Aerial Dance

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Aerial dance is a genre of movement that has been gathering momentum in the United States since the 1970s. Utilizing low-flying trapezes, hoops, hand loops, webs (corde lisse), silks, bungee cords, trampolines, flying poles, harnesses, stilts, and other specialty apparatus, aerial dancers are able to explore space in a fully three-dimensional way. The ability to incorporate vertical, as well as horizontal movement paths, allows for innovations in choreography and movement vocabulary.

The use of technology provides an opportunity to expand the possibilities of movement, but carries with it a set of unique challenges. Aerial work, whether solo or ensemble, is always a form of partnering. Each apparatus used has its own motion, which changes the way a dancer must move in response. The introduction of a new element changes the dancer’s balance, center, and orientation in space. One of the greatest challenges of aerial dance is preventing the technology from overcoming the movement as the object of primary focus. The aerial dance community has gathered annually at the "Aerial Dance Festival" in Boulder, Colorado since its inception in July 1999. Here, workshops, performances, and discussions bring together dancers, gymnasts, circus artists, and other aerial enthusiasts to showcase their own works and learn about new developments in technique and technology.

Credited as a founding mother of aerial dance, and the inventor of the single-point ("motivity") trapeze, Terry Sendgraff actively performed, choreographed and taught in the San Francisco Bay Area from the early '70s until announcing her retirement in 2005, at the age of 70. The motivity trapeze came about as a result of an exploration on a low-hung circus trapeze. The ropes twisted together, causing the apparatus to spin. By formalizing this, hooking both ropes to a single point of attachment, it became possible to expand the back-and-forth swing of traditional trapeze to include rotation and revolution.

Another form of aerial dance catching national attention are the site-specific works of Joanna Haigood of the Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Amelia Rudolph of "Project Bandaloop". Haigood’s work is based on careful research of the history, architecture and societal impact of found spaces, and the translation of these memories into the movements performed in that space. Project Bandaloop combines rock-climbing with dance in performances that scale and/or descend canyons, rock walls, and tall buildings across the nation. Video of their outdoor work is sometimes integrated into indoor performances, projected onto screens or trampolines behind the dancers on stage.

Aerial dance continues to grow. Companies to keep an eye on include Orts Dance Theatre (Tucson, AZ); AXIS Dance Company (Oakland, CA); Frequent Flyers Productions (Boulder, CO); Flyaway Productions (San Francisco, CA), De La Guarda (New York, NY, originally from Argentina) [1], GROUNDED Aerial Dance Theater (New York, NY) [2], Mir & A Company (Santa Cruz, CA) The Cabiri performance troupe (Seattle, WA) and many others.

[edit] References

  • "Project Bandaloop, Dance in a Different Light". The Kennedy Center ArtsEdge [3]
  • Bernasconi, Jayne. "Low-Flying Air Craft: a report from the Aerial Dance Festival 2000 and a talk with Terry Sendgraff". Contact Quarterly. 26.2 (2001): 19-24.
  • Croft, Clare. "Flying into the Unknown". The DanceView Times, Washington, D.C. edition 1.9 : November 24, 2003 [4]
  • Felciano, Rita. "AXIS: Dancing with and without wheels". Dance Magazine 76.3 (2002): 58-61.
  • Forbord, Austin & Trott, Shelley - "Artists in Exile: A Storyof Modern Dance in San Francisco" (2000) - [5]
  • Eagly, Ursula. "Dancing Outside the Box". Creative Capital [6]
  • Haithcox, Kiran. "Learning to Dance on Air". Dance Magazine 76.3 (2002): 51-52.
  • Howard, Rachel. "Terry Sendgraff". Dance Magazine 79.8 (2005): 60.
  • Kreiter, Jo. "The Soul Needs the Body: the body and technology from a dancer’s perspective". Contact Quarterly. 26.2 (2001): 15-18.
  • Sanderson, Marcia. "Flying Women". Dance Magazine 76.3 (2002): 46-51.
  • Strom, Cat. "Tours: Hanging by a Thread: De La Guarda’s 'Villa Villa' Bounces into Sydney’s Big Top". Entertainment Design — The Art and Technology of Show Business 38.9 (2004): 10-11.
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