Iconic Program

This performance is doomed to fail. It is about figure skating, but there is no ice. There are skates, but there is no surface for them to glide on. So where are we, actually? It is an attempt to heal a relationship, to recover from disappointment. A journey of liberation from perfectionism. A devoted act, a search for transcendence. An invitation to get caught up in an obsession that may not be entirely healthy. It contains just enough mastery to be understandable and just enough chaos to be real. A journey to something iconic through the lens of competitive figure skating, accompanied by inevitable failure. Iconic Programme is inspired by Becka McFadden’s lifelong obsession with figure skating and her own competitive, albeit short, career. It draws on the structures, archetypes, and formats of this beautiful, yet terrifying sport. It invites viewers to embrace failure as a way to liberate themselves and to seek transcendent power in bent knees, deep grooves, and the oddities that somehow end up at the centre of our lives. There is no ice. But we will be skating anyway. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t stop.