Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) presents 2022 City Skate Pop Up Concerts on Tuesdays and Thursdays from January 11 through February 17, 2022 at 12:40pm at The Rink at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park. ITNY performers include Olympian Kaitlyn Weaver, ITNY Ensemble members Armen Agaian, Danil Berdnikov, Sarah France, Valerie Levine, Liz Schmidt, and young ice dance apprentices Oona and Gage Brown. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit https://www.icetheatre.org/pop-up-winter-performances.html.

 

Arctic Memory

Choreographer: Jody Sperling 

Performer: Valerie Levine

Music: Brooks Williams & Beo Morales

Arctic Memory, by award-winning dancer/choreographer Jody Sperling, is an environmentally conscious creation. Arctic Memory had its genesis in a 43-day polar science mission north of the Arctic Circle in which Ms. Sperling was the first, and to date only choreographer-in-residence aboard a US Coast Guard icebreaker. ITNY Artistic Director, Moira North, commissioned Jody to take this choreography onto the ice with ice dancer Valerie Levine. Valerie wears a cape hand-painted with the image of fissures in Arctic sea ice, the dancer's movements suggesting a time-lapse series of floes moving and melting. Music composed by Brooks Williams & Beo Morales. Having brought the legacy of pioneering dancer Loie Fuller into the 21st century, she currently focuses on using visual-kinetic narratives to connect choreography and climate science.

 

I Feel The Earth

Choreographer and Performer: Kaitlyn Weaver

Music: Carole King

ITNY commissioned Kaitlyn Weaver to create this piece for its streaming broadcast Pivoting Through The Pandemic in May 2021. This piece was created under strict COVID rules in an empty arena and was made possible by the generous support of the Will Sears Fund.

 

Imagine

Choreographer and Performer: Kate Mangiardi

Music: John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Kate Mangiardi in a demonstration of fancy figures into graceful edge movements to the music of "Imagine" composed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono and recorded by Eva Cassidy.

 

I Will Fall For You

Choreography and Performer: Sarah France

Music: Woodkid

Journey Through The Snow

Choreographers: Gia and Akop Akopian

Performers: Jessica Huot and Conor Wagar

 

Take Five

Choreographer: Eliot Halverson

Music: Dave Brubeck

Performers: Armen Agaian or Danil Berdnikov

ITNY former performer and current choreographer, Eliot Halverson, created Take Five for Armen Agaian to show off his ice dancing skills.

 

When Atoms Embrace

Choreographer and Costumes: Lorna Brown 

Music: "Spiegel im Spiegel" by Arvo Pärt

Performer: Liz Schmidt 

 

When Atoms Embrace is an acclaimed solo choreographed and costumed by original John Curry Theatre of Skating member, Lorna Brown. Ms. Brown is an artist with a deep interest and knowledge in science. The piece is set to Music by Arvo Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel" and was inspired by a poem Ms. Brown wrote herself: She comes to us in blue and lavender light which shines on us all to give mankind energy and love and to help and heal our planet. Lay me in a field of wildflowers, let the scent perfume the hours. When The Atoms embrace and time changes pace, I find my magical powers." Performed 10 times at the ITNY Home Season and Gala at Sky Rink Chelsea Piers as well as Rockefeller Center, by Liz Schmidt, Sarah France and once by apprentice performer, Sarah Baetge. 

 

Right Place, Wrong Time

Choreographer and Performer: Theron James

Music: Dr. John

 

Junior Free Dance

Choreographer: Joel Deal

Performers: Oona and Gage Brown

Oona and Gage just won the silver medal at the Junior Grand Prix in Linz, Austria. They are the current US Silver Medalists in Junior Ice Dance. They are coached by Joel Dear and Inese Bucevica.

 

Ella Bauer, Junior Apprentice

Choreographer: Kaitlin Weaver

Performer: Ella Bauer

Ella will perform "Home Alone," coached by Tanya Douglas.

 

This season, ITNY will also be performing at The Rink at Rockefeller Center, Riverbank State Park, and Lefrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park.

 

About the Performers

Armen Agaian has been ice skating since 2002. Armen was a 5-time National Champion in Georgia and participated in the Junior World Championships three times. He has also participated in the 2013 Youth Olympic games, the Junior Grand Prix (2012-2015) and 2016 European Championships. Armen is now a skating coach in New York and is thrilled to have been a part of Ice Theatre of New York® since 2018.

 

Oona and Gage Brown are a sister and brother ice dance team from Long Island, New York, who have been skating together for six years. They are the 2021 U.S. junior national ice dance silver medalists. They represent Team USA and have skated at numerous international competitions. Most recently, they skated in Linz, Austria, where they earned the silver medal at their second Junior Grand Prix of the season. This placement has earned them a spot at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Osaka, Japan (December 9th-December 12th)! They have been training with their coaches, Joel Dear (ITNY choreographer) and Inese Bucevica, for over two years. They have also performed with Ice Theatre of New York a multitude of times over the last five years. Recently they've worked with On Ice Perspectives at The Rink at Bryant Park and received much love and recognition for the resulting video of their Metallica Free Dance, now at 18 million views!

 

Valerie Levine has been dancing tap, jazz and ballet since she was 4 years of age and started roller-skating at that time. After begging her parents for figure skating lessons, she started training at 11. She auditioned for Disney On Ice during high school and was accepted but decided to get her bachelor's degree in college first. She went on to get her Senior Ladies Moves and Pre-golds in ice dance by 19 and skated as an ice girl for the NHL teams the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders during those years. She furthered her dance knowledge while in college getting her bachelor's degree in Product Management Textiles from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She minored in dance and trained at the Broadway Dance Center in many dance styles, which led her to her current career as a professional belly dancer, ballroom dancer, Brazilian samba dancer, fire performer and the like. Valerie has collaborated on ITNY events for the past decade. You can find out more about Valerie Levine on her website: Valerinadance.com 

 

Elizabeth (Liz) Schmidt is a Japanese/German American skater from Chicago, IL. She recently moved from San Francisco, CA to New York City. She is a U.S. Figure Skating Double Gold medalist in Freestyle and Moves in the Field, and a Silver medalist in Ice Dancing. Luscious edges, artistic dynamic movement, and traditional ice dancing informs her skating and professional career which began in 2013 at the age of 18, performing internationally in Germany and across the US. She received her Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2018, and she has exhibited work across the Bay Area. Liz has been skating with ITNY since 2017.

 

Kaitlyn Weaver - Empathetic communication—through sport, dance, public speaking, or charity—is Kaitlyn Weaver's passion and gift. As an athlete, she reached the highest honor of figure skating and competed for Canada at the Olympic Games, and thrice stood on the World podium with her long-time ice dance partner, Andrew Poje. Kaitlyn remains active in the professional skating world and uses her platform for advocacy while dividing her time between New York, NY and Toronto, ON. Post-competitive life finds this ambitious creative engaging in her skating community, participating in and initiating global fundraisers, and part-time coaching and choreography. Ice Theatre of New York, Inc. has commissioned Kaitlyn to create a new solo dance repertory piece for the Company, which she will choreograph and perform. 

 

Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park is popularly known as NYC's only free admission ice skating rink.  Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park is open daily through March 6, 2022 and in addition to The Rink, the annual winter event features fun, outdoor activities including delicious food and drink offerings at The Lodge by Prime Video, the Curling Café, Cozy Igloos by Prime Video and Bumper Cars on Ice. For more information, go to WinterVillage.org.

 

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

 

City Skate Pop-Up Concerts are supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. 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.