Next Generation

"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.

Whether close together or spread somewhat apart, the trio keeps changing places, interweaving and finding new patterns - linear, circular, sequential. Active propulsion's dynamics dominate, yet are countered by still gliding and varied by outright or intricate footwork. Postures, too, and port de bras are spun into the choreographic design - always smoothly and in harmony with Debussy's melodic line. 

The three skaters were dressed in tunics which had a pronounced flow despite being short - black tunics with just perceptible color at the bottom border (Alicia Jackson's designs). The image that built throughout the piece - one of youth on the wing - differed from that of The Next Ice Age as it was in the last century. This is a new generation and so, of course, there isn't the glitter of stars. What the trio - Tess Terpos, Allison Timlen and Sarah Yasenka - has is agility, elegance and modesty. With teachers who were some of yesterday's stars, other qualities undoubtedly will also come.