40TH ANNIVERSARY BENEFIT GALA AND PERFORMANCE

ITNY's 40th Anniversary Benefit Gala and Performance took place on Monday, May 5th, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Co-Chairs: Taffy Holliday, Michel Mercure, and David Tewksbury

Performance, Cocktails, Dinner, and Award Ceremony.
The Lighthouse Chelsea Piers.

The Gala Performance featured the ITNY Ensemble, ITNY Performing Apprentices, and Guest Artist 2X World Champion Ilia Malinin! 

Check out our 40th Anniversary Benefit Gala Journal Below:

 

40th Anniversary Home Season Programming by Lynn Rutherford - Click Here to Read!

LARK ASCENDING (1989)
Choreography by Rob McBrien
Re-Staged by Sarah France
Music: Vaughan Williams
Performed by Sarah Baetge, Jacqueline Benson, Danil Berdnikov, Sarah France, Isaac Lindy, Karina Manta, Libby McGrosky, Liz Schmidt, and Aaron Singletary

“The simplest movements in skating can be the most beautiful and most meaningful ones. I think that the actual act of skating, which we call stroking, is one of the most refined and well-defined movements the human being can make. To some skaters this is only a means of transportation across the ice and a way of gaining speed and the momentum necessary to perform a jump. To me it has more meaning than that; to me it is infinitely more beautiful than running; and much more beautiful than dancing can ever be.” – John Curry

ARCTIC MEMORY (2017)
Choreography by Jody Sperling
Music: Brooks Williams and Beo Morales
Performed by Valerie Levine

This version of “Arctic Memory” is adapted from material Sperling developed during a 43-day polar science mission to the Arctic. While there, Sperling danced on sea ice and made the short film “Ice Floe,” winner of a Creative Climate Award. The work draws inspiration from modern-dance pioneer Loïe Fuller. The costume is hand-painted with designs suggestive of Arctic pack ice.

HIP HIP HOORAY (World Premiere)
Choreography by Milly Wasserman
Music from “The Red Balloon”
Performed by Georgina Blackwell, Caroline Mura, and Milly Wasserman

ALBERTA BIOGRAPHY (1988)
Choreography by Frank Nowosad
Originally performed by Gary Beacom
Music: Bird calls as recorded by Roger Tory Peterson
Performed by Danil Berdnikov

Birds like people have local dialects and personalities… this provides the inspiration for this choreography.

WHEN ATOMS EMBRACE (2018)
Choreography by Lorna Brown
Music: Arvo Pärt - "Spiegel im Spiegel"
Performed by Liz Yoshiko Schmidt

“Lay me in a field of wildflowers, let the scent perfume the hours. When The Atoms embrace and time changes pace, I find my magical powers.”

LA REVOLTE DES ENFANTS (1992)
Choreography by Alberto Del Saz
Music: René Aubry
Performed by Sarah Batege, Valerie Levine and Libby McGrosky

An experimental and playful study of the depth and tonalities of space, within the limitations of the force of expansion. This work is made possible, in part, with commissioning funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

IN FRAGMENTS, WE MEET (2022)
Choreography by Angela Kim
Music: Brambles “In the Androgynous Dark”
Performed by Angela Kim and Jeremy Cline

We represent a desire for process to be total, to move to where progress is measured more by the passing of time than by accomplishment. We aspire to acknowledge one another wholly in our piece, “In Fragments, We Meet.” We dare greatly, drawing from our shared backgrounds and honoring where performance and competition (long left behind) conform and split. This is our first iteration of this piece fusing figure skating, hockey, dance, and circus, commissioned by Ice Theatre of New York®.

ILIA MALININ (MAY 5TH ONLY)
Two-time World Champion

ENSEMBLE FOR PEACE (2022)
Choreography by Elisa Angeli
Music: "Concerto No. 2" by Sergei Rachmaninoff, performed by David Garrett
Performed by Danil Berdnikov, Jacqueline Benson, Isaac Lindy, Karina Manta, Libby McGrosky, Liz Yoshiko Schmidt, and Aaron Singletary

 

This piece is dedicated to the victims of war in Ukraine and everywhere throughout time in our world. Choreography commissioned by Ice Theatre of New York®