TESTIMONY
Jirina Ribbens, Executive Director of Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY), on the cultural and educational impact of ice dance performances and outreach programs
5:10:38
·
117 sec
Ribbens advocates for increased funding to sustain the Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY)'s cultural offerings and educational outreach. The organization creates ice dance performances as an art form, serving around 30,000 New Yorkers and visitors annually through public shows across city rinks. It also engages over 1,000 students from Title 1 schools, introducing them to skating, art, and classical music.
- ITNY has been creating ice dance performances since its founding in 1984
- It serves 30,000 New Yorkers and visitors per year through public ice shows
- Over 1,000 Title 1 school students participate in educational programs annually
- Students are exposed to skating, art, and classical music through the programs
- A teacher praised the program's impact on exposing students to new experiences
- Consistent funding is crucial for planning and sustaining these initiatives
- Ribbens requests restoring funding to $76 million to continue their work
Jirina Ribbens
5:10:38
My name is Rubina Ribbons, and I thank you for this opportunity to address you, and I thank you for recognizing that our culture is in crisis.
5:10:48
I'm the Executive Director of Ice Theater of New York, which is an Ice Sands Company, New York's linen only.
5:10:55
And since our founding in 1984, we've been creating Ice Stands as a performing art.
5:11:03
We serve about 30,000 New Yorkers and visitors every year with our public performances in all the area ranks throughout the season.
5:11:14
We also work with over a 1000 New York City Public School Children from Title 1 Schools.
5:11:20
Where we introduce them to skating, and we also tell them about the art and classical music, which for a lot of them is the first time they've ever heard.
5:11:33
So anyway, we do fun stuff with them.
5:11:35
And one of the teachers at the Robert Wagner School for Arts And Technology, who just came to one of our programs in Queens, said thank you so much for giving our students this opportunity.
5:11:45
We all had a great time and the performances were amazing.
5:11:49
We can only do this with the help of of the public funding.
5:11:55
And not only the DCLA funding, but also the discretionary funding that we have received from the city council.
5:12:02
But it's very difficult to plan and budget if you don't know every year.
5:12:07
What funding is gonna come to you, and especially the discretionary funding, which doesn't come until your fiscal year has already gone and over.
5:12:16
So I am here to ask you to restore the funding to 76,000,000.
5:12:23
And we'd like to say that skating is the closest thing to flying without leaving the earth.
5:12:29
So please help us keep on doing that by restoring the funding.
5:12:34
Thank you.
Justin Brannan
5:12:34
Thank you.
