"Flock"
The Next Ice Age
Gardens Ice House
Laurel, Maryland
December 28, 2010
by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson
Having tried twice in the last two years to catch a performance by The Next Ice Age and failed, I finally got both the when and the where right. Summer before last I missed their run at an Ocean City beach hotel by just a day, and this past fall I made a wrong turn within one stoplight of the rink where they were giving two premiers plus two demonstration classes. Today, it was a mini-matinee that I found my way to - a repeat of one of the October 30 premiers, Nathan Birch's "Flock". To the music of a nocturne (Debussy's third), Birch has three young women swoop together over an expanse of ice, exploring space and their own abilities to be individual without loosing the innate cohesion birds have flying in formation.