Audience wins when figure skaters rebel
PERFORMANCE: Pure effort and power of hockey inspires a show blending contemporary style with ice dancing moves
Bored of the stereotypes associated with ice dancing, a group of former professional figure skaters decided to take their art to hockey rinks. And, in 2005, Le Patin Libre was born.
Initially, the Montreal-based company’s mix of figure skating and contemporary dance met with some resistance.
“The figure-skating community is very protective of its traditions,” said Alexandre Hamel, one of the company’s founders. “People who come up with weird ideas are not always welcome. I’m still banned from some ice rinks managed by some skating clubs in Quebec. At first, I think they saw us as some kind of rebellion. In a way they’re right.”
Today, the company is celebrated for its work, by audiences and young figure skaters alike. Their art will be on display in two pieces that they’re bringing to East Vancouver’s Britannia Ice Rink.
The first, called Influences, “is about being in a group and surviving as an individual. In an abstract way it tells the story of our group,” Hamel said.
The other piece is Vertical. “Vertical is a technical term referring to the axis of the ice. When you’re sitting in the bleachers for a hockey game on the side, you see a horizontal surface.” For the second part of the show, spectators are invited on the ice in the goalie position for a different perspective.
“We come at a crazy speed towards them. They hear the sound, they feel the vibration of the ice.”
Le Patin Libre’s work is skating first, so the company draws on performers with backgrounds in professional figure skating, not contemporary dance.
“There are other projects that are the other way around, but it’s not our style,” Hamel said.
Besides Hamel, the company includes Pascale Jodoin, Samory Ba and Taylor Dilley, all former pro figure skaters.
There is one exception, however: the company’s fifth member, Jasmin Boivin.
“He’s the one who wears hockey skates,” Hamel said.
Hockey is almost as much a part of the Le Patin Libre esthetic as figure skating and contemporary dance. Most of the performances are held in hockey rinks.
“The cool thing with hockey ice rinks is that they’re standard,” Hamel said. “They’re pretty much the same everywhere.”
The show was developed in ice rinks in France and London. Now, the company has a touring kit that includes lighting that transforms the ambience of rinks into performance spaces.
“The other thing that makes them (ice rinks) cool is, they’re lively places where community exists,” Hamel said. “This community maybe doesn’t have very often the opportunity of seeing contemporary performance.
“And the contemporary-dance people who come to the show are infused with a bit of that energy.”
So it should come as no surprise that much of the company are fans of Canada’s game.
“Habs? Yes!” Hamel said when asked about his team allegiances. “One of the things that inspired bits of the show, and people at taverns think I’m so weird when I describe this to them, are the body lines of hockey. They’re pure effort, they’re organic, they’re power. We can do this when we’re liberated from the format of figure skating.”