AIT Winter & Spring Updates 2023 | American Ice Theatre

Quest for Creativity Applications Open

Calling all choreographers age 21 & under:

Video submissions are now open and available for young artists to send in a video of their work to receive feedback from professional choreographers and potentially win a flight to CORE Camp in July!

APPLY TODAY

NEW SEASON OF YOUNG ARTISTS SHOWCASE

The 2023 Season of Young Artists Showcase began on Saturday, April 1 with Challenge 1 – The Star Challenge, where the choreographers will have their work exhibited by a star lineup of Olympic skaters: Rachael Flatt, Jeremy Abbott, Mae Berenice Meite, Ashley Wagner, Polina Edmunds, & Kaetlyn Osmond.

WATCH THE STAR CHALLENGE

The six finalists this season include:

TJ Carey, 23 years old from Hopkinton, Massachusetts

Auriane Collet, 25 years old from Sion, Switzerland

Alyssa Cross, 19 years old from Nova Scotia, Canada

Jimmy Morgan, 31 years old from Providence, RI

Sophia Perepelitsyn, 17 years old from Minnetonka, MN

Lison Zimmer, 26 years old from Alsace France

Jenn Edwards, Simone Grigorescu-Alexander, Katherine Hill & Ben Agosto round out our weekly judges and our special guest judges include Adam Rippon, Sandra Bezic, Sarah Kawahara, Doug Webster, David Wilson, Cindy Stuart, Adam Blake, Mark Hanretty, Pascale Camerlengo, and Phillip Mills.

These 6 Finalists were chosen by our YAS Selection Committee to participate in the five-week online choreography competition starting Saturday, April 1 on AIT’s YouTube and Facebook Live and continuing each Saturday through April.

Check out our YouTube playlist to catch all the action!

Watch Now

AIT performs at the world university games

AIT performed at the 2023 World University Games Opening Ceremonies on Thursday, January 12, 2023 streamed live on ESPN+ and filmed by Jordan Cowan of On Ice Perspectives.

Thank you to our skaters Danielle Endow, Jimmy Morgan, Chelsea Ridley, Jordan Bailey, Cameron Claire, Joey Millet, Garrett Kling, Sarah Wright, and Jacqueline Benson and choreographer, Kate McSwain. Special thanks to the production team Empire Productions and Michael Pena for all his direction and artistic vision.

AIT’s Annual Show: A NIGHT OF CONTEMPORARY SKATING

A Night of Contemporary Skating was held Saturday, December 10, 2022 at the Augsburg Arena in Minneapolis, MN. Artistic pieces from 5 of our satellites (AIT Boston, AIT Cleveland, AIT NYC, AIT MSP, and AIT Phoenix) were performed and filmed by Jordan Cowan of On Ice Perspectives as well as several soloists and professional contemporary skaters from around the country.

This event was paired with an AIT Master Class & Jam Skate in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. We are looking forward to hosting this event again next Fall for our 20th Anniversary Celebration!

Also — thank you to everyone for their donations for the silent auction; we are so grateful to you all for your support.

Photo credits: @oniceperspectives and @carolineburnettt

Take a look at these 2023 AIT Satellite Professional & Junior Company Performances on our American Ice Theatre YouTube Channel Playlist.

YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

sadie pressman graduates from mentorship program

Congratulations to Sadie Pressman who is our most recent graduate of the AIT Mentorship Program!

As part of Sadie’s mentorship program, they wrote a thesis project on improvisation techniques and its importance in daily life. For their research, Sadie created a five-day challenge based on improv-ing each day and journaling through the experience.

An excerpt of the thesis states, “Through this lens, I began to understand the complexities of improvisation and that it is a complex demonstration of split-second decisions made from a wealth of knowledge that is summoned upon demand during practice. Most impressively, this knowledge comes from the mind and body, making improvisational movement exercises a highly integrated mind, body, and soul experience.”

This AIT Mentorship Program is a customized, one-on-one, online course for skating choreographers with the chance to build their choreography skills, resources, teaching vocabulary, and skating network.

For more information on our Mentorship Program, please visit: https://americanicetheatre.org/…/opportunities…/

DEEP DIVE SERIES

Our 2023 Deep Dive Series will be an in-depth virtual choreography education program on tools when using improvisation to create and set choreography. Join us as we share tips and tricks to using improvisation to create interesting and creative choreography phrases, movements, and programs!

The 4 virtual sessions will run on Tuesdays from 8:30-10pm ET. The dates and themes of each class are:

March 14: Setting the Mood – Preparation for Improv
March 21: Improv with TIME & SPACE
April 4: Improv with ENERGY
April 18: Improv with FORM – How to Turn Improv into Choreo

If you missed some of the dates, don’t you worry! You can still purchase the recordings of all four sessions.

MCT GRADUATES Fall 2022

Congratulations to our graduates of the Fall 2022 Semester of Master Choreography Techniques (MCT)!

SUNDAY CLASS

Samantha Bartolotta from Romeo, MI, Kennedy Briggs from Cary, NC, Katarina Harbich from Calgary AB, Canada, Jimmy Morgan from Providence, RI, Giulia Paolino from Cleveland, OH, Abby Pierce from Peabody, MA, and Kathryn Vaughn from Las Vegas, NV.

TUESDAY CLASS

Andrea Boyes from Victoria, BC Canada, Shar-Narne Flowers from Raleigh, NC, Elise Little from Austin, TX, Alex Martin from Chicago IL, Angel Schofield from Williamsburg, VA, Caren Tackett from Boxford, MA, Sarah Wright from Minneapolis MN (Summer graduate).

Master Choreography Techniques (MCT) is an advanced online certification and training program for both seasoned skating coaches and those looking to specialize in a career as an ice choreographer. Created by AIT Founder Jodi Porter, the class is a mixture of choreographic creation, video lecture, reading and monthly discussion meetings. AIT Co-Executive Directors Garrett Kling & Kate McSwain lead the semester class.

At the end of the semester, each student creates a final capstone project incorporating the choreographic elements of time, space, energy and form.

View the graduates final video projects, get to know their background and hear their thoughts about the course.

MCT BLOG POST

AIT in ALASKA

The Alaska Association of Figure Skaters hosted AIT for a 2-day seminar in February. AIT Co-Executive Directors Kate McSwain & Garrett Kling alongside Sean Marshinski shared the ice with over 45 skaters learning movement tools, choreography, skating skills, and being our authentic selves on the ice.

ait in tampa

AIT Co-Executive Director, Kate McSwain, and AIT Boston Assistant Director, Jimmy Morgan, traveled to Tampa, Florida on March 4-6, 2023 to lead an American Ice Theatre seminar at the Clearwater Ice Arena. 40 skaters of all ages and levels joined in the fun, and we loved learning a new AIT combo to “All of My Love” by B-Ok & Destiny. We also learned new exercises for 6 Ways of the Spine and created some fun improvisation, group choreography scenarios together!

AIT Performs in france

Multiple AIT Satellite Professional Company Members performed at the Performing Arts Project hosted by the Contemporary Skating Alliance in Moneteau, France from November 5-7, 2022.

The Contemporary Skating Alliance organized its first in-person gathering! The Performing Arts Project was an international exchange between skating artists & companies across the globe including UNFREEZE Berlin, Ice Theatre of Stockholm, American Ice Theatre, Contemporary Skating Zurich, and Studio Maja. The Contemporary Skating Alliance is working to expand the vision that movement on the ice can be used in a more artistic, expressive, and research-focused approach.

Participating contemporary skating companies gathered at Patinoire CyberGlace in France to lead workshops exploring & sharing their philosophies, and a live performance was presented to local audiences and donors from across the globe.

AIT PERFORMS AT the DICK BUTTON artistic skating FESTIVAL

AIT performed The Collective Memory, at the Dick Button Artistic Skating Festival hosted by Paul Wylie and Lake Placid Legacy Sites in Lake Placid, NY.

What an honor to be performing alongside artistic skating leaders – Ice Theatre of New York, Ice Dance International, The Next Ice Age, World Figures, and Joy Skate Productions. Thank you all or your support & for sharing the ice with us!

Check out this full piece on our YouTube Channel — AIT Performances Playlist!

This piece was a collaboration between multiple AIT Satellite locations: Boston, NY, Cleveland & Phoenix. The choreography was by Kate McSwain and the performers include Jimmy Morgan, Jordan Bailey, Jacqueline Benson, Taylor Wismeg, Giulia Paolino, Toby Evett and Marissa Diaz. The video is filmed by Jordan Cowan of On Ice Perspectives.

AIT SatelliteS Update

AIT Minneapolis-St. Paul

AIT MSP had the honor of skating in the Ice Dance International tour stop in St. Paul, MN on Thursday, March 9, 2023. They performed their company piece “We Contain Multitudes” choreographed by Garrett Kling and performed by AIT MSP Assistant Directors Joey Millet & Cameron Claire and company members Haley Jostes, Elise Little, Sophia Pereplitsyn, and Emily Giese.

Mark Walentiny took beautiful photos throughout the event.

The AIT MSP crew has a couple more performances lined up this spring at the Norther Iowa Figure Skating Club April 14-15, 2023 and the Braemar Figure Skating Club Show on April 21-22, 2023.

The AIT MSP Winter Seminar was held at the St. Louis Park ROC on Sunday, February 12, 2023 with special guest artist, professional dancer Ruby Josephine Smith.

The Spring Seminar will be held Friday, April 28, 2023 at the TRIA Rink in St. Paul and will be AIT MSP Assistant Directors final seminar with us before he moves to California.

AIT CHICAGO

Chelsea Ridley was named as Assistant Director of AIT Chicago, alongside AIT Chicago Director Molly Poniatowksi. She will help assist in leading seminars, helping coordinate performance opportunities and help further engagement with the Chicago community. We are so grateful for Chelsea’s leadership and support!

The AIT Chicago Winter Seminar was held by AIT Chicago company members, Morgan Ratkovich and Rin Reikowski on Sunday, February 5, 2023 at the Southwest Ice Arena. The seminar focused on redefining skating skills with improvisation & exploring emotion through movement.

AIT Chicago’s Fall Seminar brought the rhythm of hip hop and the style of contemporary movement. With a seminar called “Art into Motion,” it was led by AIT Chicago Assistant Director Chelsea Ridley and AIT Chicago Director Molly Poniatowski. Special thanks to McFetridge Sports Center for hosting the seminar.

AIT CLEVELAND

The AIT Cleveland Spring Seminar will be an off-ice only seminar on Sunday, April 23, with guest artist Joyce Atherton, E-YRT. Joyce is a former competitive figure skater and is a registered teacher with the Yoga Alliance and is ERYT-200 certified. Joyce specializes in modern yoga, which uses a breath-based vinyasa yoga studio with infrared heat & steam to create an engaging experience for all the senses. This class will focus on alignments, movements & postures that improve strength, balance, and flexibility specifically for figure skaters.

AIT Cleveland Director, Elizabeth Misson was selected to take part in the GroundWorks Dance Theater Winter Intensive & she can’t wait to take new perspectives to her work on the ice.

As the intersection of contemporary dance and ice skating continue to develop, opportunities like this grow contemporary skating!

AIT BOSTON

AIT Boston Winter Seminar was held on Sunday, February 12, 2023 with Kate McSwain & Jimmy Morgan working on embracing our individuality and ability to thrive as strong humans.

AIT Boston’s Spring Seminar will be on Saturday, April 29, 2023 from 12:30-2:30 PM in Somerville! Registration will be available on the AIT Boston page soon.

The AIT Boston Professional Company will be doing a series of spring performances. See a list of locations & performances below:

Sunday, April 2 at 2:00pm | North Shore Figure Skating Club | Burbank Ice Arena (51 Symons Way, Reading, MA 01867)
Saturday, April 8 at 3:00pm | Wallace Figure Skating Club | Fitchburg Ice Arena (1000 John Fitch Hwy, Fitchburg, MA, 01420)
Saturday, April 29 at 5:00pm | Brandeis Skating Club | Babson Skating Center (150 Great Plain Ave, Wellesly, MA 02482)
Saturday, May 6 at 1:00pm & 6:00pm | Colonial Figure Skating Club (34 Massachusetts Ave, Boxborough, MA 01719)
Saturday, May 13 @ 6:00pm | Haverhill Figure Skating Club | Haverhill Valley Ice Forum (7 Parkridge Rd, Haverhill, MA 01835)
Sunday, June 11 at 6:30pm | American Contemporary Skating Festival Showcase | Warrior Ice Arena (90 Guest St, Brighton, MA 02135)

AIT NEW YORK CITY

The AIT NYC Winter Seminar was held at the World Ice Arena on Saturday, February 25. Guest Artist, Vashti Lonsdale led the seminar along with AIT NYC Director Jordan Bailey.

Vashti is an Australian choreographer, 2022 Young Artists Showcase Finalist, and the Creative Director of the Figure Skating in Harlem Annual Show.

The AIT NYC Spring Seminar will be held Saturday, April 22, 2023. Check back for registration details soon.

AIT NEW HAMPSHIRE

The AIT NH Fall Seminar was led by special guest artist, John Mucko leading skaters projection, intention, and energy and applied those concepts to some of the 6 Ways of the Spine exercises. Thank you everyone for coming and bringing so much openness to our exploration!

The AIT New Hampshire Winter Seminar called “Exploring the Glide” with Gillian Robidas and Johanna Geary took place on Sunday, January 22, 2023.

The AIT New Hampshire Spring Seminar will be led by AIT NH Director, Gillian Robidas and will consist of both an on-ice and off-ice portion. Off-ice will be from 2:15pm – 3:00pm and participants will do a warm up and improvisation exercises that explore the the role of play in enhancing creativity. Skaters will be on the ice from 3:10pm – 4:30pm and will focus on 6 Ways of the Spine, taking their off-ice improvisation to the ice, and learning a contemporary skating choreography combo.