Q&A with Disney On Ice's Adam Blake
The talented choreographer talked about the newest show, "Jump In!," and everything that went into building it.
It’s been three weeks since the opening of Disney On Ice’s newest show, Jump In!, which features segments from Toy Story, Frozen, Zootopia, Inside Out 2, Encanto, and Moana 2. The show is the product of amazing work by an incredible cast and crew, including choreographer Adam Blake.
In addition to choreographing competitive programs for skaters like Maxim Naumov, Jacob Sanchez, and Patrick Blackwell (among others), Adam is the artistic director for Skating Club of Boston’s Theatre on Ice program, and he won U.S. Figure Skating’s 2025 COACH I.C.E. Award for Choreographer of the Year for ensembles/groups of three or more.
He’s also been choreographing for Disney On Ice for multiple years now, which is what I know him best for. And it’s what we chatted about last week, though as you’ll see he was more than happy to give the credit for what is an amazingly entertaining show to so many other people.
Q: First, I wanted to talk about the new show. You were involved in all of it, right? Not just the Moana segment. I know, the Moana segment has gotten a lot of attention but the show is so much more than that.
A: WELL, to be fair, the new show has a lot of existing properties that have been celebrated over a long period of time. For instance, Hoedown Throwdown, the Toy Story segment, I think has lived on D30, this might be its fourth season of Hoedown Throwdown. Good News was a classic choreographed by Cindy Stuart. And then the balls or the coronation segment in Frozen or actually the most of Frozen that remains was choreographed by Cindy Stuart. And so we kept that segment the same, and Cindy has been my mentor for eight years, and it's one of those things where I not only got to be her assistant, but acting as her assistant as a fan, it's always incredible, and she has been the most incredible teacher to me. I just absolutely loved being able to collaborate with her. In a sense, I still get to work with her even though she's moved on to different projects and different things. I still get the opportunity to collaborate with my mentor. So it's really fun.
Q: You skated for Disney on Ice for nine seasons before moving into choreography. When did you know that like your future was going to be in choreographing shows and also programs for competitive skaters?
A: BY the way, I do have to say, I absolutely love how you combine how you you competitive and professional through the same lens. Yeah. It's so incredibly validating and it's something you're kind of one of the first voices to do that and it's really, it's really great. Because you see it in such an authentic lens of how challenging and how demanding both are in their own particular ways. And I love how you're doing it. Everything that you write is so incredibly authentic and it's so incredible. You write with your heart and I can see that and it's really validating to hear everything that you say with that. But so thank you for that first. [Ed. Note: I did not pay Adam to say this, and I’m still kinda blown away that he did.]
But where I where I started, basically, I started choreographing numbers when I was 16. I started doing group numbers. I started doing solos. I started choreographing my own programs by the time I think I was 14. I was doing my own choreography. And then when I joined High School Musical in 2007, I had this one interaction with Douglas Webster, who you know is the artistic director for Ice Dance International. And at that point in time, he was the associate choreographer to Cindy Stuart. So she was choreographing High School Musical, along with Chucky Klapow. I was in rehearsal and I saw Doug just kind of like putting people into place and all that. And I skated up to him, and he loves telling the story as a very bold 18 year old asked him, “how do I get to be you?” And then he says, “by getting back in line.” And then me cheery eyed and bright-eyed, bushy-tailed was like, okay. And so I went right back into my line.
But it was one of those rehearsal processes with High School Musical where I was the first one on the ice and the last one off the ice I made sure of that. I was practicing at all hours of the morning and the evening. And my third weekend, they made me the the assistant line captain as a new hire and then from there, I just kept being in those leadership positions in regards to choreo and in regards to blocking. It was a cool experience. But that was when I sort of knew that I wanted to be on a creative team was at the age of 18. I knew I wanted to join Disney when I was about 12, but I wanted to be on a creative team at age 18. I knew I wanted to be there. And I think I made a promise that I wanted to be a working choreographer by age 28. And I got there by 27.
Q: I imagine they're wildly different, but also have some similarities, so take me through the difference in choreographing a 90 minute show with more than 50 skaters involved compared to choreographing a four and a half minute free skate for one skater for Olympic season.
A: THE similarity is time, and that there's not enough of it. There's always a big push to get it done and get it done quickly. Actually, it's Renee Roca who told me that one of the things that she started doing was giving herself enough time. So that's why she started doing longer residencies where she where she's choreographing. So, for instance, Misha [Mitrofanov] and Alisa [Efimova], she actually stayed in Boston for about two months working with them on their new programs, so that she did not feel rushed or timed out. But with my schedule at the moment, it's very hard to have enough time to fit everything in. And so that's one of the difficulties that both of them sort of present a choreographing professionally and for competitive.
But I would say the leading differences would be for me is… well, actually, I'm trying to think of differences. And, oh, you know what? I think for me, like... I don't have to compromise as much professionally. It's because the storyline comes first and the characters come first and what you're trying to say as an artist comes first, whereas with competitive, I am very, very conscious and very aware that jumps and spins do take precedence. It is something that I have to be willing to adapt and be willing to compromise and be willing to let go of some creative ideas for the sake of the athlete and because the athlete's more comfortable with this or more comfortable with that, choreographically. From my standpoint, I want to make the athlete as comfortable as possible. I want them to feel at home in their skates and at home in their movement. And so when they do it, they have a sense of ownership in that they have a sense of contribution to the choreography that we create together.
However, I do feel that — and it really depends on the athlete and it really depends on the performer as well — when you have the right person skating for the right reasons, magic absolutely happens, and you can see that with one of my favorite pieces I've ever done, “Show Yourself.” You know, I cry every time I see Maria [Starr] skate it. And it's because the right person is skating it for the right reasons and doing it with her entire being. And it just makes me cry every single time.
Q: Speaking of the emotions, what is it like for you as a choreographer when you're sitting there on opening night and seeing the show come to life in front of a crowd for the first time?
A: I cry. I do. I'm just a ball of tears, I swear. But, like, I cried at this opening night as well. Choreographing for Disney on Ice was a dream I had when I was 18 and whenever that opening night happens, I get to say hi to that 18 year old again. I get to say hi to him, and I get to congratulate that 18 year old and say, you did it. It's me thanking him for the drive and for finding a passion and working really, really hard for it.
But also thanking everybody that helped me along the way and everybody that cheered me on and that supported me. I've had incredible choreographic mentors, Cindy Stuart, Simone Grigorescu, and people that helped build me into the choreographer that I am today. My performance director, Cory Obst, who was always there for me every single step of the way. And I think there's an overwhelming sense of gratitude every opening night, and it's really, really quite a wonderful experience.
Q: With with Jump In, the show closes with the Moana 2 segment, which is obviously the first time that that movie has been represented on the ice. How much pressure did you feel to get that right with having nothing to build on previously?
A: HONESTLY, that's my favorite time. I know that I don't necessarily want to be compared to Cindy's work because her work and my work are so different and she's such an incredible teacher. Sometimes I find myself getting so caught up in the lexicon and so caught up in the skating zeitgeist of things that came before and “it should be done this way” and I'm very much a fan of what Cindy did and sometimes the movement that she created for me is perfect, and I don't want to change it. And so having something brand new and having something that I get to tackle by myself is so incredibly freeing.
However, with the Moana segment, one of the biggest things that I am really grateful for is the opportunity to collaborate in getting the opportunity to collaborate with Tiana Liufau. I think it is one of the highlights of my professional career, having her as not only a choreographic collaborator and partner, but to have her as a friend, I think it's so much fun. I love getting the opportunity to go and see her in Anaheim at her studio and as much as we learn and as much as she teaches me and she shares her knowledge, we also have fun and we also get to know each other through the process and it's all just a huge celebration of respect and honoring where we both came from.
Q: Speaking of Tiana, obviously she was involved in the movies as well. How important was it to have that authentic voice in the room to ensure proper cultural representation in that segment?
A: FOR me, it is the most important element. It is the most important factor. Making sure that that the Moana segment stays true to what to where it came from. I always want to make sure that I always reference Tiana whenever I have questions on specifics. Whether or not the family should be bowing to Moana or if the family wouldn't bow to Moana. If the the village would bow to them, just certain things that I want to make sure that we do right. One of the things that I say to the cast before we start any Moana choreography is I always say that I'm not an expert in this movement and I'm not an expert in this culture. But this movement was given to us as a gift by Tiana Liufau and we will treat it as such. We will treat it as a gift and we will skate it with respect. And so the the cast always understands the importance of doing this movement correctly and making sure that we celebrate its roots.
Q: That's beautiful. And you said you're a ball of tears. I'm a crier. So I have to ask about the the Moana solo, the Beyond solo, which just is so emotionally evocative. And Mone Kawanishi skates it so beautifully. Was the goal there to really try and get the audience to cry?
A: HONESTLY, that was Mone. When you see Mone skate “Beyond,” you're seeing her skate from her absolute heart. She came in to this role not wanting to do Moana 1. She wanted to do Moana 2. Like, she wanted to do “Beyond.” It wasn't one of those where “I'll take Moana anywhere.” She wanted to do Moana 2 because it spoke to her in a really special way. And when we were choreographing it, there was this moment where where she's where she sings “what waits for me.” And the way that Moana inflects her voice on “me,” she did this rise with her head that you could only do if you knew the exact intonation and the exact rhythm of the way that she changed her voice. That let me know that she had listened to this song over and over and over again, and she knew every nuance and every beat and every instrument of this song.
That gave me gave me the ability to choreograph to nuances so I didn't have to explain nuances to her because she already heard them, and she already knew where they were in the music and one of the things that I love about Moana is when I get to choreograph for them, like Chihiro [Inoue] and Mone, I've been blessed with some incredible skaters for Moana. And I think it actually is really vital for the role because Moana being a wayfinder and somebody who is so surefooted in the ocean, it's very similar to being a skater. If you are on a boat, a boat operates very similarly to a skate and so I always feel that Moana should have just such a powerful command of edge because that's what a boat does. A boat has such a powerful command of carving. And so I feel that Moana always should have like just incredible skating skills. And I've been really, really, really, really blessed to have worked with two incredible Moanas.
Q: The Moana segment also features something that I've seen before in another show, but never quite like this with the fire on the ice. And Mone actually carrying the oar that's on fire out there to light the ice. And it's so close to the audience. And I'm just curious how difficult it was to choreograph, because then not only is she lighting the ice, but then she skates like right by the fire. How tough was that to get right in the rehearsal process?
A: IT’S tough to get right because of elements, because of airflow in a building or how long we can leave it on the ice or how much time we have before it all evaporates or that sort of a thing. The fire in and of itself is very well taught. So we have flow training before we execute any of these elements to where we go through training of how to interact with this fire, what the fire is capable of, how close we can get to it. And we also practice the maneuvers that we do with the element or the prop without fire attached to it. So once we are set and ready to go, we can add the fire and the choreography stays the same.
We also fire treat absolutely everything that is on the ice at the same time as the fire. So everything is done with an incredible amount of time and an incredible amount of safety in mind. So honestly, it wasn't necessarily hard. It was more, I would say more efficient than anything, because safety is paramount in those sort of situations.
Q: I feel like the most visually striking song of the Moana segment is “Get Lost.” When the bats come out of the ice, it's just this incredible moment of light and color. How closely are you working with the costume department when developing choreo for something like that?
A: WE work very closely with the costuming department. Robin [McGee], our costume designer, was absolutely incredible this season. But also another credit definitely lies within the lighting. We had never had this much UV lighting within the show. To be fair, we do have to be careful with how much time we rehearse under the UV lighting. Otherwise, we might get a nice little tan.
With the costuming, we actually were prototyping the auxiliary bats that sort of float over top of the skaters' heads. That was one of the things that we were working with first. However, the one rehearsal where the where one of the bats first came out with one of the wings and they started to do the original choreography that I planned, I soon realized that I had to scrap all of that arm choreography. I said, everything is changing. We have to change everything. It's because Robin did such an incredible job with those wings. I needed them to pop and I needed the choreography to change to celebrate the costume. And so I basically, I took an entire hour and 30 minutes just changing everything.
And I can't be remiss to mention my assistant Maddie Aybar, who was absolutely incredible in the entire process and helped me through everything kept me sane, kept the steps and kept the choreo tight and forever gracious and always there with a great idea, if I had I didn't have one. But yeah, that was a moment where I watched them do the choreography with the bat wing, the original choreography, and I said, “everything is wrong, I need to change it.” And then we changed it and now I think it's one of my favorite marriages of costuming lighting and choreography.
Q: You mentioned at the top that there are some segments in this show that that either existed before or have been modified. One of them is Encanto, which is obviously been in a lot of shows now, even though it's not that old of a movie. But one thing that I noticed is in Surface Pressure, there seems to have been a major step up in the aerials for the Tutu donkey. And so I'm so curious what led to the development of those new aerial stunts for that specific role.
A: THAT is the brainchild of Adam Loosely. Adam Loosely is to blame for all of that. If you ever see anything go into the air, that's Adam Loosely's fault. I remember him calling me one day. This goes back to D38 (“Let’s Dance”), where he said, the mermaids are going to fly in bubbles. And I was like, okay. And he said, yeah, there are going to be like bubbles and they're going to do “Daughters of Triton” floating up in the air and they're going to do a lyra act. And I said, cool.
But yeah the unicorn donkey is such a whimsical and magical addition to it. It was Adam Loosely.
Q: In the Frozen segment, I've seen it enough times now that I feel like the “Let It Go” choreo has not changed much over the years. But in this show, you had the added twist of the moving staircase. How difficult was that to execute?
A: THAT took quite a bit of trial. We had to figure out the speed in which we push the stairs, the way that they have to organically move and yet sort of dance with Elsa throughout the entire piece. So that one was something that we had to try out quite considerably. However, one of the things that is really magical about it is that it does seem to move on its own because the performers that are guiding it into place do it with such ease. And it's really quite impressive how how they do it, but that one did take quite a little bit of a bit of rehearsing to make sure that we did it right.
And Kristina [Yntema] is just absolutely incredible the way that she skates the role and she skates it with so much of her heart and working with her was just absolutely incredible. We got to have special moments with her where she got to see how we would add Elsa's magic to a specific section. And so she would she would do some of the choreo and then she would realize that, oh, we've added more ice crystals at this moment or we've added more bursts of snow during this and so she really got to experience and feel that the magic was organically coming from her.
Q: I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Kristina skate as Elsa a few times now. And one of the things that impresses me the most about her is the iconic moment in “Let It Go,” the forward spiral towards that last chorus. And every skater does it, and every skater has the opportunity to put their own twist on it and she does it in a way that I have never seen anyone else do and I almost, I can't even fathom how she's able to stretch her body like that. I'm just curious your thoughts on that particular move.
A: THE Biellmann Spiral? Oh, it's incredible. Like, the way that she does it is really, really incredible. She's just incredible. I will say that. I will absolutely say that. Like the way that she pours her heart into it, not only in in emotion and storytelling, but within the element-wise, she's incredibly consistent and she's just a wonder to watch.
Q: There are a couple other segments in the show I want to ask about Zootopia and Inside Out, both of which are movies that are not particularly music heavy. I'm curious how you approach developing choreo for segments like that where you don't have the emotional songs to lean on.
Q: THAT one is one of those where I have the wonderful, wonderful pleasure of working with Adam Loosley in such a close proximity, and the great thing about us working together is we're not only great collaborators, but we're best of friends. And so the amount of trust and the amount of play that we have with each other is just incredible. We always say that we would be great TV for The Amazing Race.
With Zootopia and with Inside Out, these stories really come from Adam. He writes these really, really fun scenes and we get to watch them play out and we get to see how it plays in choreographically.
Inside Out was actually a really, really fun one to do because I got to basically create a precision team number out of the inflatable memory balls and then I got to put the emotions in there and just have them near miss all the time and have the precision numbers sort of reflect what was happening within the dialogue, which was really cool. I've never really choreographed to dialogue before. It's been more music based, but now I'm choreographing a roller coaster because Disgust says “roller coaster.” I choreograph an L intersection when Joy says “you know, when you don't think about the possibility of being flattened by one of these things…” Meanwhile, the other emotions are being chased by this L intersection. And it's it's really fun.
Q: What was the reaction from the skaters the first time you put them in the memory orbs, the inflatable bubbles?
A: OH, it was hysterical. They were flipping all over the place and just bumping into each other. It was quite a moment. For me I felt like I was a pit in an olive. Essentially, I couldn't move my arms, but it was it was a fun little moment.
Q: You've gotten to choreograph a lot of different shows, a lot of different Disney properties. Is there one that you haven't gotten to touch yet, a Disney movie that you haven't gotten to turn into a Disney On Ice segment? You're like, “man, I'd really love to do that one day.”
A: If I could do “Descendants.” If I could only just do “Descendants” or 4*Town [from “Turning Red”] or Goofy Movie… you see the trend. You know, that sort of pop commercial style choreo? I would love to choreograph 4*Town. I mean, if KPop Demon Hunters ever became [available].
I absolutely love Descendants. And the choreography by Jamal Sims is just absolutely iconic. And I would just love to take Descendants on the ice or I would love to take 4*Town or Goofy Movie. I2I is just such an iconic song, and I would love to take that onto the ice. “Good to Be Bad” [from “Descendants 3”] is just an iconic opener and I've wanted to do that. We've been close, but never made it past the initial pitches.
Q: All right, want to wrap this up with a lightning round. Going back to your skating days, favorite move to perform on the ice?
A: Oh, cantilever. Cantilever and backflip.
Q: Favorite move to choreograph?
A: Oh, a good spread eagle. A good spread eagle.
Q: Favorite Disney song of all time?
A: I2I.
Q: Favorite Disney movie of all time?
A: Aladdin.
Q: Favorite figure skating movie of all time?
A: Ooh, uh... Blades of Glory.
Q: So when are you going to choreograph an Iron Lotus for someone?
A: Well, I feel like I have to go somewhere to a different country. But soon, soon.
Q: There are six basic types of jump in figure skating: loop, toe loop, flip, Axel, Salchow, and Lutz. Which one is your most hated?
A: Oh, hated. I thought you were going to say favorite. I had my favorite ready. Hated? I would say toe. Toe was not my favorite. Toe or flip.
Q: Last but not least, one piece of advice for anyone starting out in skating.
A: I would say enjoy it. It's so comparable to flying and it's such a freeing experience. Utilize every single time that you're on the ice as an experience. You know, have moments where you appreciate what the ice and what your blades can give you. It gives you freedom. It gives you freedom to fly. It gives you freedom to to be artistic. It gives you the freedom to be athletic. It gives you the freedom to be to be every emotion on the spectrum and and I think that that is one of the most beautiful things. And so I think for anyone that's that's starting out, I'd say just enjoy every single second that you're on the ice.