Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) presents 2022 City Skate Pop Up Concerts on Tuesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 12:40 pm, in a winter series that concludes this week, at The Rink at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park. ITNY performers on the February 15 & 17 performances include ITNY Ensemble member, Theron James, Senior Men’s competitor and Canadian Performing Apprentice Aleksa Rakic, International Junior Ice Dance Competitors and ITNY Performing Apprentices Oona and Gage Brown, and Junior Ensemble Member Milly Wasserman. The events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit https://www.icetheatre.org/pop-up-winter-performances.html.

February 15 & 17, 2022 @ 12:40 pm at The Rink at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park
February 16 at The Rink at Rockefeller Center @ 3:20 pm
*Program subject to change

Making his New York City debut, Aleksa Rakic will skate two (2) New York premieres choreographed by Joanne Mcleod, World & Olympic Coach and Director of Champs International Skating Centre in Vancouver, BC, and presented through ITNY: 

Only the Winds features music by Olafur Arnalds and will appear both Tuesday and Thursday, the 15th and 17th at Bank of America Winter Village in Bryant Park. “When one is carried by wind it can be exhilarating, but if wind is against us it becomes a force of challenge. Sometimes life just works in such a way, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” 

Somebody You Loved will premiere at The Rink at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday, February 16, at 3:20 pm.

Composer Lewis Capaldi created the score for Somebody You Loved in memory of his grandmother lost during the pandemic, an experience he shares with the young performer whose mother flew from Vancouver to Belgrade, Serbia during lockdown to be with her mom on her last days of her life. 

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February 15 Performances at Bryant Park, 12:40 pm:

When Atoms Embrace
Performer: Liz Yoshiko Schmidt
Choreographer and Costume Designer: Lorna Brown 
Music: Arvo Pärt

Don’t Rain on My Parade
Performer/choreographer: Milly Wasserman
Music: Bob Merrill and Jule Styne

Only the Winds
Performer: Aleksa Rakic
Choreographer: Joanne Mcleod (assisted by Neil Wilson)
Music: Olafur Arnalds with spoken word by Hugo Chouinard

February 16 Performance at The Rink at Rockefeller Center, 3:20 pm:

Somebody You Loved
Performer: Aleksa Rakic 
Choreographer: Joanne Mcleod 

February 17 Performances at Bryant Park, 12:40 pm:

Only the Winds
Performer: Aleksa Rakic
Choreographer: Joanne Mcleod (assisted by Neil Wilson)
Music: Olafur Arnalds with spoken word by Hugo Chouinard

Rhythm Dance
Performers: Oona and Gage Brown International Junior Ice Dance Competitors and Performing Apprentices with ITNY
Choreographer: Joel Dear
Music: Kool Moe Dee

Right Place Wrong Time
In honor of Black History Month
Performer/choreographer/costumer: Theron James
Music: Mac Rebennack (Dr. John)

This season, ITNY will also be performing at The Rink at Rockefeller Center, Wollman Rink in Central Park, Riverbank State Park, Brookfield Place, Governor’s Island, and Lefrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park.

About ITNY and its Performers
Oona and Gage Brown, a sister and brother ice dance team from Long Island, NY, have been skating together for six years and became silver medalists at the 2021 U.S. Junior National Ice Dance Championships. Representing Team USA in numerous international competitions, they earned the silver medal at their second Junior Grand Prix of the season, in Linz, Austria. This placement won them a spot at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Osaka, Japan. They have been training with coaches Inese Bucevica and ITNY choreographer Joel Dear for over two years and have performed with Ice Theatre of New York, Inc. ® regularly over the last five years. They’ve recently worked with On Ice Perspectives at beautiful Bryant Park Ice Rink and received much love and recognition for the resulting video of their Metallica Free Dance, which has gone viral.

Theron James (TJ) made his ITNY debut in the 2019 City Skate Concert Series with over 10 years international coaching experience under his belt. Having competed on the national level, TJ joined his first touring ice show in 2009, and has appeared in multiple professional companies including those of Holiday On Ice, Disney On Ice, and Royal Caribbean. A Middletown, CT, native now a NYC artist, Theron – nicknamed TJ – began figure skating at age 12 after his mom won a raffle at his brother’s middle school auction for lessons at the local ice arena. 

Aleksa Rakic, 17 years old, hails from Burnaby, British Columbia and is coached by Joanne Mcleod and Neil Wilson at the Champs International Skating Centre of BC. He is a three-time ISU medalist for Canada, a Petro Can Scholarship recipient, and a former Dance Arts Umbrella Student. He was a 2018 Novice Canadian Challenge Champion, the first-place Junior Canadian Champion in 2019, fourth place in the 2020 Youth Olympics for Canada, second place in the 2022 Senior Canadian Challenge, and eighth place in the 2022 Senior Canadian Nationals. 

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

Milly Wasserman started skating at age 8 and has been competing for 9 years as a high level national ice dance competitor and show skater. When not performing as an active member and leading apprentice of the Ice Theatre of New York’s Junior Ensemble where she has appeared as apprentice soloist in ITNY’s Home Season since 2015, she travels as a competitor for US Figure Skating’s Solo Dance Series. She finished top two at all 8 Solo dance competitions she entered in 2019. 

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. 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.