Holding An Edge
A Q&A with figure skating choreographer Rohene Ward.
Dvora here. This week, Lynn Rutherford, figure skating writer extraordinaire, is back with another piece: an interview with Rohene Ward, the renowned choreographer behind some of U.S. skater Jason Brown’s most iconic programs. (I had the good fortune of speaking briefly with Ward last year for a story on Brown’s virtuosity.)
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It is fitting that, when the Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) honors Jason Brown at its gala on May 8th, Rohene Ward will be honored for his achievements in choreography.
So many of Brown’s great moments are linked to Ward, his longtime choreographer: his exuberant “Reel Around the Sun” (Riverdance) free skate, which famously went viral in 2014, garnering more than four million views on YouTube. “The Scent of Love” free Brown used to win the 2015 U.S. title. And, more recently, an exquisite pair of short programs: “Sinnerman,” created by Ward in part to honor Alvin Ailey (1931-1989); and “Melancholy,” a poignant routine set to an Alexey Kosenko piano composition.
“Rohene’s collaboration with Jason really brought out not only the excellence of his choreography skills, but also his coaching skills,” Moira North, founder of ITNY, said. “Because a great choreographer also has to coach and convince a performer to go that extra mile with the material.”
The Brown-Ward collaboration began in 2011, when Brown was still competing internationally as a junior. Many thought the skater would end his competitive career after placing sixth at the Beijing Olympics last year, but he returned to the U.S. Championships in January and won the silver medal, just 0.31 points behind Ilia Malinin, a skater 10 years his junior. He went on to place sixth at the 2023 world championships – without a quadruple jump, generally considered de rigueur for elite male skaters.
“This year is kind of a culmination, because both of Jason’s [competitive] programs, the short and the long, were done by Rohene,” North said. “Rohene is a special ingredient in competitive skating, in that he infuses it with musicality and artistry. Jason going back into competitive skating and doing so well without a quad brings back so much of our mission, which is looking at the artistry, the edges, the artistic merit of a program, and it is heartening to know there are judges that appreciate that.”
The following Q & A has been edited for length and clarity.
Lynn Rutherford: How has your relationship with Jason changed over the years?
Rohene Ward: It definitely became more personal as he got older and moved to Toronto in 2018. That kind of gave us the space to actually build a connection that was deeper than just working on the ice together. [He was] living on his own, and we talked about being unapologetic with who we are and authentically living to ourselves, versus just being people pleasers. And for him, that it's okay to be authentically who he is and not what people want him to be, that it's okay for him to be an artist and an athlete, versus an athlete first or [only] an artist. And that it's okay for him not to have quads, that he is valued and brings a different value [to the sport].
We had conversations about culture, about acceptance, and about just living our truth, and not apologizing for not having what people think we should have, or not being what they think we should be. I mean, let’s just let the sport be the sport, and let's just see who does the best that day. He has been counted out a lot, and I’ve been counted out, too. And what we have done over the years is learn how to not care; we use that as our fuel.
LR: Do you have a set way of working with Jason to create a program or does it depend on how you're feeling at that time?
RW: It’s never set. I like it to be organic, and it's different every time. … For example, “Sinnerman” and “Melancholy.” I would prefer to focus on those two, since those are the two, I would say, iconic pieces for him now, and they're the two that happened at the same time during the pandemic.
They [are] both very reflective pieces but expressed in the opposite way. One [“Melancholy”] was internal. And the other [“Sinnerman”] was very external; it was about power and quickness and almost that race to survive, to understand our worth. [“Melancholy”] was about complete reflection inward, stripping everything (external) away, taking away all of the frantic ups and the downs to show the control and the power – [to show] how minimalistic things can also be powerful. You know, a glide of an edge, a hold of an edge, can be powerful, if done correctly.
[Ed. note: When skaters, coaches, and fans speak of “holding an edge” they’re usually speaking about the depth, steadiness, and/or smoothness of the skater’s stroking of the ice and their control in balances and transitions on the skate’s serrated edge. The axel jump, which Rohene discusses below, takes off from a forward outside edge, rotates in the direction of the take-off edge, and lands on the opposite foot of a back outside edge.]
LR: And if it’s done incorrectly, you don’t know what you’ll get from judges.
RW: I was talking to a judge and they were like, ‘Oh, we didn't give [Jason] a 10 [for PCS] because the triple axel entrance was too long.’ And I said, ‘Well, have you ever gotten triple axel?’ And he said no, and I said, ‘Ok.’ Because [Jason] did hold the edge long, but the way he held the edge—I mean, it's still controlled and the lean into the circle, which you don't see people do correctly. So yes, it was a longer edge, but it was a correct, controlled, beautiful edge. People don't understand how difficult it is to be as good as he is.
LR: I’m writing about your work with Jason for ITNY, but you’ve worked with many, many other skaters. You’ve done a rhythm dance for Madison Chock and Evan Bates, short program for Kaori Sakamoto, worked with Mariah Bell, Jimmy Ma, Courtney Hicks. Do you go to the rink with an idea of what the program will look like?
RW: I always want to highlight the athlete. I don't try to hide flaws, I try to accent strengths. And for me, everything is in color. So when I hear music, I see color first. And then I see someone skating to that through the color, and then I see maybe what they would be wearing while they're skating to it, because all that would look so powerful. [I think] ‘Oh, that would look so striking’ or ‘That would be so soft and incredible with that music.’ It really is all personal towards the athlete when I'm working, which is why it's important to understand they all have something different to value.
LR: Do usually either select or make suggestions about the music?
RW: Always, that's my thing. But I give them options. I send them, like 15 pieces, and if they like three or five out of those pieces, we go to those five and [rank] from 1 to 5 which is the best. We work our way down. Then we get on the ice, maybe see how they feel the skate to, and then I can see naturally which ones they work to better or which ones they respond to better, or which ones get their attention more. It’s very organic.
For example, Rio Morita, he was fourth in Canadian juniors, he takes from Tracy [Wilson], he came for the first day and I had like five or six pieces of music. We kind of had a [genre], we knew it was going to be guitar, whether it was Santana or Eric Clapton or Gary Moore or whatever. We had a wide range of guitar – blues, country, soul. And we just got on the ice and we interpreted every piece and I was like, ‘Oh, one resonated more in his heart,’ one resonated more in the way he collided to the music. And by day two when we came in we knew exactly which one we wanted to do, and it was a mutual feeling. It wasn't like I picked it more than him. It was organic and what we both felt was best for what we're trying to achieve this year.
LR: You recently went to California, to the rinks in Irvine and Lakewood, and worked with some coaches there and did choreography.
RW: I did some work for Naomi Nari Nam for her girls, and then I did a piece for Yaroslav Paniot—I did a short for him to Prince’s “Kiss.” And then the second week in Irvine, I went to work with Jenni [Meno] and Todd’s [Sand] pair team, Izzy and Ryan [Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard].
[Working with Paniot] was cool because Todd [Eldredge, Paniot’s coach] came to watch for the first time and he was like, ‘Wow, I didn't know Yaro could skate and move like that, but now I do.’ And I said, ‘He’s capable of a lot. It’s because of demand and what I expect out of them.’ So Todd will expect that from Yaro now, and I'm really glad he came to watch. He knows what it should look like and how to maintain it now.
Todd really respects what I do. You know, we competed against each other, so there's a different level of respect. And it was really cool to have him there and witness it and say, ‘Oh, my God, this is amazing. [Yaro] looks different than he's ever looked.’
LR: You’re still performing, and you performed with Holiday on Ice in Europe and the Middle East for many seasons (2009-2015, 2017-18). All of that experience had to feed your choreography.
RW: Oh, absolutely. That's when I was coming home with the most ideas. When you’re exposed to different cultures and smells and sights and sounds, I was constantly being inspired. So I would come home off tour with all these ideas and all this energy to give to the kids. I would talk about the rehearsal process, and how that was actually better training than I ever had at home, because it really taught me how to be on autopilot and perform it full out all the time. You know, the tricks just become a part of what you're doing.
LR: In addition to choreography, you are building a coaching career in Chicago.
RW: I’ve been coaching a long time. I coached with my coach Page [Lipe] when I was still competing. Now I coach with Amber Gil at Glenview Community Ice Center.
LR: You’ve talked about your efforts to bring more skaters of color into the sport.
RW: Absolutely. I’m working with Diversity On Ice, and I’m on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee for PSA (Professional Skaters Association). And I have some Mexican skaters, we have another African American little girl who is seven, and I have about three or four Asian-American kids, and we have a Romanian girl. We’re trying to advocate and we're reaching out to people, trying to make them understand inclusivity and that we're a safe space at our rink and that we're here to help them facilitate their journeys. It’s not just about having a coach or getting money; it’s actual support and understanding.
LR: It is a very expensive sport, though, and that can be an issue when you're trying to encourage kids from diverse backgrounds to want to skate.
RW: You have to make sacrifices. I sacrifice... I make my money when I'm doing my programs, and then I live on that for the year. I'm sacrificing because my coaches sacrificed for me. It's about the journey for these kids. It's about changing lives, not about getting to the Olympics.
They can go on tour. They can become great coaches, they can become great choreographers, they can become some type of specialist in the industry. And they have the structure and they understand the commitment and the importance of persistence, showing up and being accountable and inspiring people of all ages and all forms.
That's this new mission of me being a head coach, giving back and understanding that these kids need to learn how to navigate through this space, to get to where they want to be. My coach Page [Lipe] was amazing for me, but not being a minority, there were still things that she didn't understand that I required. There is a benefit of having someone that has walked in your shoes to help facilitate that process for you because it is very different for us.
I think it's important for our athletes to have people that look like them to help facilitate this process for them, to really understand what support is. Anybody can tell me, ‘Oh, with your talent, you should have been world champion.’ That’s really not looking at the big picture, understanding the individual. I understood my purpose later, and maybe that was to be a great coach to help facilitate the journey for the next generation of skaters.
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