Ice Theatre of New York Performs at Opening Week of The Rink at Rockefeller through 11/12

Ice Theatre of New York, Inc. ®

performs at

Opening Week of The Rink at Rockefeller

Part of Chanel’s No. 5 in the Stars Event

November 5-12, 2021

Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) performed during opening weekend at The Rink at Rockefeller on Friday, November 5, 2021 for a private event by Chanel to celebrate its fragrance Chanel No. 5, featuring a performance by guest artist and social media sensation Elladj Baldé. There were also special performances by Mary J. Blige and the Brass Queens Band. ITNY continues performances with full public viewing from November 8-12 at 5pm with the ITNY Ensemble and Junior Ice Dance Medalists Oona & Gage Brown. These performances are free and open to the public, and the rink will be open for skating. For more information, visit https://icetheatre.org/2021-pop-up-fall-performances.html.

The upcoming slate of performances includes:

Monday, November 8 at 5pm - ITNY Ensemble

Tuesday, November 9 at 5pm - ITNY Ensemble

Wednesday, November 10 at 5pm - Oona and Gage Brown

Thursday, November 11 at 5pm- ITNY Ensemble

Friday, November 12 at 5pm - ITNY Ensemble 

About the Performers

Elladj Baldé is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. His mother is from Russia and his dad is from Guinea. He was born in Moscow and immigrated to Montreal at 2 years old. He was on the National Team for Canada for over a decade skating competitively. He speaks three languages fluently: English, French and Russian. Elladj Baldé is a frequent guest performer with ITNY.

Prior to COVID he was doing guest performances on tours all over the world, including Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Korea, and Russia. He is in-demand as a show skater and it has kept him very busy since his retirement from competitive figure skating. While unable to travel due to COVID, he decided to focus on his activism and recently started a non-profit organization called the Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance. The organization is dedicated to increasing representation and accessibility to the BIPOC community through many exciting initiatives. While it has been a lot of work, he is very excited about the process they have been making. He has recently started a relationship with the Hockey Diversity Alliance, run by Kim Aliu and Evander Kane, and many other top NHL players.

Baldé has had multiple videos go viral on TikTok and Instagram with upwards of 13 million views. These videos have been reposted by the likes of Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Aniston, Complex Magazine, Jesse Reyez, Sony Music, Saweetie, Dan Levy, and many more.

Baldé’s goal is to make figure skating cool again and bring it back into the mainstream culture. He wants to inspire young boys to pursue their passion and not be afraid to tap into their artistic and emotional side. He wants young BIPOC skaters to see him and feel like there is a place for them in this sport. Lastly, he wants to show all figure skaters that beyond the competitions, this sport is an art form that anyone can use to express oneself.

Oona and Gage Brown are a sister and brother ice dance team from Long Island, New York, who have been skating together for six years. They are the 2021 U.S. junior national ice dance silver medalists. They represent Team USA and have skated at numerous international competitions. Most recently, they skated in Linz, Austria, where they earned the silver medal at their second Junior Grand Prix of the season. This placement has earned them a spot at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Osaka, Japan (December 9th-December 12th)! They have been training with their coaches, Joel Dear (ITNY choreographer) and Inese Bucevica, for over two years. They have also performed with Ice Theatre of New York a multitude of times over the last five years. Recently they’ve worked with On Ice Perspectives at The Rink at Bryant Park and received much love and recognition for the resulting video of their Metallica Free Dance, now at 18 million views.

About Ice Theatre of New York

Founded by Moira North, ITNY's mission is to celebrate and advance dance on ice as a performance art. Through its performances in both traditional and site-specific venues, ITNY presents ice dance that helps to open one’s eyes to seeing skating in new and unexpected ways. ITNY was the very first ice dance company to receive dance program funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. www.icetheatre.org. For biographies on the ITNY Ensemble members, visit https://icetheatre.org/performers.html.

City Skate Pop-Up Concerts are supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul 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.

Additionally, ITNY receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Lisa McGraw Figure Skating Foundation, the Will Sears Foundation, and its generous private patrons.