Ice Dance International (IDI), New England’s premier ice dancing performing arts company, announced the launch of their fall tour today. This is the nonprofit organization's eighth season and the 12-city tour will kick off on September 17th in Stowe, Vermont and run through October 9th ending in Nashua, New Hampshire.
This year’s show, Grace: The Power of Dance on Ice, features ten world-class figure skaters including two-time United States Champion Alissa Czisny, and US Open Champions Kseniya Ponomaryova and Collin Brubaker.
“We have created new repertoire with an incredibly talented group of skaters,” said Douglas Webster, IDI Founder and Artistic Director. “Grace is a theatrical journey on ice with dynamic athletic movement that showcases beautiful artistic ensemble skating. The choreography and music, combined with the ability of our powerful skaters promises to transport the audience.”
Grace celebrates the art of dance on ice and features works by choreographers from the 2022 Olympic games, including Benoit Richaud, Rohene Ward, and Cindy Stuart, who is also the leading choreographer for Disney on Ice. Webster created Grace with the support of Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe, VT, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH.
Grace will be presented at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, MA on September 24th at 7:00 pm. This is IDI’s second major production at The Skating Club of Boston, the last show, In Flight, was in February 2020 at the former Soldiers Field Road location.
The Boston date will also include a special performance by 86-year-old Joseph Kasputys and his partner Laura Gayton. Joe has been an avid ice dancer and supporter of the sport in the Boston area for decades.
The fall tour schedule:
September 17: Stowe, VT, Stowe Arena, 7PM
September 22: Dover-Foxcroft, ME, Piscataquis County Ice Arena, 6:30PM
September 23: Portland, ME, Troubh Ice Arena, 7PM
September 24: Norwood, MA, The Skating Club of Boston, 7PM
September 25, Rockport, ME, Mid-Coast Recreational Center, 3PM
September 30, Wilkes-Barre, PA, Toyota SportsPlex, 7PM
October 1: West Orange, NJ, Richard J. Codey Arena, 7PM
October 2: Lake Placid, NY, The Olympic Center, 2:30PM (as part of the Dick Button Festival of Artistic Skating)
October 6: Manchester, NH, St. Anselm College 7PM
October 7: Dover, NH, Dover Arena, 6:30PM
October 8: Conway, NH, Ham Arena, 6:30PM
October 9: Nashua, NH, Conway Arena, 3PM
For tour information and tickets visit the IDI website event page: https://icedanceinternational.org/upcoming-events. Tickets for the show at The Skating Club of Boston are $15 for youth and $25 for adults. The Skating Club of Boston is located at 750 University Ave, Norwood, MA.
The Ice Dance International company includes (hometowns):
Alissa Czisny (Toronto, Canada): 2 x United States Champion
Collin Brubaker (Chicago, IL): United States International team and US Open Champion
Carly Donowick (Buffalo, NY): United States International team
Joseph Johnson (Fort Collins, CO): United States International team and Grand Prix competitor
Adam Kaplan (Barrington, RI): Ice Dance International company member since 2017
Jean Simon Legere (Miami, FL): Star of ice shows across the world
Karina Manta (Seattle, WA): United States International team and Grand Prix competitor
Kseniya Ponomaryova (Chicago, IL): US Open Champion
Lara Shelton (Weymouth, MA): Will be featured in the 2022 Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Neill Shelton (Weymouth, MA): Will be featured in the 2022 Radio City Christmas Spectacular
About Ice Dance International
Ice Dance International (IDI) is a nonprofit founded in Kittery, ME by Douglas Webster, an ice dancer, choreographer and lead advocate for the art form who was raised in North Conway, NH; Edward Villella, a ballet star, Kennedy Center Honoree and National Medal of Arts winner; Linda Villella, Olympian and Canadian figure skating champion; Dick Button, the voice of figure skating and a two-time Olympic Champion; and Debbie Gordon. IDI has worked since 2014 to showcase and promote ice dancing as an internationally recognized performing art form. The past eight years included creative residencies in Sun Valley, ID; Portsmouth, NH; Portland, ME; and Stowe, VT. The company has performed 136 times in the U.S., offered free skating clinics and community engagement programming for nearly 60,000 people. Further outreach activities include panel discussions, performances at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, WGBH’s Open Studio, Aspen Gay Ski Week, Rockefeller Center, and Fenway Park and the creation of two television specials that aired prime time on PBS presented by American Public Television. In 2022, IDI was an L.L. Bean Winter Across Maine partner. Collectively, it is estimated that IDI has reached over 150,000 people to date.
About Douglas Webster, IDI’s Executive and Artistic Director
Douglas Webster is the Executive and Artistic Director of Ice Dance International (IDI), a professional performing arts figure skating company based in Kittery, Maine. In both 2021 and 2022, during the height of the pandemic, Douglas conducted a New England tour of outdoor pop-up and live stream experiences, partnered with L.L. Bean bringing free performances and creative skating skills classes to towns across Maine and created and filmed IDI’s magical fantasy tale, Solstice, on Millinocket Lake at the base of Mount Katahdin. The piece is currently streaming on WNET’s All Arts public television channel.
Douglas has created and produced all special events for IDI including eight residencies across the US, two American Public Television specials, two national tours, performances at The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Aspen Gay Ski Week, Fenway Park, WGBH’s Open Studio, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Fenimore Museum, Rockefeller Center, and Strawbery Banke Museum. He also established SKATE 360, The IDI School of Performance Skating.
Prior to founding Ice Dance International in 2014, Webster served as the artistic director of Ice Theatre of New York, leading the company on two national tours. During his 23-year history with ITNY, Douglas created over 30 pieces of repertory and also collaborated with significant choreographers from the world of dance.
From 2003-2012 he worked on choreography teams for skating companies, including Disney on Ice, Holiday on Ice, Stars on Ice, The Autostadt, and the Sun Valley Ice Show. His choreography has been seen in television shows including Winter Solstice on Ice in Finland, Skating with the Stars for ABC TV, and Sterren Dansen op Het IJs in The Netherlands. From 2014-16 Douglas served as the Creative Director for a Disson Skating/ABC television series called “Shall We Dance on Ice,” a show that paired a cast of champion ice dancers, including Olympic Champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White, with world class ballroom dancers from popular shows like Dancing with the Stars. The shows were taped in front of a live audience. Many skating celebrities have skated Webster’s work including Olympic Champion Sarah Hughes, Sasha Cohen, Ryan Bradley, Keegan Messing, Alissa Czisny, Lucinda Ruh, Kiira Korpi, Lu Chen, Elena Leonova and Andrei Khvalko, Sinead and john Kerr, and Kim Navarro and Brent Bommentre. Douglas has choreographed for both Nexxice Junior and Miami University Collegiate synchro teams.
As an educator, Webster served as the founding artistic director of the Salt Lake City Sports Complex when it was built for the Olympics. Recently, he has been staff for US Figure Skating’s Dance Camp, High Performance Camp, Synchro Summit, and Components Camp; a guest on PSA’s webinar panel on interpretation, and staff for ‘Grassroots to Champions’ national clinics. In 2020 he ran IDI’s first virtual Skate 360 school that was endorsed by the PSA. He has judged many of the Young Artist Showcase Finals and continues to serve as judge in the exciting new series presented by American Ice Theater. Webster has been nominated for both Professional Skaters Association Awards, the Paul McGrath (twice) and the F. Ritter Shumway and has judged the US Open twice.
