Ice Capades The Blade

Announcing ITNY’s 40th Anniversary Benefit Gala Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree, Scott Hamilton!

Gala & Performance – Monday, May 5th, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Performance, Cocktails, Dinner, and Award Ceremony.

The Lighthouse Chelsea Piers.

The Gala Performance will feature the ITNY Ensemble, ITNY Performing Apprentices, and Guest Artists!

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW – https://givebutter.com/40AnnGala

Join the celebration by taking a moment to share your thoughts, memories or good wishes in our Annual Benefit Journal. To reserve your space – https://givebutter.com/40BenJournal

We are happy to help you design your message – text and photos – contact itny@icetheatre.org or call 212-929-5811

Deadline for your message to be included in the Journal is April 14, 2025

Co-hosted by Olympic champion Brian Boitano, the event will feature skating superstars Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Madison Chock and Evan Bates and more

Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Entertainment Gang and U.S. Figure Skating today announced they will host a live figure skating tribute to be held at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington D.C. on Sunday, March 2, 2025, to support the families and loved ones affected by the tragic aviation incident at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025. The event will be co-hosted by 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano and will include:  

• Ilia Malinin – Three-time U.S. champion, two-time ISU Grand Prix Final champion and 2024 World champion
• Amber Glenn –Two-time U.S. champion and 2024 ISU Grand Prix Final champion 
• Madison Chock and Evan Bates – Six-time U.S. ice dance champions, two-time World ice dance champions and 2022 Olympic figure skating team champions  
• Alysa Liu – Two-time U.S. champion, 2025 U.S silver medalist and 2022 World bronze medalist   
• Tara Lipinski – U.S. champion, World champion and 1998 Olympic champion 
• Kristi Yamaguchi – U.S champion, World champion and 1992 Olympic champion 
• Scott Hamilton – Four-time U.S. champion, four-time World champion and 1984 Olympic champion 
• Johnny Weir – Three-time U.S. champion and two-time Olympian 
• … And many more to be announced.

https://www.usfigureskating.org/news/press-release/legacy-ice-benefit-capital-one-arena-support-victims-tragedy-ronald-reagan

Two-time Olympic champion Richard “Dick” Button, whose pioneering style and award-winning television commentary revolutionized the sport of figure skating, died Jan. 30 in North Salem, N.Y. He was 95 years old.

Born Richard Totten Button on July 18, 1929, in Englewood, New Jersey, Button was inducted into the inaugural classes of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame (1976), the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame (1976) and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame (1983).

Well known as “The Voice of Figure Skating” from 1960 to 2010, Button was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2015. While with ABC, his no-holds-barred analysis and caustic commentary earned him the first Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality (1981).

Button won consecutive Olympic gold medals (1948 and 1952), five-consecutive World titles (1948–52), three-consecutive North American titles (1947, ’49, ’51), seven-consecutive U.S. titles (1947–52) and a rare European Championships (1948), making him the only man to hold these titles at the same time. After he and Canadian Barbara Ann Scott won the European Championships in Prague, North Americans were no longer invited to the competition.

His only career defeat was at the 1947 World Championships, where he earned silver behind Switzerland’s Hans Gerschwiler. Button’s coach, Gustave Lussi, chastised the judges for not being able to properly score Button’s innovative and athletic jumps.

Button was the first to land a double Axel in competition (1948 Olympic Winter Games, St. Moritz), the first to land a triple jump (loop) in competition (1952 Olympic Winter Games, Oslo) and invented the “Button camel,” now known as the flying camel spin.

A serious student while competing internationally, he attended Harvard University from 1948–52, where he earned his bachelor’s degree and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1956. Button retired from amateur skating in 1952 and skated professionally with Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice.

In 1959, Button and Paul Feigay founded Candid Productions, which produced the popular made-for-TV broadcasts such as the World Professional Figure Skating Championships (1973–2002) and the World Challenge of Champions (1985–’98). Button also was the visionary behind ABC’s “The Superstars,” a popular TV series in the 1970s and ’80s that pitted top athletes against each other in a variety of sports.

In 1949, Button became the first figure skater to earn the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, which honors the best American amateur athlete.

Button is survived by his longtime partner and spouse Dennis Grimaldi, and his two children, Edward Button and Emily Button.

A look at Button’s remarkable career will appear in the Spring issue of SKATING magazine.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work with the legendary Sarah Kawahara, two-time Emmy Award-winning ice-choreographer who has reshaped figure skating history? Sarah choreographed Blades of Glory, I Tonya, and her many clients have included – Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Dorothy Hamill, and Peggy Fleming, to name a few!

As The Artistic Director and Choreographer of Willy Bietak Productions, Sarah oversees 17 Ice Shows on 15 Royal Caribbean International Cruise ships that employ over 300 professional skaters. She’s been Inducted into World, Skate Canada, U.S. and P.S.A Halls of Fame, and will reveal her secrets to you, in an EXCLUSIVE Worlds Boston Professional Workshop! Register today! Join us, it’s ABSOLUTELY FREE!

https://www.itv.com/news/central/2024-12-09/torvill-and-dean-announce-their-final-ever-performance-together

Jacqueline du Bief

The first skater from France to win a gold medal in the women’s event at the World Figure Skating Championships, and the 1952 Olympic bronze medalist.

Jacqueline du Bief who was born on December 1930 is a French retired figure skater who competed mainly in single skating. She is the 1952 Olympic bronze medalist, the 1952 World champion, a three-time European medalist, and a six-time French national champion (1947–1952).

Bief was born in Paris. As a pair skater, she competed with Tony Font, winning the 1950 & 1951 French national titles. After turning professional, she toured with several shows like Ice Capades, Hollywood Ice Revues, Scala Eisrevue from 1952 to 1964. In 1964 she returned to France where she went back to school.

She was called weak in figures, but innovative free skater. du Bief greatest figure skating moment came in 1952, shortly after she had won a bronze medal at the Oslo Olympics, when she won the World Championship in Paris. Although du Bief landed the first-ever double Lutz by a woman, it was a controversial victory as she fell twice during her free skate. She was given a 6.0 by one judge despite this, and even the French fans pelted the ice with various items to protest the decision. Du Bief later wrote in her book Thin Ice, that American Sonya Klopfer deserved the title.

Ice Capades lightning has struck twice at the Brockville (Ontario) and Area Sports Hall of Fame with 2 of our alumni being honored for their contribution in sports over the years. 

Gloria Lor Spoden was just inducted on June 13, 2024.  This is what the plaque read – Gloria Lor Spoden was born and raised in Brockville.  She started taking skating lessons with the Brockville Figure Skating Club.  At the age of 21, she applied for a position with the world famous Ice Capades.  In 1966 she earned a position with the group and went to Washington DC to be part of the ice show.  Two years later in 1968 she was the Line Captain for the Ice Capades which meant if any members of the line could not skate, she would replace them in a performance.  She was also responsible for teaching other skaters how to do their performances.  She left Ice Capades in 1971 and taught figure skating in California for a number of years.  She has organized two Ice Capades reunion in Las Vegas with 500 retired skaters attending.  She still skates and creates a monthly newsletter in Toronto for retired skaters. 

Susie Geneau (Sue Pyke) was inducted in the Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame on June 13, 2014. This is what the plaque read – Sue Pyke has enjoyed a love for figure skating since a very young age with the Brockville Figure Skating Club.  After a decorated amateur career, she began a two-year professional stint with the world famous Ice Capades in 1965 at the age of 18.  In the early 1970’s she began her coaching career at the Athens Figure Skating Club.  She went on to coach in Spencerville, Prescott and Brockville. With an energy and enthusiasm, teaching and working with young skaters in the community for 25 years.  Along with being a mother of three, she committed herself to helping hundreds of the area’s young skaters enjoy and improve in the sport she loved. 

https://people.com/scott-hamilton-i-m-the-luckiest-man-alive-8598897