at Sky Rink, Chelsea Piers, Manhattan -- October 7 and 8, 1999
Official press release -- contact Janet Larson, Press Agent, at (212)
877-3121
Ice rink at night, low lights, sexy music. Whorita slithers across the ice face down, raven hair splayed out, popcorn butt offered, airborne. But Cleana Spotless -- all pursed lips, eyeglass chains and Formula 409 -- shows up to yank us back to tidiness. Moments ago, Alex Inadequate was struggling frantically to find his footing on this same spot as stiff starched suits of corporate armor glided impassively by. Where are we? At an ice rink near you.
Freezer Burn is performance art on ice. With characters like Demandra Now and Dougie Druggie joining Whorita, Cleana and Alex, and with the movement possibilities only ice provides, artist/figure skater Greg Wittrock creates an evening you won't soon forget. Originally a one-man show, Freezer Burn returns this fall with more characters -- twenty-seven in all -- and a talented six-skater ensemble.
As Penelope Pout and her compadres flounce, strut, squirm and stagger across the ice, we get to observe, cringe, and mostly laugh at all the ways we struggle to be who we are. Freezer Burn wrangles with the problem of being different -- it's a quirky, funny, often moving series of vignettes about discovering and accepting the complexity in each of us.
Seventy-three elaborately expressive masks have been created by Wittrock for the occasion. An inventive soundtrack, cleverly juxtaposed slide projections and a lone, enigmatic, burned-out refrigerator add to the mix.
"If there is any justice, this brief journey through Wittrock's mind and view of the world will be seen by a great many people," wrote Dennis McGovern in American Skating World. "The material is very personal, but the artist has presented it with brevity, clarity and love. Truly amazing."