MIT Theater on Ice Ends Season at International Competition in Vermont
MIT’s Theater on Ice team competed at the Thirteenth Annual International Theater on Ice competition, held at the Gordon H. Paquette Arena in Burlington, Vt. on June 28. The team placed fifth out of five teams in the Adult Choreographic Exercise category in its first season of existence.
The theme of the team’s two-minute, thirty-second program was Creative Evolution, set to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Walt Disney’s Fantasia. Their performance was described as follows: “Come join us as we explore the circle of life, evolving from single cells to full grown animals, growing and changing as we cycle through the circle of life with every generation.”
Choreographic exercise themes change each year. The required elements for choreographic exercise in 2007–08 were a theme of growth, choreographic process of repetition, and slow gestures. Adult team members must be aged 18 or older as of July 1, 2007, and must have passed at least one U.S. Figure Skating test. Teams must have between eight and 30 members.
MIT Theater on Ice’s team members were Diane M. Brancazio ’90, Diana S. Cheng ’04, Jane Codman (staff), Saja A. Fakhraldeen ’09, Kachina C. Gosselin ’10, Brianne M. Holmbeck ’08, Patricia Lee (spouse of an MIT alumnus), and Jingyi “Cynthia” Tang ’09.
The team began rehearsing at Johnson Rink in November 2007, performed in the MIT Exhibition in March 2008, and competed at the North Shore Open in Reading, Mass. in May 2008 in preparation for the international competition. Students Victoria Lee ’10, Annie Ouyang ’11, David M. Wentzlaff G, and Helen You ’09 participated as part of the team during the academic school year, but were unable to attend this event. Coaches and choreographers were Wellesley College student Anne Goldberg, Jessica A. Eisenstein ’05, and Aubrey L. Samost ’10.
A video recording of the performance will be broadcast on www.icenetwork.com, a sponsor of U.S. Figure Skating.