FROZEN FEET THEATER combines the fluid strength and agility of ice skating with the magical realism of puppetry and narrative story telling, creating choreography that references archetypal mythology, reflecting who we are, were and can be. This unique format, allows the company to explore complex subject matter within the context of a multifaceted stories such as “Viva La Vida; The Life of Frida Kahlo”, Fire and Ice, The Rise and Fall of the Norse Gods and “Persephone and the Birth of Winter”. Frozen Feet Theater’s mission is to bring this new format to the public through tours, workshops and videos.
Now entering it’s fourth season, past performances include the New Works and Young Artists series presented by the Ice Theatre of New York, Milford Pennsylvania’s Winter Lights Festival, the New Paltz Winter Carnival, the Boundless Edge Ice Dance School’s, benefit at Mohonk Mountain House and it’s Winter and Home Season performances in Saugerties, NY. The company has received grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Pocono Arts Council.
BETH WORONOFF is a Co-Founder of Frozen Feet Theater and is the Founder and Director of Boundless Edge, a performing arts learn to skate program. Beth has received three Strategic Opportunities Stipends through New York Foundation for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, has been featured on Diamond Dance Views, a Woodstock based hour long weekly TV program. Beth was chosen to participate in the 2012 MARK NYFA Bootcamp. Beth has a BA from New York University and an M.Arch. from Parsons School of Design, she received the 1996 Artist in Residence Choreography Grant from Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers and is the recipient of the 1997 Lawrence Epstein Choreography Award. Beth is a former Ensemble Member of and Choreographic Contributor to the Ice Theatre of New York where Beth skated works by Ann Carlson, David Dorfman, Donlin Foreman and Lar Lubovitch.
MIKE CARSON, Co-Founder of Frozen Feet Theater, started out as a stage manager, director in the theater world, he founded and is President of Michael Carson Productions focusing on producing Fortune 500 corporate meetings and events. During this time he also developed and produced three Off-Off Broadway plays and a musical with a cast of 25 at the NY International Fringe Festival. Over the last five years he has served as an Executive Director in the non-profit sector and also founded the Winter Lights Festival / Celebrating the Arts in Milford, PA. where he created and developed the concept of telling socially relevant stories on ice through the fluid strength and agility of ice dancers and the magical realism of giant puppets. Three years ago he met Beth Woronoff and together they have created PERSEPHONE & THE BIRTH OF WINTER and then, VIVA LA VIDA, based on the life of Frida Khalo. They are looking forward to further developing this unique form of story telling by creating a repertoire of stories based on myths and legends “to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature…” our 21st Century.
FUTURE PROJECTS
THE FAMISHED ROAD is a tapestry of survival. Six year old Azaro, portrayed on ice by a large puppet is a spirit child born into a Nigerian village of abject poverty. Based on the Booker Award winning novel by Ben Okri, escalating attacks by “the party of the rich” and “the party of the poor”, creates a dangerous battleground of choice. The volatile and magical interplay between the malevolent spirit world is perfectly suited to the medium of ice skating where speed can be quickly mustered or instantly dismissed and once moving a skater can stay perfectly still as they proceed on a trajectory.
I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
Through 400 years of America’s immigrant folk art, I Hear America Singing conveys the passion, words, music and art of the people, by the people, and for the people.