Steve Milton: Expect a cutting-edge, evocative free skate from Nexxice on Saturday
It is challenging in the skating skills, daring in the theme, collaborative in the design and emotional in the impact.
When Nexxice tries to get onto another podium at the World Synchronized Skating Championships at FirstOntario Centre this weekend, the Burlington-Hamilton team's major vehicle will be Saturday's free program, during which they interpret Jeremy Dutcher's musical tribute to the Wolostoq speakers of his Tobique First Nation.
As a longtime global synchro pace setter, Nexxice has a reputation for cutting-edge free skates which trigger passion and emotion in the audience. And Mehcinut' is definitely evocative, with the 16-member team depicting a group of four spiritual sisters" skating through signposts of life and ending in what may or not be the death of the main character. That is left to the imagination, and heart, of the viewer.
We watch the story through this family," explains Brian Solomon, the principal choreographer for Nexxice's free program who also choreographed the well-received music video for Dutcher's Mehcinut. It's not clear whether she passes away, or if maybe it's a dream, much like in life. She's not necessarily dying at the end, she could be just going to sleep, or just waking up.
But the feeling from the music and the skating should be of seeing a full life passing by."
Solomon, raised in remote Shebahonaning in Northern Ontario, is Anishinaabe on his father's side, Irish-Canadian on his mother's. A multi-genre artist, dancer, actor, and choreographer, he and his work have toured nationally and internationally and he's won several major awards for theatre and dance.
It is his first time working with skaters and the Mehcinut will see Saturday is the result of a collaborative creative effort from Solomon, Nexxice choreographer Anne Schelter and coaches Shelley Simonton Barnett and Jennifer Beauchamp. All of the 16 team members, plus reserves, are empowered to have their say, too.
Nexxice has such a wealth of knowledge, and they're encouraged to be thinkers," Solomon says. To be choreographing them is a real treat and it's exciting. I've learned quite a lot from them."
That's a two-way street, according Nexxice's head coach.
It's been an enriching journey with Brian," says Simonton Barnett, who has coached Nexxice to two world titles, three runner-up finishes, three bronze medals and a record 11 national championships. He's so well-versed in the dance world, we've learned a lot of dance from him. We've learned a lot about performance and about the difficulties that Indigenous Peoples have faced in colonialism and cultural appropriation."
Solomon explains that in both the music video and skating program he's tried to follow where the music comes from, which is Jeremy's people." Dutcher's small group of Wolastogiyik has only about 100 speakers of their original language left and Dutcher managed to find a wax recording of Mehcinut, which he digitalized, and took to his elders for explanation of the content before performing it.
And it's a death chant," Solomon says. It's people singing to be prepared to die ... which is not a sad thing. It's like we're all working to live a good life and to feel proud to die. That's the difference between western civilization and other civilizations."
The four-minute skating program uses dramatic lifts, full lines of all 16 skaters, creative four-person groupings and a demanding combination of twizzles, intersections and small jumps to illustrate a vision of what can constitute a worthwhile time on earth.
So there are people doing work together, there's hunting, travelling. You see them in boats, there are dances that look like classical dance. You see laughter, and sorrow. I don't think you need to get all of it or even any of those things. It's a piece of abstract work: whatever feeling you get from watching it, as long as you're feeling something, that's the right thing."
Although it's his first venture into synchronized skating, Solomon doesn't think it will be his last. He likes the medium, the flow of edges, and sees a wealth of as-yet untapped possibility.
The real potential of these forms is groups," he says, Solos and duets are very exciting but where dance comes from everywhere on the planet is group dance. Social dance is the history of dance and that's what is going on in synchro. You really feel something when 16 people do it all together."
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com
World Synchronized Skating Championships
Where & whenFirstOntario Centre, Friday (short program) 6 p.m. Saturday (free program) 1 p.m.
TicketsFriday $50 and $100, obstructed view $70; Saturday $60 and $120, obstructed $80. At Ticketmaster.ca
BroadcastLivestreamed on CBC Sports and the ISU Skating YouTube Channel
Top teamsFive-time world champion Marigold Ice Unity of Finland, Helsinki Rockettes, third in 2019, two-time world champion and 11-time Canadian champion Nexxice of Hamilton-Burlington, reigning Canadian titlists Les Supremes, The Haydenettes from the U.S. and Sweden's Team Inspire.
Other countries representedAustralia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
FactoidReigning world champions Team Paradise and current third-ranked Team Crystal Ice, are banned from this competition because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But that invasion also ensured these Worlds would be held in Hamilton. Just a few weeks ago the International Skating Union had decided to move the event because of Canada's vaccination requirements at the time, but Ukraine war prevented finding a new site quickly enough.