Ice Theatre Of New York to Present Edge Class Wednesdays Through March 23, 2022

Ice Theatre of New York will present Edge Class on Wednesdays at 1:30pm, January 12, 2022 through March 23, 2022 at Sky Rink, Chelsea Piers, NY. The 11 consecutive sessions are $165 and drop-in classes are $20. To register, please click here: https://icetheatre.org/tickets.html.

Taught by ITNY Ensemble Director, Elisa Angeli, the Edge Class allows adult figure skaters to hone their skating skills in a 50-minute session set to music, followed by an additional 15 minutes of free skating. Skaters must be proficient in their forward and backward skating with speed, able to do forward outside/inside three turns, and forward inside mohawks. Classes begin with simple exercises, then moves on to more complex patterns and ensemble skating - "birding" - exercises. Class will be taught by our Ensemble Director, Elisa Angeli or guest ITNY teacher.

Please note that if you are looking for an instructional class, you may want to take ITNY's Tuesday Adult Edge class by our performer, Sarah France, at City Ice Pavilion. Click here for more information.

Developed by Olympic Champion John Curry as a daily class for his skating company, the format is now used to teach the Ice Theatre Ensemble and guest skaters. The classes' on-ice format is similar to that of a dance class with a large group lesson being taught to music. Participants perform a sequence of steps ranging from basic to advanced difficulty. Sequences are then performed in small groups to develop spatial sensitivity among skaters and to facilitate flow on open freestyle sessions. The basic material may be incorporated into skaters' daily warm-up routines while more advanced sequences may be modified for use in programming.

Mastery of the edges is the key to skating. The skater of the future will be the one who combines the athleticism of the triple/quadruple jump with the artistry that comes only through the mastery of the edges. Jumps and flying spins are energetic developments of edges and turns that are performed on the surface of the ice. Balance on these basic edges and turns not only facilitate athleticism but also are inseparable from artistry.

In the ITNY edge classes, skaters gain a repertory of exercises designed to develop skills necessary for accomplishing the athletic elements of skating. These exercises help create the freedom of ice movement essential to style. The classes focus in-depth on these basics:

• Grounded knee bend (Plié)

• Dynamic placement of the free leg

• Twisting and the use of the arms to shape space

• Full use of the eyes for balance and style

Through full and proper use of the body, skaters come in contact with their basic strengths and ultimately discover their own unique ice personalities.

In accordance with Key to NYC rules, everyone twelve years old and older are required to show identification and proof of vaccination upon entry to Sky Rink and remain masked in all common areas, including on the ice.

Sign up ahead of time with this link: Chelsea Piers VaccineVerification. Latest update from Sky Rink is that everyone has to be masked in the common areas and on the ice.

Elisa Angeli (Ensemble Director) is an Italian ice dancer with recognition from the Italian Federation for Ice Skating, who studied Ballet with Ludmilla Vlassova (Bolshoi) and Giovanna Franzosi in Milan, and with Christine Wright at the Gibney Dance Center. She also studied Modern and Contemporary Dance at the Open Dance Center, New York, and at the Music, Art and Shows School, Milan. She studied Aerial Silks at the Streb Lab and at the Trapeze School in New York. Elisa had several years of contortion and extreme flexibility classes with J. Noan and O. Karmansky. Her expertise as a circus arts specialist allows Elisa to bring a unique element of excitement when skating as a principal performer and aerialist with ITNY. In 2009, Elisa participated with Ice Theatre of New York at the Premiere of "Wintuk" by Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Garden. In Italy, she was an aerialist with the tour "Italian Champions on Ice," with Ghiaccio Spettacolo, and performed in Munich with Spotlight Productions. Elisa has been with ITNY since 2008, and was on ITNY's 2008 tour in France. In 2015 she became ITNY's Ensemble Director. Elisa also works with Cirque-tacular Entertainment as an aerialist (since 2014), with which she performed in the show "The Art of Circus" in September 2016.

Guest teachers

Sarah France originally comes from Pittsburgh, PA, but now resides in New York City. Since 1998 Sarah has been an ice dance coach and choreographer working with Regional, Sectional, National and International competitors across all skating disciplines at Shattuck St. Mary's in Minnesota and she currently is a faculty-member-at-large. Before taking the ice, Sarah started her love of movement studying ballet and eventually transitioned to performing professionally in modern dance and several other disciplines as well as skating and teaching. Sarah is a five-time US Open Professional Figure Skating Championships competitor, US Figure Skating triple gold medalist, and national ice dance competitor. She is honored and excited to be performing with ITNY, having followed Ice Theatre of New York since she was inspired by it as a young skater herself. Sarah debuted with ITNY in the spring of 2019. Sarah is currently the Director of Skating at City Ice Pavilion in Long Island City.

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

This program is supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo 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.