by TROY SCHWINDT “Jason Brown, how do you plan to top the
overwhelming success of Riverdance?” Tat’s the question the 19-year-old Olympic bronze med- alist from Highland Park, Ill., will certainly be asked as this season gets under way. Brown, though, isn’t looking at it that way, and neither is his longtime choreographer, Ro- hene Ward. Ward has once again delivered two programs with completely different styles which Brown has embraced, much as he did with his 2013–14 free skate to Riverdance. Te U.S. silver medalist’s high-energy,
fast-stepping Riverdance program, of course, re- ceived a standing ovation at the 2014 U.S. Cham- pionships in Boston and became an Internet phe- nomenon with 4.4 million views on YouTube. “People will always compare to what you did
last year or the year before, or they will have an opinion of, ‘I like this better,’” said Ward, who with coach Kori Ade directs Brown’s flourishing career at the Colorado Sports Center in Monument, Colo., located just a few miles north of Colorado Springs. “Tat’s great, but we are not here to create things necessarily for other people. We are here to create things for Jason and for him to then give to people certain emotions and other things to feel. “We gave them a joyous long program. Now
let’s see if we can bring them on a different jour- ney. It’s not about doing better than the year be- fore, it’s literally about creating new magic, a new direction.”
As far as Ward is concerned, Riverdance is
merely a fond memory. “It’s dead,” Ward said. “We put it in the
graveyard; it’s got flowers. We are now moving on to a new birth.” Brown, though, is a little more sympathetic
to the program. “It’s harder for me to see it go, but I can’t wait
to take what I’ve learned from that journey and apply the lessons moving forward,” Brown said. Tis season, Brown will perform his short
program to the song “Juke” by Little Walter, the late Chicago blues great. Little Walter created a new sound by cupping the microphone and his harmonica together and used the resulting dis- tortion to sound like a saxophone. In doing so, he elevatedthe lowly harmonica into a must-have instrument that could keep up with the ampli- fied sound of the electric guitar. In a musical career that began in the 1940s and extended into the 1960s, Little Walter
22 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014
earned music industry acclaim for his impact on succeeding blues generations. Even today, “Juke” remains the only harmonica instrumental ever to reach No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. For his contributions, Little Walter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. “It’s a great piece of music,” Ade said. “As with our choices for music in the past, again this year we have given Jason two very different genres to explore. Tis is how we push our skaters artistic limits. We recognize the need for Jason to contin- ue to mature as a performer so in choosing polar opposite pieces of music, we are also expecting him to develop a new character for each one.” In a season when, for the first time, singles and pairs skaters can use lyrics in their programs, Brown will stay with interpreting the music solely through his performance. Brown will fittingly showcase his blues-
themed routine in late October at 2014 Hilton HHonors Skate America in Chicago. “I’ve never done anything that’s bluesy, so
it’s really fun to play with that and work with it,” Brown said. “Rohene has made the choreography really fit the music. It’s one of those programs that I am going to be excited to perform and hope the audience gets into it.” Little Walter’s legacy remains strong in Chi-
cago, and Brown’s program choice has blues en- thusiasts excited about Skate America. Phil Moy, director of the Little Walter
Foundation in Chicago, said Brown’s selection of “Juke” is a perfect choice in many ways. “Little Walter wanted to be the best harmon-
ica player. He pushed the limits of his instrument and, as a result, raised the bar for an entire genre of music, affecting a global audience for years to come,” Moy said. “Jason has done the same in skating. He brings creativity, innovation and spon- taneity to skating. Tey are generations apart, yet Jason and Little Walter are very much the same spirit. We are really looking forward to seeing how the best in skating meets the best in the blues through ‘Juke.’” In contrast to his blues program, Brown will
perform his free skate to the legend of Tristan and Iseult. It’s a love story, dramatic and powerful. “It’s a dramatic piece that requires very the-
atrical skating,” Ade said. “Jason is being chal- lenged on a completely different level.” Ward’s goal, as it is with all of his students, is to continue stretching Brown’s creative limits.
“It’s like an onion that you are pulling back
layer by layer,” Ward said. “We’ve seen him do the fast, fun quirky things, we’ve seen him do the traditional classic ballet, which he does ex- ceptionally well. So it’s about taking that natural balletic (talent) and that natural showmanship and taking it more toward a theatre dynamic.” “Tis is also a very athletic program,” Ade
added. “Rohene has outdone himself again cho- reographically, and I think this program demon- strates the perfect balance of technical difficulty, performance art and component superiority. Tis is what makes programs unique and inimitable.” Ward sent Brown and Ade the free skate
music three days after Brown had finished com- peting at the Olympics in Sochi. He listened to it twice and was hooked. It also took a big load off of his mind, because the plan entering last sea- son was for Brown to perform Riverdance for two years. But after his overwhelming success at the 2014 Prudential U.S. Championships in Boston and at the Olympics, that plan was scrapped. Te void of not having Riverdance for one
more season put Brown in a bit of a panic mode. “How am I possibly going to top Riverdance?” he thought. “Rohene brought us this music and it’s so dif-
ferent,” Brown said. “I felt a connection to it, just like Riverdance. I became so invested and loved it, and that feeling of trying to top something com- pletely disappeared. It was like I heard it and it was on to the next thing, the next jour- ney. It was like another genre that we want to master and another whole layer of that onion that we want to peel back.”
Another question that is bound to
be asked of Brown’s camp prior to starting the season is, “Will he incorporate the quad into either of his programs?” And the answer remains the same. “It’s not going in until it’s technically ready
and we feel Jason is ready to integrate it into the program(s),” Ade said. “Tere is no timetable. Ja- son is being rewarded for being the complete package skater and he nurtured that depth while mastering his triple Axel. I will move him forward with the same formula, con- tinuing to coach his technical, athletic and artistic maturity just the way our sport begs its athletes to develop.”
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