The Unseen
Ice Theatre of New York's ® newest collaboration with Lajuné McMillian, The Unseen.
The event took place on December 16th and 17th at 6:30PM at ONX Studios at 645 Fifth Ave, Lower Level, NY 10022.
Reception followed the performances.
The Unseen is a real-time motion capture performance on ice, showcasing, celebrating, and honoring Black figure skaters of the past and present.
In 1946, a group of self-taught Black figure skaters came together to produce a show called Harlem on Ice. However, little is known about them today in the public eye. The Unseen seeks to uncover, revitalize, and archive this history, while connecting this to the stories of Black figure skaters today.
This iteration presents two abstract performance documentaries - one of Joseph Vanterpool, a figure skater and artist from the 50’s, his son Akbar-Rashaad Vanterpool, and Theron James, a trailblazing figure skater today.
How do we navigate and heal by accessing the unseen? How might we honor and channel the stories of our ancestors as an embodied experience, and how can we save that information for generations to come? The soundscape for the performance integrates interviews from the skaters, as well as from their families and the broader skating world to serve as an abstract documentary and live archival process of Black Movement in the world of figure skating.
This new media piece was made possible in part by Ice Theatre of New York, Inc. the New York State Council on the Arts and the MAP Fund. LaJuné McMillian is a member of ONX through the XR Track of NewINC.
Amsterdam News coverage:
Photo Credit Josef Pinlac
Photo Credit Hideki Aono
