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Ice Dance International Wants to Reignite Fire Among Ice Skating Viewers
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

It was one of those only-in-Sun Valley moments.

America’s sweetheart and 1976 Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill was watching old film footage of Dick Button and Edward Villella—arguably America’s best known male skater and ballet dancer—in the Sun Valley Opera House.

A football field away, Isabella Boylston and some of the world’s best ballet dancers were practicing for a ballet performance that evening in the Sun Valley Pavilion. And some of America’s best skaters were warming up on the ice across the way.

A lot of history, star power and athleticism packed into tiny Sun Valley on a summer afternoon.

America—even the world—will get to see a glimpse of what was taking place that afternoon when American Public Television broadcasts a two-part special revolving around Ice Dance International. The show will be filmed in Sun Valley from 8 to midnight at the end of IDL’s 2017 residency Sept. 20-23.

“The World of Ice Dance International” produced by Susan Dangle is being filmed by local filmmakers Mark Oliver and Spencer Cordovano. Narrated by skaters JoJo Starbuck and Ryan Bradley, it will feature 20 ensemble skaters performing nine ballet-influenced ice dancing numbers choreographed by Villella and his Ice Dance International Co-Founder Douglas Webster and one choreographed by Benoit Richaud.

The three repertory pieces are Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade,” Philip Glass’ “In the Upper Room” and Dave Brubek’s “Take Five.”

The additional six pieces were built during IDL’s 2015 and 2016 residences in Sun Valley and include Villella’s “Visions of Emeralds,” Webster’s “Nocturnes,” “Spring Awakening,” “After the Rain,” “In the Light” and the popular “Three Smokers!”

It will also be interspersed with documentary-style footage offering the history of ensemble skating as an art form and cameo appearances by such skating stars as Button and his “The Art of Figure Skating” exhibition.

“We’ll also talk about the joy of working in Sun Valley,” said Webster, noting that the humor-laced talk featuring Hamill and Villella in the Opera House was taped.

This is IDL’s third residency in Sun Valley. They’re hoping the public TV piece will give the company and its new approach to skating more visibility.

It couldn’t come at a better time.

Although ice skating is hot in China and South Korea, viewership of ice skating is at a low in the United States and Europe. There is no televised figure skating shows slated this year.

Webster hopes the TV shows will introduce the public to the new, artistic beauty and elegance Ice Dance International Brings to the ice.

Ice Dance International goes the demand of jumps and tricks to present skaters moving together as a group. Its shows are very different from single and pairs skating.

“Ice skaters get so focused on technique they sometimes forget about the power of gesture, of looking into someone’s eyes, of establishing a relationship,” said Webster. “We focus on the presentation of arms, what’s beautiful and pure. Everything has meaning.

“We craft each piece from beginning to end to take audiences on a journey. And we hope they come away from the experience moved by the beauty and moved by the flow. We are not trying to win medals. We’re trying to make people feel and see the beauty of ice skating.”

“It’s a whole new way of communicating,” added Villella’s wife Linda Carbonetto, a former Canadian Olympic figure skater.

The skaters, who are practicing mornings and late afternoons at Sun Valley’s outdoor ice rink, joined supporters for a cocktail party at an Elkhorn home last week to raise $140,000 to help fund the upcoming show.

Many of Sun Valley’s skaters, including those who participated in Sun Valley’s summer ice shows, came out.

“The unique thing about skaters is that they’re a family, unlike so many other sports,” said Ketchum resident Jodie Hunt, who still works at skating four decades after she began.

“My best friends at 11 are still my very best friends. And it had to be that way because we spent every Saturday skating from 9 in the morning into the evening. I’d go on the ice, sit awhile, then go back, as my mother sat there knitting sweaters. That was my life.”

Even Dorothy Hamill got into the bidding war for a painting featuring Sun Valley on Ice skater Erin Reed.

She tearfully voiced a tribute to IDL Co-Founder Debbie Gordon, who had waxed eloquently about the simplicity, movement and beauty in IDL’s performances.

“It’s taking ice dancing to a level I always thought it could be—a level that’s exceptional. It’s almost like a ballet on ice,” said Gordon, who passed away this past year.

IDL is dedicating the upcoming TV show and this year’s residency to Gordon and to Marilyn Kasputys, a Sun Valley resident, passionate ice dancer and longtime supporter of IDL who passed away in February.

“Marilyn invited elegance and class in everything she did. And so we’re honored to dedicate this to her,” said Stephanee Grosscup, who helps choreography Sun Valley on Ice.

Dorothy Hamill recounted some of her fondest memories in her animated way, waving her hands in the air, cocking her head from one side to the other and making expressive faces as she described winning Olympic gold.

“There was nothing more joyous than winning for your country, especially during the Cold War,” she said. “I thought it would be like a magic light switch would go on and I’d feel like an Olympic champion and everything would be easy from then on. But the transition from amateur to professional was difficult.”

Sun Valley skater Lisa-Marie Allen was with Hamill, who had developed the ”Hamill camel--a camel spin that turns into the sit spin. The two skated across the country during the mid-1970s on a George Gershwin tour as part of Ice Capades.

“Dorothy was the glue that held the show together,” recalled Allen. “We both had our kids with us. Hers were totally into sushi and mine wouldn’t touch it.”

Ballet dancer Ty Angle, in town to dance in the Ballet Sun Valley Festival, praised Villella who joined the New York City Ballet in 1957 and founded Miami City Ballet.

“You found poetry in every step. It’s that attention to detail that makes all the difference. How do you get my generation to do that?” he asked.

Practices are open to the public. And Ice Dance International hopes to open the TV taping to the public as it nears the end of its residency on Sept. 22 and 23. For more information, go to www.IceDanceInternational.org.

WHO ARE THE DANCERS?

Ryan Bradley, U.S. men’s champion; Brent Bommentre, U.S. medalist; Jean-Luc Baker, 2018 internationally ranked competitor; Todd Gilles, U.S. junior champion; Kaitlin Hawayek, 2018 internationally ranked competitor; Beata Handra, Olympian; Naomi Lang, five-time U.S. champion; Kim Navarro, U.S. medalist, and Erin Reed, U.S. medalist.

Also: Mauro Bruni, Jordan Cowan, Joel Dear, Carly Donowick, Lauren Farr, Jonathan Hunt, Ian Lorello, Anastasia Olson and Neill Shelton.

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