STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Ballet Icon Edward Villella will offer a live conversation with Olympic champion ice skater Dorothy Hamill next week in something called “Words on Dance.”
Villella will engage Hamill at 12:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at the Sun Valley Opera House. A post-show reception will follow at 2 p.m.
He will also talk with New York City Ballet Principal Tyler Angle at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, at Ketchum’s Community Library. During that time he will also introduce Ice Dance International with Douglas Webster, the choreographer for Ice Dance International.
Villella will talk about his own life as an American dancer who paved the way for generations of male ballet dancers during Wednesday’s talk. Villella, who trained at the School for American Ballet under George Balanchine, has garnered every possible award in the arts, including a Kennedy Center honor.
He co-founded Ice Dance International, along with his wife Linda, who is a Canadian figure skating champion, and Dick Button, Debbie Gordon and Douglas Webster.
The conversations are free to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. And they will include historical video.
Dorothy Hamill won a gold medal in figure skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. She is credited with developing a camel spin that turns into a sit spin. She later became an Ice Capades headliner and more recently appeared on “Dancing with the Stars.” Even today, she is considered one of the most popular athletes in America.
Words on Dance is in its 24th season. Ice Dance International has spent the past couple years in Sun Valley, rehearsing a show it takes on the road.