thus far. It was magical.