Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director

I have been skating my entire life, with the exception of the first 8 years. My competitive record included 4 appearances at the National championships, and culminated in a Bronze Medal in Junior Pairs. My professional career was highlighted by 2 years as a soloist with the Ice Capades. From that experience, Ice-Semblé Chicago was born as a tribute to our performing careers and to continue to do so once we were no longer touring. It is now 26 years later, and the company continues to reinvent itself with our new artistic leaders and talent. Skating is forever in my heart and at my core, and despite my 30 year medical career, I still identify the most as a skater.

Founder and Co-Managing Director

As a child my passion was ballet. At 9 years old I discovered figure skating. I was dazzled by the feeling of freedom I felt gliding across the ice. Figure skating soon became my main passion. I danced and skated all through school and majored in dance in college.

After graduating college, I spent 2 years touring with the Ice Capades. Glorious years spent combining both my passions.

Wishing to replicate the experiences performing in a skating company, my skating colleague, Ray Belmonte, and I created Ice-Semblé Chicago. Ice-Semblé Chicago’s name is based on the ballet term, “assemblé,” which means to bring feet together in the air. Ice-Semblé Chicago is a forum for skating artists to come together and showcase choreography.

Over the years as the Artistic Director of Ice-Semblé Chicago and a Professional Skating Association rated choreographer, I coached competitive skating, specializing in choreography.

From the beginning in 1997, Ice-Semblé Chicago has hosted many skaters sharing their talents and passion for the art of figure skating. Maddie Aybar and Ola Czyzewski have contributed and grown-up with Ice-Semblé Chicago. They now move into positions as Co-Artistic Directors, sharing their passions for the art of figure skating with the new generation of talented skaters.

Co-Artistic Director

Ever since I started at the age of 4, skating has been an integral part of my identity. Although I competed while growing up and continued during my time at university, I always felt most at home on the ice when there wasn’t a panel of judges in front of me. Instead, I thrived performing in annual park district spring ice shows and holiday exhibitions. Now, I have made a career doing what I love most; performing in professional ice shows. Since 2018, I have performed in Phantasialand’s Ice College, Phantasialand’s Alle Jahre Wieder, Holiday On Ice’s Supernova, Phantasialand’s Rock On Ice, and Disney On Ice’s Mickey’s Search Party.

Growing up, I insisted on taking control over the choreography of most of my programs, whether for show or competition. Choreography has been the gateway to my personal growth and understanding of myself. I choose to draw on my experiences to facilitate a movement vocabulary that attempts to translate my internal emotional landscape into an external performance that specifies a tone and feeling but leaves enough room for the audience to draw their own conclusions.

As long as skating has been a part of my life, Ice-Semblé Chicago has as well. My mom has been a member of Ice-Semblé Chicago since it’s founding in 1997. I attended shows and aspired to have my own commercial skating career and subsequent artistic achievements, knowing that all of my role models had that shared history. Now, as co-artistic director of Ice-Semblé Chicago, I hope to continue this tradition of artistry and to foster an inclusive skating community that explores the importance of self-expression through movement.

Co-Artistic Director

“We lose ourselves in things we love. We find ourselves there, too.” – Kristin Martz

I started skating at the ripe age of two-and-a-half years after witnessing my brother in a skating class. My mom, a former skater herself, responded to my cries by buying us skates and assisting me onto the ice. Unbeknownst to us both, that day was the beginning of our journey together into our respective skating careers, hers as a coach and mine as a competitive, and later professional figure skater. My mom still speaks of my first competition at the age of five, where she asked me what I had enjoyed most about competing; my answer was somewhere along the lines of, “Skating in front of all of those people!”. And so, as the years went by, my mom encouraged the use of my competitive career as a platform to simply be and create, and of course PERFORM.

Ice-Semblé Chicago has been a part of my life for many years and no doubt fueled my desire to skate professionally. From 2015 to 2022, I skated aboard 8 cruise ships with Willy Bietak Productions, as well as fulfilled contracts with Holiday On Ice and Dynamic Ice Entertainment. As a skater, choreographer, coach, and now co-artistic director of Ice-Semblé Chicago, I continue to share my never-ending passion for skating and its dynamic nature in being a sport, an art form, and perhaps most importantly, a vehicle for freedom and self-expression. Skating, as my therapy, offers me a place where I genuinely connect with myself, and skating, as my art, aims to extend that genuine connection to a transcendental space shared with others… perhaps you.