The tenth-anniversary tour for Ice Dance International is a celebration of the infinite possibilities of figure skating. Titled “Soar”, the show challenges audiences to reconsider what is possible for figure skating as an art form outside the confines of disciplines and judging. It is fitting, therefore, that this show also gives US audiences their first opportunity to see Olympic Champion Gabriella Papadakis perform as she explores her career after the end of her competitive partnership.
Beyond Papadakis, the cast features two-time US Champion Alissa Czisny and renowned choreographer Rohene Ward alongside US ice dancers Oona and Gage Brown and IDI regulars Kseniya Ponomorova and Collin Brubaker, Karina Manta, Ryan Dunk, and Jean Simon Légaré. The skaters of IDI come from a variety of competitive and professional backgrounds, but they share an interest in exploring skating in an ensemble.
“This is sort of our third generation of skaters with IDI,” noted IDI creative director Douglas Webster. “I keep wanting to grow the nuance of skating. I keep wanting to grow the development of what we call an ice dancer, that quality of skating. So I’m looking for people that can elevate their own level of nuance in their skating, their own ability to be diverse in their skating.”
Webster has choreographed for many major skating companies including Disney on Ice, Holiday on Ice, Stars on Ice, and the Sun Valley Ice Show, and was previously the artistic director of Ice Theatre of New York. In 2014, he founded Ice Dance International as a platform to explore ice dance as an art form.
“The biggest problem with skating, to me,” shared Webster, “is that they have combined artistry and sport, and I’m a believer that those two things don’t really go together. I think that they should be more separate…there could be these great opportunities to elevate the sport of skating and then also create opportunities to elevate the artistry of skating.”
The IDI style prioritizes what is fundamentally unique about skating: the glide over the ice. “When I hire a choreographer,” Webster explained, “I’m like, this has to maintain the flight and flow of skating. For me, that’s what this company represents. It’s that expansive energy that skating can provide. I’m okay if it becomes small and quiet in moments, but you gotta keep moving.”
This approach is beautifully displayed in “Soar”. The show is anchored by two new ensemble pieces, “Swarm”, choreographed by dance choreographer Garrett Smith, and “Emotional Seasons” by Rohene Ward.
“To me, “Soar” is the lifting of the spirit,” said Webster. “It is a sense of flight and flow. In Rohene’s piece, it’s that idea of the complex beginning, and then the rising out of the ashes, of the phoenix rising in the second piece. With ‘Swarm,’ it’s about that sense of movement and soaring energies and patterning. So I hope that the word also lifts people up to feel and to be moved by something in the work itself.”
‘Swarm’ is Garrett Smith’s first collaboration with Ice Dance International. Currently the resident choreographer for Vitacca Ballet in Barcelona, Smith has created and staged his choreography for some of the most elite dance companies in the world including Teatro Alla Scala, The Mariinsky Ballet, and The Bolshoi Ballet, amongst many others.
Webster reached out after seeing Smith’s dance work on Instagram. “He said that he felt like there was a connection between movement through space, and the way that ice dancers use movement in space,” explained Smith. “And he mentioned specifically my partner use, and that he was really interested in the fluidity and continuous aspect of partnering through the space and the flow. He felt like there was a connection between what I was doing and ice skaters – and that’s probably because he didn’t know that I’ve been inspired by a lot of ice skating pairs in my partnering work since probably like 2010, or maybe even earlier.”
Choreographing Swarm was an interesting challenge for both Smith and the skaters. “I think my approach to partnering, having five people partner at one time, is something they’re so not used to doing. But that was the whole reason we’re here, to do something different….I was happy to be that person, to open their minds a little bit and push creativity in a different way.”
The program was all choreographed on the ice, rather than starting in a studio. “Thank God I had those crampons!” laughed Smith. “I felt like I was on a freeway and I was the only one not in a car, or like I was in a sea of dolphins, and I’m the only one not swimming, because of just how fast they can move and the amount of space they can travel. I had to run with them, to continue giving the information, and I just wished I could skate so bad!”
One of the things that stands out in watching Swarm is the continuous movement of skaters across the 15-minute piece, creating eddies that slow but never fully stop.
“If you Google ‘swarm,’ the first thing that would come up is like a swarm of bees,” noted Smith. “But if you continue looking at the different searches, it talks about bodies moving as one. I feel like people get this negative connotation with the word, but something about it doesn’t feel negative to me. It feels like the idea of swarming together. It can be like bees, but that’s just the nature of how they fly. They’re not mad or angry. They are swarming in their nature from location to location, but they’re moving as one…I am interested in this idea of clusters and bodies entering and exiting and shapes morphing and building. With ice, I just felt like that translates so well.”
When Smith worked previously with competitive ice dancers, in a collaboration with Matteo Zanni, he felt like he didn’t fully embrace the potential of the rink. “My goal for myself with this piece was to use space. I’m not used to covering triple the amount of length, so I feel like I did much better with that this time.”
Webster noted that there is an advantage to working with a choreographer who isn’t focused on the specific vocabulary of skating elements.
“I think it’s very interesting that there’s hardly any turns or anything in Garrett’s piece. It’s just skating. And you don’t really notice, you’re not like, ‘Oh, I’m missing the counter there, I wish that there was a bracket.’ That’s what’s so wonderful about skating, it’s about the glide. I think that one of the problems with the judging system is it’s so step-driven, and I think what people truly are missing is that moment where you can just glide and do an arabesque, or hang out in a spin for an extended period of time and have breath around your skating. I think people are exhausted watching skating.”
Smith noticed that working with skaters differed from working with dancers. “I feel like a lot of the skaters limit themselves when they’re actually capable of so much more. They’re like, ‘Oh, I only partner, oh, I don’t do lifts, I’m only a solo skater. I only do tricks. Oh, I don’t jump anymore.’ Everyone has their strengths, but then they limit themselves….I think that it would be beautiful to see something in the future where children or young teens are a part of companies like this, and I’m just surprised there aren’t more things like IDI that are present from a younger age, because, in ballet companies, dance companies, people train as kids, but then they get put into shows at a young age. And so being a part of a creative experience is not something uncomfortable to step into.”
The other major new work in Soar is “Emotional Seasons”, an ambitious piece that closes the second act. “Emotional Seasons” is accompanied by the description: “Through chaos and darkness, there is light, renewal and rebirth. With healing, our spirit fills with hope.”
In this piece, we see a time of chaos, confusion, and pain. In the transitional moment as skaters leave the ice, the music is replaced by howling winds, and what sounds like the crashing of icebergs. Then, one by one, the skaters return, dressed in the colors of spring. Starting from lying on the ice, the skaters slowly uncurl, rise, and bloom. The partnering in this section is incredible, with Ward and Manta lifted above groups of skaters, and four skaters at a time using spirals and spread eagles to fill the ice. These elements, more familiar to synchro audiences, also take on new life within the storytelling of the piece.
The entirety of “Soar” is a cornucopia of riches, from the restaging of Webster’s incredible ensemble number “In the Light,” to the solo pieces by Ward, Czisny, and and Ponomaryova/Brubaker.
Papadakis’ solo, “Babylon”, shows heart-breaking vulnerability and strength. She writes about the piece: “I wanted to explore the weight of ruins. What lingers after collapse. I move through remnants of a world that shaped me but was never mine to hold. I’ve asked myself: what do we do with the remains of something I never thought would fall? In the meantime, I’ve let myself dwell in the space between memory and erasure, while the dust quietly settles.”
Papadakis emerges out of the cluster of skaters at the conclusion of “Swarm” and as she finishes her number, she weaves through the ensemble taking to the ice for “Experience”. This seamless transition allows her to shine alone on the ice while being enfolded and supported by the cast before and after. It felt like a symbol of what Papadakis’ fans want for her: the space to explore her own artistry and the support of a loving community around her.
I first saw the premiere of Swarm and Emotional Seasons in Portland, Maine in the fall of 2024, shortly after Smith, Ward, and the IDI cast had spent two weeks in intensive choreography. I saw the production of “Soar” in Dover, New Hampshire on the third night of the tour, and could appreciate how the pieces had grown and changed – and how they encapsulate the spirit of what Ice Dance International hopes to achieve.
Webster is now based at the Piscataquis County Arena in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, a fairly remote location, but one that allows him to have the kind of dedicated ice time that IDI’s work requires. The company met there again in the lead-up to the spring tour, and dedicated time to choreography and to learning the immense demands of IDI’s repertoire.
Webster acknowledged that for most skating tours, building a show over two or three weeks of dedicated work has become an unheard-of luxury. “But that’s just how it has to be, it’s like a dance company. You have to rehearse and you have to be a company. It’s costly, so people don’t do it. But these things are imperative to me, that we rehearse on private ice, and that we’re working together, and that we have extended rehearsals where we can develop the work.”
Smith agreed that the process of building the work was special. “I felt a really great sense of connection to a lot of the skaters outside. It was like we were camping in the cabin while creating art. Doug is a really amazing person in what he’s doing. He’s so so giving. I was just happy to bring something new to this world and that I felt like it was successful and I’m happy to see this continue on with more audiences. I hope maybe one day we can add lighting to it and put it in a real theatrical sense.”
Webster is eager for figure skating to be taken seriously as a performing art but notes that it can be difficult to build a crossover audience.
“I just think people don’t know what to do with skating. And it’s true, it’s like the environment too of going to an ice rink is just so dismal. And sometimes we might have a small audience, but in a 200-seat theater, it wouldn’t look so small, right? But when you’re in an 800-to-1000-seat hockey rink, yeah, it looks like no one’s there.”
“Soar” deserves the full theatrical lighting and staging, something that is difficult to achieve in the standard ice rink, and certainly not without a much more expensive tour.
Having just seen Art on Ice, I kept imagining what would be possible if a fraction of that show’s production budget could be paired with the choreographic ambition of Ice Dance International.
But if you get the chance to see “Soar”, ignore the “dismal” setting of the ice rink, and let the skating itself transport you.
“Soar” will visit fourteen cities in the United States in March. For more information and tickets, see https://icedanceinternational.org/
