Le Patin Libre, whose members are all highly trained skaters, caused a sensation in 2014 with Vertical Influences, a revolutionary display of contemporary dance on ice.

“We take full advantage of what makes skating a unique and legitimate art form: the glide”, explains Alexandre Hamel. “The glide allows the disconnection of the body’s displacement in space from its physical movement.” A Le Patin Libre performance is an adrenalin-laced experience. “We use that rush to fuel our choreographic poetry.” The same artistic team—skaters Pascale Jodoin, Jasmin Boivin, Taylor Dilley, Samory Ba and Alexandre Hamel, joined by dramaturg Ruth Little—brings us another gravity-defying show. “Dancers and acrobats have to walk, run, flip, leap, and so on. We, on the other hand, can zoom around without moving a muscle!”

Le Patin Libre is a contemporary ice skating company from Montreal. This performance art uses ice, skates and glide as medias. Some people see our work as a form of “contemporary dance on ice”. The first collective was founded in 2005 by ex high-level figure skaters. They regrouped with the intention of transforming their athleticism into a mean of free expression. Far from sparkles, stereotypes and champions’ demos, the creations of Le Patin Libre propose real works of art exploiting the amazing choreographic and theatrical potential of glide.