Ice Theatre of New York 2022 Home Season and 35th Anniversary Benefit Gala

Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) presents its 2022 Home Season Performances on May 6 & May 7 at 7PM and May 9 at 6:30PM at the Sky Rink, Chelsea Piers. The annual Benefit Gala and Performance will celebrate the 35th Anniversary of ITNY on the third night of the Home Season, May 9. The event will be held at The Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers, following a performance at Sky Rink. The three-night Home Season will feature the ITNY Ensemble, Junior Ensemble, and guest artists. Home Season tickets and Benefit Gala tickets are available at https://icetheatre.org/tickets.html.

ITNY’s 2022 Home Season will feature the ITNY Ensemble in new works alongside pieces from the repertory. Jody Sperling, the first and only choreographer on a Coast Guard Icebreaker observing the melting of Arctic sea ice in 2018, has once again received a NYSCA grant through ITNY to create her second socially-significant commissioned work for Ice Theatre of New York with a soundtrack by Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky). Highlights from the 2022 Home Season include the premiere live performance of Pivoting, choreographed for broadcast during the pandemic by Joel Dear; Sacrosanct, a new duet by Ice Dance choreographer Lorna Brown set to Philip Glass’ piano composition The Poet Acts; and the world premiere of Body Parts, choreographed by ITNY company member Mauro Bruni, based on the five waves movement teachings of Gabrielle Roth and set to the soundscape of her voice teaching the class.

The full 2022 Home Season features:
OF WATER AND ICE (World Premiere, NYSCA Commission)
Choreography by Jody Sperling
Performed by Sarah France and Valerie Levine
Music: “Of Water and Ice” by DJ Spooky

PIVOTING (World Premiere)
Choreography by Joel Dear
Performed by Angela Chiang, Sarah France, Jennifer Gruver, Ale Izquierdo, Sabrina Mann, and Freddie Moore
Music: “Epilogue” by Olafur Arnalds

SACROSANCT (World Premiere)
Choreography by Lorna Brown
Performed by Kseniya Ponomaryova and Collin Brubaker
Music: “The Poet Acts” by Philip Glass

CLASS PIECE (World Premiere)
Choreography by Elisa Angeli
Performed by Danil Berdnikov, Mauro Bruni, Sarah France, Ale Izqueirdo, Sabrina Mann, Freddie Moore, Andrew Saelee, Liz Yoshiko Schmidt, and Aaron Singletary
Music: Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff

BODY PARTS (World Premiere)
Choreographed by Mauro Bruni
Performed by Angela Chiang, Danil Berdnikov, Ale Izqueirdo, Freddie Moore, Andrew Saelee, and Liz Yoshiko Schmidt
Music: Recording of Gabrielle Roth’s Voice directing her Five Rhythms class

VOGUING (World Premiere)
Choreographed by Joanna McLeod and Emanuel Sandhu
Performed by Emanuel Sandhu
Special advising by Cesar Valentino

JULIET (World Premiere)
Choreographed by Milly Wasserman
Performed by the Junior Ensemble consisting of Georgina Blackwell, Ciara Flaherty, Electra Scheiner, Chris Tenzin, Megumi Tsutsumi, and Milly Wasserman
Music: “Come, Gentle Night” by Abel Korzeniowski

AFTERNOON OF A FAUN
Choreographed and performed by Mauro Bruni
Music: “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” by Claude Debussy

RHYTHM DANCE
Choreography by Joel Dear
Performed by Oona and Gage Brown
Music by Kool Moe Dee

SCHOOL FIGURES
A Moira North and Elee Kraljii Gardiner collaboration
Performed by Sarah France, Kate Mangiardi, and Mauro Bruni
Poem read from “Serpentine Loop” by Elee Kraljii Gardiner

TAKE FIVE
Choreography by Eliot Halverson
Performed by Armen Agaian or Danil Bernikov
Music by saxophonist Paul Desmond, arr. Dave Brubeck, and performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Program and performers subject to change.

The gala, following the performance, will also feature cocktails, dinner, and an award ceremony. This year’s gala will honor Olympic ice dance champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and present an Ice Angel Award to Betty Wasserman, as well as Alumni Awards to Darlene Parent and Wade Corbett. The gala is co-chaired by Olympic coaches Brian Order and Tracy Wilson.

“We are thrilled to be honoring Jayne and Christopher at our 35th Anniversary Gala, not only for their breathtakingly original – and sport-changing – Olympic Gold Medal performance (followed by many others), but also for their continuing, always highly creative contributions to our skating world, most recently the acclaimed television series, Dancing on Ice,” said ITNY Founder and Artistic Director, Moira North.

About Ice Theatre of New York
Founded by Moira North, ITNY’s mission is to celebrate and advance dance on ice as a performance art. Through its performances in both traditional and site-specific venues, ITNY presents ice dance that helps to open one’s eyes to seeing skating in new and unexpected ways. ITNY was the very first ice dance company to receive dance program funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. www.icetheatre.org ITNY is also supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and NYC Council Member Mark Levine and by Dance/NYC’S Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund. Additionally, ITNY receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Lisa McGraw Figure Skating Foundation, the Will Sears Foundation, and its generous private patrons.

MOIRA NORTH (Founder/Artistic Director)—Named one of the 25 Most Influential Names in Figure Skating by International Figure Skating Magazine, Moira has been a driving force in the development of figure skating as a performing art. Since founding ITNY in 1984, she has developed ITNY’s professional ice dance ensemble, has commissioned renowned dance choreographers to make new works for the company, has worked to integrate contemporary dance into ice dance, and has inspired the founding of dance companies on ice in other cities.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
For biographies of our performers, please go to https://icetheatre.org/performers.html

ABOUT THE HONOREES
JAYNE TORVILL AND CHRISTOPHER DEAN are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic and World champions. At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single program, receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge, after skating to Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. The pair turned professional following the 1984 World Championships, regaining amateur status briefly ten years later in 1994 to compete in the Olympics once again. The pair retired from competitive skating for good in 1998 when they toured one last time with their own show, Ice Adventures, before rejoining Stars on Ice for one more season. Although remaining close friends, the pair did not skate together again until they were enticed out of retirement to take part in ITV’s Dancing on Ice, which they host till today. Their career was portrayed in the 2018 biographical film Torvill & Dean. Both are from Nottingham, England. Chris Dean is a very sought-after choreographer for competitive skaters and ice artists.