NYC Aerial Dance Festival 2025

Artist Profiles

PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS HERE

Back by popular demand:

Akim Funk Buddha will open the festival, bringing together his multi-disciplinary skills to guide us into the realm of anti-gravity. Also in the show we will see Akim perform with Asha Flasha in an Afro-Futurism collaboration duet, Navigator.

Asha Flasha is a Flexn Dance originator born and raised in NYC who began his dance journey while drumming for his mother’s African Dance classes. He then branched off into dance, studying African Dance, Dancehall, and Hip hop before eventually specializing in the style of Bruk Up and FlexN. Asha has danced on TV Channel 67 BCAT which streams every Friday of the week and toured in Munich, Germany where he performed at the Basil Art Festival. In addition, he performed with Elton John for his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road’’ Tour.  He choreographs for juveniles that were in Rikers and other dentition centers around the boroughs of New York City and teaches Hip Hop, Afro Dance, and Flexing for youth at several NYC public schools. You can find his content on his social media platforms @AshaFlasha.

Akim Funk Buddha is a multi-faceted performance artist with talents ranging from high-energy Classic Hip Hop rhymes, beat-boxing and Mongolian throat-singing, to body-balancing, martial arts, tap dance, and circus arts. Akim creates borderless performance art fusing sounds and movements. He is known for his holistic Approach to Hip Hop, drawing from a full spectrum of cultural traditions and artistic disciplines. Akim's exceptional stage productions transcend borders and has featured at prestigious venues such as The Kennedy Center (Washington DC), and throughout New York City including Central Park Summer Stage, The Blue Note ,The Whitney Museum (VH1 Hip Hop Honors), Lincoln Center Outdoors, Joe's Pub, The Winter Garden, La MaMa Theater & The Rubin Museum. His shows are featured annually at BAMCafé Live, The Brooklyn Academy of Music. He won the award for Best Choreography in New York's Fringe Festival where he choreographed for actors in the musical "Average Asian American.” Akim has made appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Sesame Street, and can be seen as an M.C. in the award-winning Documentary “FreeStyle - The Art of Rhyme”.

Choreographer/Performer:

Bobby Hedglin-Taylor is a multidisciplinary performer and creator, and has spent over 37 years exploring the transformative power of movement, storytelling, and laughter. His work spans Broadway (The Frogs, Pippin, Chaplin), reality television (Wife Swap, Marriage Ref, Canada's Got Talent), cruise ships, rock concerts (Phish at MSG), and stand-up comedy at the Queer Comedy Festival, Broadway Comedy Club, and Rainbow Mountain LGBT Resort. Specializing as an acrobat, choreographer, coach, and comedian, he celebrates resilience and the power of flight. A full hip replacement in 2021 reaffirmed his mission to help others soar—onstage and beyond. 

Instagram-@FlyingBobby, Tiktok-@BobbyHedglinTaylor, www.BobbyHedglinTaylor.com

Cherie Carson (Director, UpSwing Aerial Dance Company) performed her first aerial dance piece in 1990 and has created more than 50 aerial pieces since then. In 1992, her first dance underwater film was named a finalist for the Robert Bennett Award in Los Angeles. Her choreography has been performed in a planetarium, on stilts, on rollerblades, in sculpture gardens, reflection pools, in a dress of 11 yards, on a bungee cord hanging from a Banyan tree, on trapeze, tissu, slings, rope, harness, invented apparatus and 30 feet high in a Redwood Grove. Her award-winning dance-for-camera films have garnered respect around the world. Cherie currently resides in San Francisco Bay Area and is Artistic Director of UpSwing Aerial Dance Company based in Berkeley, CA. Her unique style blends choreographed movement with improvisation and collaboration among her dancers. UpSwing currently has five performing dancers/aerialists in the company.

photo: Bryan Kato

Chriselle Tidrick is a choreographer who has performed extensively as a dancer, aerialist, and stilt dancer throughout NYC, across the country, and internationally. She has presented solo aerial dance work at Dzul International Dance Festival (Campeche, Mexico), Detroit Dance City Festival (2017, 2018), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto, Canada), Inwood Art Works' Culture Hub, and a host of New York City venues. Under the auspices of her company, Above and Beyond Dance, she produced four seasons of circus-infused dance. Chriselle completed a dance film collaboration with director Roy Szuper entitled “The Limits of Escape” (2020) and can be seen on stilts in the Disney film Enchanted.              

Photo below: Honora Bauman

Julie Ludwick (Fly-by-Night Dance Artistic Director) has created dozens of dances for Fly-by-Night Dance Theater for numerous venues including The Flea Theater, PS 122, Dixon Place, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, and Mabou Mines Theater as well as colleges around the U.S.. In 2022 Ludwick’s evening-length work, Where Shall I Send My Joys? was presented by the CUNY Dance Initiative and the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College. The company’s repertory has evolved to include evening-length pieces with video projection, theater, and live original music. Ludwick’s Aerial Dance Technique has been featured in Dance Magazine, Paper Magazine, Time Out, and in a documentary from AfterEd TV. Ludwick has also been featured as an outstanding alum of Teachers College, Columbia University. Ludwick's theater credits include work for Mapou Production's "How Papa Noel Forgot Haiti" at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall starring Danny Glover. Her work has received support from: CUNY Dance Initiative, Mabou Mines Artists' Suite, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Meet the Composer, The Puffin Foundation, Frances Alexander Family Fund, Northern Manhattan Artist Alliance, The Cartwheel Foundation, The Kathryn and Ador Elnes Fund, The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, The New York City Council, and City Artists Corps, among others. She is an adjunct professor of dance at Wagner College here in NYC.          

                                                                 photo below: Fred Hatt

 

Karen Potter (choreographer) award-winning Professor, has taught at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio for 25 years where she was the Inaugural Chair of Dance in 2011. After performing in the ‘80’s with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, she taught, choreographed and performed in New York. Having danced works by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Pascal Rioult, she’s performed her own work and that of others at venues such as New York’s Joyce Theater, the Strand Theater in Shreveport, Louisiana, The Theater in the Woods at Wolf-trap Farm Park in Virginia, and in Italy, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey. 

Photo: Brad Petot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wendy Chu is a classically trained dancer and artistic athlete based in NYC. Her professional credits include stage, television, film, media and print for national and global campaigns. Her aerial training began as a scholarship trainee at Fly-By-Night Dance Theatre with Julie Ludwick and lyra with Heather Hammond, and most recently at Aerial Arts with Kris Olness and faculty. Also in demand as a fitness professional, she is a guest strength and conditioning coach for the American Ballet Theater Studio Company for the last three seasons. 

Photo below: Rachel Neville

ADVANCE TICKETS HERE

 ADD YOUR ASSISTANCE

with festival funding HERE

Incredible Artistry Coming To NYC!

NYC Aerial Dance Festival 2024

About the Artists

PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS HERE

Special Musical Guest:

Akim Funk Buddha is a multi-faceted performance artist with talents ranging from high-energy Classic Hip Hop rhymes, beat-boxing and Mongolian throat-singing, to body-balancing, martial arts, tap dance, and circus arts. Akim creates borderless performance art fusing sounds and movements. He is known for his holistic Approach to Hip Hop, drawing from a full spectrum of cultural traditions and artistic disciplines. Akim's exceptional stage productions transcend borders and has featured at prestigious venues such as The Kennedy Center (Washington DC), and throughout New York City including Central Park Summer Stage, The Blue Note ,The Whitney Museum (VH1 Hip Hop Honors), Lincoln Center Outdoors, Joe's Pub, The Winter Garden, La MaMa Theater & The Rubin Museum. His shows are featured annually at BAMCafé Live, The Brooklyn Academy of Music. He won the award for Best Choreography in New York's Fringe Festival where he choreographed for actors in the musical "Average Asian American.” Akim has made appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Sesame Street, and can be seen as an M.C. in the award winning Documentary “FreeStyle - The Art of Rhyme”.

 

 

 

 

Akim's Collaborating Dancer/Performer:

Paris Kylil was born and raised in NYC and started dancing at the age of 18. He began studying the arts as an actor and then branched off into dance, specifically in the style of hip-hop fusion. Paris has danced for Lil Kim, a NYC rap legend, in her 2021 tour, and was booked for the film "Once Again (For the Very First Time)” by Funk Buddha Casting which focuses on dancers with a specialized skill set. The film is directed by Boaz Yakin and choreographed by Rennie Harris. Paris has also choreograph sets for showcases such Syberite and Club NYC. You can find his content on his social media platforms @Paris Kylil.

 

 

Choreographer/Performer:

New York Cat (they/them) has performed on NYC stages since 1998. An NYU Tisch graduate, their successful Professional Musical Theatre career was re-routed by a hit and run that broke their back, leading them into nightlife and aerial dance where their work has been prolific. Cat has danced with The Ghana National Dance Company, in National Tours and Union Regional productions, can be spotted on Broad City, High Maintenance, Incarnate, The Bridge, Law & Order, music videos and more. Since 2017 they've been teaching and coaching stretch, mobility, injury prevention and aerial hoop. As a Trans, Queer and Vegan Artist Activist, Cat strives to fight for the rights of LGBTQ, AFAB people, PoC, the Poor, Animals and the Environment through their Art as well as their organizing work with The Poor People's Campaign. You can connect with Cat on IG at @newyorkcat.

Photo below: Santiagraphy

 

Choreographers/Performers:  Maia Ramnath and Medea Exogiinos began working together on creative projects in 2018. In January 2024 they performed their evening-length mixed-media circus theater piece, Conjunction at Theater for the New City. These amazing dancers will come together again for our festival!

photo above: Alexander Rivero

Maia Ramnath has created and performed many interdisciplinary works as co-founder/director of Constellation Moving Company, while also performing as a freelance aerialist and modern dancer with various artists including Pat Catterson & Dancers, Molissa Fenley, Fly-by-Night Dance Theater, Yonder Window Theater Company, Hybrid Movement Company, the Neopolitical Cowgirls, Lisa Natoli, Elise Knudson & Bianca Falco, Sarah Wollschlager’s Surface to Air Dance, and the Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy Group.

photo above: Alexander Rivero

Medea Exogiinos began as a gymnast, competing in USAG's Tumbling and Trampoline and then pursued concert dance, training and performing with Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. After two years as a scholarship student at The Ailey School, Medea joined the second company of Martha Graham, dancing works by Martha Graham, Blanca Li, Carrie-Ellmore Tallitsch, Virginie Mecene, and Medea's own choreography at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, City Center, The Joyce, and BAM. Medea also appeared as a freelance artist for Francesca Harper Project, Buglisi Dance Theater, and Gloria McClean. Since discovering more creative flexibility in multi-disciplinary circus arts, Medea has performed at venues such as The Box, Secret Loft, House of Yes, and Slipper Room; and collaborated with Constellation Moving Company, Athena Entertainment, Hybrid Movement Company, and ABCirque.      

Photo below: VivarPhoto.com

 

Dancer / Collaborator: Cecilia Fontanesi, (PH.D., Fly-by-Night dancer) is a dancer, choreographer, movement analyst, dance therapist, and neuroscientist. She graduated from the Laban/ Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS), where she is currently faculty. Cecilia also lectures for the Dance Department at Barnard College of Columbia University and Hunter College, CUNY. In 2015, she co-founded the collective of dancers Parcon NYC, exploring the relationship with the environment through movement and social reflection. Since 2017, she has served as Artistic Director Associate for the IDACO festival in NYC. She is supported by Cathy Appel's Overtime Dance Foundation. Her work stands at the intersection of modern dance, improvisation, social and environmental theatre, and neuroscience.

Choreogorapher:

Cherie Carson (UpSwing Aerial Dance Company) performed her first aerial dance piece in 1990 and has created more than 50 aerial pieces. Her first dance film in 1992, was named a finalist for the Robert Bennett Award in Los Angeles that year. Her choreography has been performed in a planetarium, on stilts, on rollerblades, in sculpture gardens, reflection pools, in a dress of 11 yards, on a bungee cord hanging from a Banyan tree, on trapeze, tissu, slings, rope, harness and invented apparatus. Her last six dance-for-camera films (2020 – 2022) have collectively been selected by 95 festivals around the world and have won 21 awards. Cherie currently resides in San Francisco Bay Area and is Artistic Director of UpSwing Aerial Dance Company based in Berkeley, CA. Since 2005, UpSwing has been a Berkeley destination for dancers and aerialists to lift their artistry and skills to new heights. Director Cherie Carson has a unique style that blends choreographed movement with improvisation and collaboration among her dancers and students. UpSwing specializes in merging dance with rope and harness, low flying trapeze (Motivity Trapeze), aerial slings, bungees, tissu, and other flying apparatuses. There are currently six performing dancers/aerialists in the company.

photo above: AK Sandhu

UpSwing Dance Company Dancers: 

Helium Valentine (dancer, Upswing Aerial Dance Company) began dancing in primary school with the Atlanta Ballet and continued technique even when she moved to the small town of Fresno in the 20th century. After a cold stint in Ohio to attend Oberlin college, upon graduation she moved to LA. There she eventually found the aerial arts, completed the Protrack program in Boulder, CO, then came back to California where she joined UpSwing in 2017.

Dorian Maffei (dancer, Upswing Aerial Dance Company) developed a penchant for going upside down by age three and went on to be a top competitive gymnast into her late teens, competing regionally and nationally. It wasn't until her college years in Santa Cruz that she discovered her love for aerial. With the combination of her gymnastics and dance background, she naturally gravitated toward rope, finding its dynamism and beauty in strength addictive. Her training has taken her to Santa Cruz, New York, and the Bay Area. 

KC Hyland (dancer, Upswing Aerial Dance Company) is an actor and aerialist specializing in dance trapeze and aerial hoop who performs in a variety of live and virtual shows for audiences seeking unique storytelling experiences. Fifteen years of competitive rugby have given KC a fierceness which manifests as passionate, soulful movement. Performing on dance trapeze and her custom red Tiny Hoop around the San Francisco Bay Area, KC can also bring her humor, room-filling personality, and a grinning charisma to any stage.

ADVANCE TICKETS HERE

 ADD YOUR ASSISTANCE in funding the festival HERE

 

Scholarship Student Profiles

Fly-by-Night Dance began offering FREE Somatic Aerial Classes to dancers of color over a dozen years ago. Participants from this FREE audition class have been offered scholarships to join the company class. Some scholarship folks have moved on to other aerial and dance work, others have come back again and again to "drink from the somatic aerial well" these classes offered.

Below are profiles on a few students that have taken many classes with us. They became an integral part of the Fly-by-Night Dance community and helped guide the training and the company in new directions.

WENDY CHU

Classes with Fly-by-Night have really helped my dancing to grow. It has been great to explore integrating floor dance and aerial work in this unique way. This combination isn’t offered in other aerial classes.

The technique is very thoughtful and it offered me a chance to do more improvisation which was previously outside of my comfort zone. The classes were a nice way to open myself up to that aspect of dance.

The Skinner Releasing Technique helped me gain technical understanding that applies both on and off the aerial apparatus.

 

 

BEING A FLY-BY-NIGHT DANCE BOARD MEMBER

Wendy joined the board in January of 2015 and has helped guide the company through many seasons. These are her notes on this experience:

Being on the FBN board helped me to see dance from beginning to end. Now I can say that I understand all that goes behind the scenes and what makes dance companies possible. 

 

Dance is a business and seeing the professional end of a dance company opened up my eyes to to how they are the same as other businesses. 

 

Dance is more than the glitz and the glamor that goes on the stage; it is planning and financial considerations that make performances and training programs possible.

MARTIN BORROMEO

I started as a scholarship student in 2018. I had no experience with aerial or somatic dance and I thought the training would help me diversify my dancing. 

It was a challenge for me to get out of my head for the somatic and improvisational work.

 

The work is special in the way it pairs  Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) with Aerial Dance. SRT assists the Aerial work but also improves my daily movement. I dance more full-bodied now and with more ease and presence.

 

 

 

In 2020 I had the opportunity to rehearse and perform with the company as part of their 20th Anniversary season. 

 

It was a great way to dig into the repertory and work on making a role my own. 

It means a lot to be a dancer of color on stage and to see dancers of color integrated in class together.

 

Fly-by-Night Dance creates an inclusive and welcome environment in an industry that often feels inaccessible and exclusive.

 

Each class is a reset; I let go of tension that accumulates through the week.

 

I'm in a roomful of wonderful people who are there to work in an egoless environment.

 

A different kind of work is being done here; I recommend the classes.

 

 

 

Please consider a contribution to Fly-by-Night's Programs via our online campaign HERE

Join our #FlyingInto2023 campaign by donating $23 by December 23 for 2023! 

 

2023 FREE Scholarship Audition Class: Sunday, January 15 11 am

Help us celebrate the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr Day 

More info HERE

WHY DO WE ASK FOR DONATIONS?

What Makes Aerial Work So Challenging to finance and produce?

 

 

Aerial Work - It Just Costs More

Price of studio space  - Aerialists always pay more for studio space than  floor dance folks do. Sometimes this means a higher per-hour rate but it can also mean paying fees for things like ladders or genie lifts.

Insurance - Aerial renters need insurance for liability and Workers Compensation and Disability. Other independent choreographers with small budgets often get by without having these things. We purchase insurance year-round in order to offer workshops as well as to rehearse and perform. Of course insurance for Aerial Dance also costs more than insurance for floor dance.

Rigging - we need to purchase and to replace rigging on a regular basis. Swivels cost $70, steel carabiners rated for live weight are $16 each, the rope we use is $1/foot. It all adds up!

CREATIVE TIME

photo below by Fred Hatt

 Creating expressive Aerial moves requires time. I'm talking years to pioneer an art form that invents new movement vocabulary. Everyone has their own process for this. We apply Modern Dance choreographic tools to mine the potential of the aerial apparatus. We've spent 20 years building movement vocabulary and we are always working to expand this as well as to train new dancers.   

 

Expressive vocabulary needs to be invented and refined and the dancers need time in the apparatus to do it well.

 

Time & Patience for Single-Point Apparatus

We hang from a single-point (rather than 2 points like a swing). 

The makes the apparatus an unreliable dancing partner because every small shift of weight can send one spinning out of control and often the apparatus wants to send your body in a different direction than you had intended (or what was choreographed).

BTW: this leads to an aspect of Single point apparatus that is attractive about this work - we never completely control a single point apparatus so we must cultivate an improvisational state of mind and this edge has an aliveness to it that is very interesting to watch. So, sometimes the negative is actually a postive.

It takes a long time to find the balance of control and improvisation and dancers need to train both mindsets. 

Strength Challenges

Aerial work takes strength. Most people underestimate how much strength it takes, particularly when a body is flying through space; momentum can create triple the amount of force of one's body weight. 

Doing static aerial work is one thing, flying around while hanging on is another. Chin up bars at home help but they are not the same; our bodies are built so that strength is task-specific so Aerial Dance strength requires working with the apparatus in the studio.

Finding and training dancers who can bring the subtleties of concert dance to dancing in the air takes additional rehearsal & training time. Dancers need strength and have to learn the intricacies of the apparatus.  

This takes an investment in dance technique (time in aerial class and rehearsal).

 

Limited Performance Opportunities

When small dance companies want exposure, they apply to showcases that allow their repertory to be shown to new audiences. Most showases cannot accommodate Aerial rigging because the space/ceiling isn't workable for rigging and/or because rigging takes additional time in the space to set up. Since most showcases also have limited budgets, they don't allow Aerial Dance choreographers to apply for their showases.

We need a marketing budget to build our audiences and to sell tickets.

 

Aerial Dance allows audiences and dancers to experience life in expressive and often joyful ways.

 

 

Please consider supporting us through our Go Fund Me Campaign HERE

photos by Fred Hatt

Somatic Dance Conference and Performance Festival 2022

During the first week of July Fly-by-Night joined a host of other somatic dance educators for the 2022 conference held at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. After our long COVID hiatus, it was grounding to re-gather as educators and artists to share our strong belief in the power of somatic dancing.

The conference included four days of workshops and performances in which Julie presented her workshop on Cultivating Joy and joined Maia Ramnath and Chriselle Tidrick in performing a trio from Where Shall I Send My Joys? Here is a picture post-performance.

Below are warm up pictures of the dancers in the  beautiful performing arts facilities of the Demming Dance Theater Building.

Maia in the studio.

Chriselle running through the dance in the upper lobby area.

The conference would not happen each year without the amazing organization of Cynthia Williams - shown here doing box office (one of over a dozen duties she does during the conference).  

 This year Cynthia also contributed a stellar performance in a solo. Isn't it amazing how many things can one female dancer can accomplish?

 Three of the favorite performers and presenters are pictures below: Willam (Bill) Evans, who heads the conference each  year, Claire Porter, and Don Halquist.

 

A special thanks to the amazing tech crew that also made all the performances run smoothly: 

Techical Director Mark Wenderlich  (who helped Julie rig for the show)

Production Coordinator Bill Burd (who holds the record for being the quickest stage manager to know his cues that I have ever met).

Sound and Light board operators Bryna Gage and Emma Yeager.

All Too Routine In This Country

I am going to veer slightly off the topic of art in this blog post to discuss human rights because art isn't going to matter anymore to the 10 people who were shot dead last Saturday in Buffalo New York. 

 

As an individual who attempts to "lead" a non-profit, it is important to pause and label what is happening in the state (and country) where I live and where I try to make sense of the world through the process of creating art.

 

 

Unfortunately the incident in Buffalo New York on Saturday was neither shocking nor unusual; it was typical of what goes on in this country. It is not uncommon in the U.S. that 10 people are killed by a white supremacist because he looked at their skin color and didn't think they had a right to be alive.

I'm not going to address the fact that 18-year olds can't buy alcohol but in this state but easily purchase  assault rifles (though that certainly doesn't help the situation).

I just think it is time to call attention to the fact that white supremacists are NOT living on the fringes of society in this country, and white supremacist ideas aren't only found in the dark corners of the internet. 

Every night millions of living rooms in this country tune into "news" programs that discuss Replacement Theory which fuels white supremacist actions, including actions like buying assault rifles and killing people of color.

Politicians regularly discuss replacement theory and other similar ideas to millions of people, including 18-year olds who can buy assault rifles and walk into stores to kill people of color.

Words are where hate starts but they can also be where hate stops.

So, I'm taking a moment from business (and blog posts) as usual to label things as they are. The legacy of hate in this country is very deep. And, if we can't name what is going on, we can't change it. 

 So let's call out what is being said every day in this country, let's identify it for what it is (white supremacist thinking) and what is does (spreads hate).

Maybe, just maybe, if we agree on the reality of this situation we can then come together to change it in our homes, our schools, through our art, and by our actions.

Reflections from Joy Workshops

 It is quite true that joy is contagious!

The participants of our joy workshops have proved that all  over again. 

Through meditation, movement and reflections on paper, all participants found a pathway to their own  joy and ways to share it.

To schedule your own Joy Workshop, 

contact us at flybynightdance@gmail.com