Begin with the hair—which, after all, Alysa Liu invites us to do. It’s hardly the halo of an ice angel. Her dyed-blond and black circlets have a welcome element of scornfulness, a taunting of judgement. The hair says: Figure skating submits young women to continual verdict, assaults their self-esteem over a toe point or pound of weight, but here is someone who will not comply, who has found her own ebullient, levitating, and self-approving form. Liu takes all the tears in the kiss-and-cry zone—