TRUE NORTH: Ice Theatre of New York and Moira North
Winter 2002, Vol.2, Issue 1TRUE NORTH: Ice Theatre of New York and Moira North
Allow your mind to conjure up words like energy, commitment, physicality and vision. They are essential ingredients necessary to succeed, and they all play a role in the existence of the Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY).The driving force behind the ice dance company is Canadian Moria North, "and many number of skaters who yearned for an opportunity to voice their individual talents and voices in a noncommercial way." North relocated to New York where she co-directed a skating program at Sky Rink. She finds New Yorkers to be receptive to new ideas by not limiting artists. However she explains that the ITNY had to hold up to scrutiny before receiving the mark of approval.
Proving one's worth and value comes with hard work, perseverance and style: qualities that Moira North possessed when she marketed her enterprise as a dance company. The skating community didn't know quite how to view this new application of their sport. Were they dancers trying to be skaters or skaters trying to be dancers? Luckily for Moira North, the famed Olympic champion, John Curry, paved the way with his Broadway skating show in 1978. He parlayed his 1976 Olympic triumph into a career that dared the skating community to limit his artistic application of the sport. As a result, his vision lives on in the Ice Theatre of New York.
It was a vision that focused on the art of dance rather than the exclusive sport that skating had become. To move into the mainstream it would take capital, and, without it, there was no chance for success. Much like a highly competitive skater needs funding, so, too, it was the case for ITNY.
When you're seeking capital, it is one thing to be John Curry, a proven Olympic figure who created a dance theatre. It is quite another thing to be Moira North without a title or world renown. Moira had to show the dance community that she had talent, vision, and stamina to survive.
Financing was not any easier to come by then, than it is now. Initially, North incorporated as a non profit. Later, she applied for grants from the National Endowment of the Arts as a dance company. There were commissions that followed for dance choreographers and marketing efforts to develop a larger audience. She had to showcase her work in order to prove to the NEA that there was an audience for her art.
"As and arts organization, they (NEA) want to see that your work is creating a fresh vision: that it's not something they've already seen, that it's something enlightening in some way or another. It doesn't have to be entirely avant-garde by any means," says North. The work does have to be recognized in order to make future grants and endowments viable considerations.
One such opportunity for recognition came when International Figure Skating magazine honored North in 1998 as on of the twenty-five most influential personalities in figure skating. She shares the honor with ITNY for being the oldest company of it's kind in America. As for other awards, Moira sees each grant the company receives as an award.
North is particularly proud of the ITNY's involvement in another state program, Sports and Arts in Schools, which funds ITNY'S participation in the outreach program for inner city school children. "We're (ITNY) great because we fall into both categories," says the duality of sport and art that skating represents. The company tours the New York area, state-run arena, performing concerts during the ten to twelve-week operating season. Immediately following there are dance classes conducted both on and off the ice led by the companies ensemble. "They're basically a ballet class on ice," she continues. The class is based on the company's Plie' Power and Ice Theatre concepts that serve as the foundation of the dance company's repertoire.
Another such program is the New Works and Young Artists series in which the company performs free concerts at Riverbank State Park in Harlem. School children from Washington Heights and Harlem are bused in to watch the concert and then participate in the free clinic that follows. This program also provides and opportunity for young choreographers within the company to show work that might not be a part of the main company's repertoire. It also affords young competitive skaters, within the tri-state area, an opportunity to perform with ITNY, giving them exposure to the company and to the public while sharpening their performing skills.
Moira North is sharpening her own skills in seeking further funding from other sources. They include the New York State Council on the Arts and the Department of Cultural Affairs, both of which have given grants to ITNY in the past to pursue their vision. Added to this list is the increasing number of private donors who lend their support.
" We have more individual supporters instead of being this band of eccentric skating pros from Sky Rink," says North in her own accepting and endearing tone. The company's new fans delight in Moira's vision. It's a vision she shares with approximately eight other such companies that have since developed in the U.S. and Canada. Not all of them survived. But when she speaks of her own survival in establishing ITNY, she is quick to point out that the effort is worth the investment. She is doing what she loves, and people continually support the company.
"People know that we're serious because they've watched the struggle, and they've seen this group of very unlikely candidates. This was not Scott Hamilton or Dorothy Hamill putting together a group of people. This is Moira North. Who?" she exclaims. In the early days there were no box office draws in her company that would entice the well-heeled. In a market such as New York, flooded with theatrical productions, performance companies, and experimental entertainment venues, the competition is fierce. North recalls that ITNY's first onlookers were street people. "That was our fan club at the time. They would come up (to Sky Rink) in the middle of the night because they knew we were there, and they would watch us skating," recalls Moira. It was the only time the company could get free ice for rehearsal, a price difficult to find in any city. Now, the company itself is the box office draw, but it doesn't command the lucrative bottom line of start-studded ice productions.
The Ice Theatre of New York is, "The non-Collins Tour," teases North referring to the Tom Collin's World Tour of Champions. North does not minimize other commercial venues as she delights in her own accomplishment. She embraces them. She began her professional career in Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice. These now combined companies produce Disney shows. North doesn't see herself as competing with these other entities.
"I would hope that the skating community and the dance community embraces what we're trying to achieve and what we have achieved, not think that it's a form that is competing with any other form," says North. It's, "another way of expressing themselves (ice theatres)," she continues. That is part of the attraction to her and what she hopes will encourage other ice theatres to follow suit. However she concedes that the pursuit is not an easy one.
"It's a tough life," she warns. "The advice I would give is, to first of all, not to expect to make a living right away and to be clear about the commitment and the sacrifices, to not be surprised by how hard it really is to work this way," Moira continues.
Her demeanor lightens as she shifts her attention to the joy she receives form her work in taking the Ice Theatre of New York to another level. "I think it would be important to ITNY to get to another level, to make funders in other communities really pay attention to young companies forming because then it would give a kind of substantial profile to the movement," says North.
This provides an exciting prospect for Moira North, who feels that furthering the movement is the real payoff. However, the main focus in North's professional world for the moment is tending to the affairs of ITNY, brewing up more skating magic to be shared with the skating and dance communities. She couldn't be happier.
