Fly-by-Night Dance Theater

Scholarship Auditions and Classes

2012-01-25T05:21:00.000-08:00

Every year we audition a group of dancers of color so that our classes (and the pool of talent for our company) can become more diverse. This year we had a terrific group of women who auditioned. (I wanted to take them all!) We offered five dancers the chance to join us for our mini-workshop on a scholarship basis and we gave the other dancers the chance to join us in class for the ridiculously small fee of $5/class. It has been wonderful to see how these students have taken to the work in a way that is not only focused but also community oriented - everybody works to spot and encourage one another.

So how do we proceed from here? Once we open the door to the training what is our next obligation to this community? Are there also obligations for the students to follow through on? It isn't enough to just come together for a few classes; how do we continue to build on creating diversity in our lives?

Comments....

Meet the Cast .....

2011-11-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

Meet the cast of our upcoming performance Apollo & Dafne and learn what they have to say about aerial dance and working on the show.

Summer Tennyson Baldwin (Mythical Dafne) -

Aerial dance has always been and always will be a great physical challenge. However, as soon as I took my first class on the low flying trapeze, I knew this is what I wanted to be doing. I feel more connected and relaxed within my own body when I am flying rather than on the floor. One of the main reasons I chose to take class from Julie was that she did not teach circus tricks. She pushes you to dance while flying not just perform stunts for a cheering crowd.

Kirstin Dahmer (Modern Dafne) -

Learning to work with the trapeze through FBN has quite literally added a whole new dimension to my experience as a dancer. Delving into aerial dance been an incredibly empowering experience, it's such physically demanding and intensely focused work, yet I continually surprise myself in classes and rehearsals by finding I have more strength and am capable of so much more than I would have thought. I've loved working on Apollo and Dafne and playing with the power dynamics between the sexes while coming from this place of strength. Working on the physical embodiment of the frustration of those struggles we face as women has been difficult, but rewarding and I hope seeing it can be an empowering experience for all women.

Ernesto Mancebo (Apollo) -

Working on this project has been a challenging and rewarding experience. One of the greatest challenges I have faced is trying to fully immerse myself in the mythical persona of Apollo. It has turned out to be quite fun because it allows me to indulge in a certain amount of arrogance that I wouldn’t really allow myself otherwise. Also, this is my first foray into aerial dance. Though it has been a trying process at times, I feel that it has also opened my movement horizons in a very exciting way.

Janet Aisawa (Cupid) -
Flying is a total addiction. It is so freeing and the strength that it has given me is unbelievable. (My goal when I began trapeze was to be able to do 1 pull-up before I died). This strength which has become internal now is what we are exploring in Apollo and Dafne. Having the physical strength transformed into the mental strength to stand by one's beliefs and passions. It's been very gratifying to watch the company gain in strength and conviction through the making of this piece.

Behind the Scenes

2011-11-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

When people see aerial dance they often comment about how easy it
looks. Well good, we did our job as dancers. We made the difficult
look effortless. Many don’t realize the hours and months that went
into creating that effortlessness. The choreography is figured out,
repeated, reworked, and repeated over and over and over again. We
figure out ways to defy and manipulate gravity, and move through space.

Aerial dance brings other obstacles with it: the sometimes
uncooperative partner (the trapeze), dizziness, nausea, rope burns,
scrapes, and cuts. Of course we wear these abrasions as badges of
honor.

The kinks and awkwardness have been worked out. No one witnesses us
struggling to figure out a move or the moment of someone else’s body
parts in awkward places. But of course through the sweat, dizziness,
rope burns, and sore muscles we have a few laughs along the way.

Get you tickets for our upcoming performances HERE

-Alissa Kaplan Soto, rehearsal director

Exploring a modern Dafne

2011-10-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

While creating our own version of Apollo and Dafne (that age old myth from the Greeks), the question arises "Who is the modern Dafne?" The original one lived in a simple world - a woman's choice was chastity or losing one's virginity. The mythological Dafne chose to die chaste by gathering all her force (and the forces of nature) to transform herself into a laurel tree when Apollo tried to rape her. This choice was made under duress, of course; she would have remained a happy wood nymph if Apollo had not threatened her.

Ideally the modern Dafne faces a different set of choices and they include saying yes to one man and no to another as well as saying yes to a man one day and no to the same man on another day. This modern set of choices has created a society that blames women for all sorts of ills including attacks on them because of their attire, or because they venture out into the world alone, or because their smiles get misinterpreted. (Aren't these women "asking for it'?) These scenarios involve the idea that women are powerless in public and therefore have to "watch" their behavior.

How can we put forth images of women who are as powerful as Dafne yet have more choices in their lives? When Fly-by-Night rehearses, I see dancers (men and women) who fly under their own power, pull themselves up from the ground, or simply hold their own weight in mid-air. I find these images encouraging and it means it is important to share this with the public, especially females (of all ages).

So bring your female posse to see our next show. Make a date with a colleague, a friend, your daughter or niece. The message is there - we all recognize a strong woman when we see one. Watching our modern Dafne as she navigates her choices can transform us all.

Get tickets to see both Dafne's HERE

NYC Aerial Dance Festival 2011

2011-08-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Announcing this year's festival participants! The festival has expanded to include two venues, offering shows in both Queens and Manhattan. This year's festival brings together aerial artists from all corners of the country. The show will include works on cloud swing, bungee, single-point trapeze, and harness. Here's a rundown on this year's featured artists: 

Fly-by-Night will present the mythical story of Apollo and Dafne with opera music by Handel, choreographed by Artistic Director Julie Ludwick. The main characters and their modern doppelgangers will reflect the sexual politics of our time through consensual and exploitative duets.  This project was developed partially through LPAC Lab Grant.

Cherie Carson, Artistic Director of Upswing Performance Company with dancers Ashley Foster and Kiran Haithcox, will perform Inside the Circle, a mesmerizing harness duet of choreographic simplicity.

Craig Whitehouse and Megan Cattau will perform a trapeze duet that exemplifies the beauty and skill of aerial partnering. 

Heather Hammond (of Heliumm Aerial Dance) and Sarah Wollschlager (of Sarahwollschlager.com) will present a quirky duet explores the (unfounded) stories we make up about others.

Chriselle Tidrick from Above and Beyond Dance silk solo, Absentia, follows a woman's experience of loss and longing that results in the discovery of her inner strength.

A New Season

2011-06-06T19:08:00.001-07:00

Summer is just around the bend and I'm excited. This is a season to come alive - to remember the summers of one's childhood when days lasted a looongggg time and it was all about playing, exploring, and daring physical feats. I remember the summer I learned to walk across the small monkey bars and then the summer after that I walked across the really high ones. One summer my sister and I stayed with family friends for a week and we figured out how to shinny up the poles of their swing set and then walk across the top. It was all so effortless. The idea of falling never entered our heads. I didn't know I was preparing for a career in aerial dance; I was just doing what came naturally (and was fun). So, now summer is coming and Fly-by-Night will be ascending and descending (effortlessly). Let's get together and expand our repertory of summer feats.

Check out our Trapeze Bootcamp this summer!

Thank You!

2011-06-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing end to our after school program at Muscota New School this year. Our culminating evening brought out a great sense of community and helped the students to share their learning process with their families. Watching the students as they practiced their volcano dances one more time made me realize how invested kids get when they are given the power to express themselves and the world we live in.

Some thanks are in order. We are so grateful for:

The amazing parents who brought us their kids once a week to explore our favorite movement passions. Thanks to this same group who helped our internet fundraising campaing reach its goal.

PA president Margaret Peeler for helping to organize things on the school end. Margaret made it so easy for us to do our job well; all we had to do was show up and teach!

The Puffin Foundation for their support of the program this year.

Wilma Leon for her additional support in both planning and financing.

You think we had fun this year ... just wait until next year!. We will be back - hopefully with an additional class.

JUMP!

2011-05-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Come see what we've been doing!

We can hardly believe it, but the last class is quickly approaching and that means it's almost time for the Muscota students' demonstration class. If plan to attend but have not received the information, please contact us.

In the meantime, the children are excitedly practicing their body-part dances and observational skills by having movement dialogs in pairs, and by working together in small groups to create short dances as a team. This past week we made explosion dances, in which the children used various types of jumps to create an explosive environment. It was fun to see how some groups chose to start with some rumbles and built to big jumps and leaps, while others started out with a bang!

If you'd like to review the five types of jumps with your child, they are:

JUMP (two feet to two feet)
LEAP (one foot to the other foot)
HOP (one foot to the same foot)

SISSONE (two feet to one foot; pronounced "sieze zohn," it is French for scissors)

ASSEMBLE (one foot to two feet' pronounced "ah-som-bley," it is French for assemble)

Students work together to create their own dance at the end of each class. The skills they are learning in this process (listening, cooperating, accepting others' ideas, offering their own ideas, etc.) go beyond the dance class.

Parents, a reminder that there is NO CLASS on May 12th! We look forward to seeing you all on the 19th---have a great week!

Halfway Through our After School Program Already!

2011-04-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

We're halfway through our ten-week residency at Muscota New School! The classes are practically spilling over the edges of the stage, with 22 students in the first class and 19 in the second. We're happy with the turnout and it's nice to see the returning students taking leadership to help those who are new to dance class this year.

Our time together has been full of discovering and exploring the use of our different body parts to create directionality in space, making diagonals, circles, straight lines, and curves with our pathways, focus, and actions.

The students create movements individually and in groups, working together to try everyone's ideas and put them together in an order that shows a clear beginning, middle, and conclusion. Two weeks ago the children worked in small groups to make "spiderweb" dances, using photographs of spiderwebs to organize the pathways and actions of their dances. In our last class, the children took turns drawing one another's dances and then dancing one another's drawings. We were amazed by how involved the students were with their discussions about their drawings of one another's dances.

We've also been laying a technical foundation in order to keep our bodies safe and to better express our creative ideas. For this we've been working a lot on using our focus (we wear a focus knob in the middle of our foreheads and tune them throughout the class as needed), and on articulate use of the feet (ask your child to show you goodbye toes, or where the barbie position happens during a jump!). We work on isolating different body parts by dancing up high and down low with our elbows, knees, spines, and heads. And it's very important to always move through the room in search of a perfect spot! A perfect spot is a place in the room where you have space to dance without running into any one else's body. It's inspiring to see the children take ownership and initiative---we look forward to more! In the meantime, have a wonderful spring break and we'll see you again soon!

Things to try at home:
*Pick a song you and your child both like, and have your child dance to it while you draw their dance. (Draw the lines and pathways, not their figure.) Switch roles, and have fun!
*Look at an object together and talk about its qualities. Then make a dance together using those qualities. Be creative!

After School Dance Program Is Set To Begin!

2011-02-04T10:08:00.001-08:00

It's Happening!

In 2010, Fly by Night Dance taught ten weeks of free dance improvisation classes to the Kindergarten and First Graders at Muscota New School in Inwood. We lost the funding for 2011 and thought the program might have to be shelved---but the school community has rallied around its cause! Together, the Muscota New School Community and Fly by Night Dance Theater have raised enough money to fund this year's residency. We'll be teaching March thru May and just can't wait to get started. Thanks to everyone who gave their support to the cause----these children will benefit so much, thanks to your generosity!

During the residency we will periodically post blogs of at-home activities to try with your children. Check back to see how the dancing goes.

Trapeze Bootcamp 2010

2010-08-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Wow,

Our summer bootcamp at Pier 66 was an amazing week - every one of the participants gave 100% (and then some). Going five days in a row in the traps is no picnic and everyone hung in there (so to speak).

The Hudson River proved a peaceful place to be early on a summer's morning and we all took in the view from various angles in the trapeze (sideways, upside down, etc.)

Cheers all around to those that participated!
Pictured here is Wendy Chu at work.

A special thanks to the crew at Pier 66 (John and Angela Krevy and the amazing workers there) who got the place ready for our early morning workouts.

Summarizing the Parts

2010-05-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

We explored so many things throughout this after-school program that it's a challenge to wrap it all up in one lesson! But that's what we did today.

DON'T FORGET -

Next week is our demonstration class for friends and families.

You should arrive at 3:00 if your child is in Kindergarten and at 4:00 if your child is in first grade.

In every lesson each student has to come to a place of focus and this is not an easy task for five and six, seven year olds--especially at the end of a long day of school. The students have been stretched and they have stretched themselves. They've become architects of movement and gained physical and verbal vocabularies that allow them to explore and express their world.

Dance is painting the space of the stage with your movements in the air and on the floor. You can paint the space with different parts of the body, using different levels, with different speeds, and in descriptive ways. Once you paint the space you can draw the dance. And then you can dance the drawing

THINGS TO DO AT HOME:
Find three different pieces of music (different genres, different speeds, high and low energy).
Play each piece of music and draw or paint while listening to the music.
Then play each piece of music again and dance to the music.
Pick your favorite piece of music and dance to it while someone draws your dance. Have fun!

Review and Record

2010-05-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

We recapped material from most of our lessons in preparation for our last class on May 20th. The review included shapes at different levels, dancing in place versus traveling, using descriptive themes, crossing the circle while changing levels, and sequencing and counting in three-part dances (traveling for eight counts, dancing in place for eight counts, and holding a shape for eight counts).

Something new this week was drawing our three-part movement sequences. We divided our paper into three sections with lines, and as we watched our partner dance their three-part dance we recorded what we saw with our crayons. First we drew our partners floor path (while they were traveling), then the shapes and paths they made in the air (while dancing in one place), and finally their shapes (while they held still).
Jenny (in picture at left) has two zig-zags with her arms and and X with her legs - a very interesting shape!

The first-grade class also had time to take a long look at a picture by the painter Kandinsky. They divided into small groups (Julie's group and Kristin's group) and applied their new-found vocabulary to describe the shapes, paths, and images they saw in the painting. Each group then came up with a sequence dance based on their observations of the painting.

Julie's group came up with:
1. beginning in the shape of crane's beak
2. making squiggles in one spot
3. taking an arcing floor path in their last squiggle shape
4. ending with a see-saw dance in one spot.
Kristin's group came up with:
1. making dotting movements while traveling on an arc pathway
2. slashing X-es in one spot
3. taking a zig-zag floor path in their last X shape
We will build on both of these dances in our next class.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME:
1. Take an S-path on your way to brush your teeth!
2. Take a zig-zag path down the stairs.
3. Practice going high and low down the hallway.
4. Create interesting shapes and hold them without falling or wiggling.

The first-graders can explore their sequence dance ideas.
The kindergarten class can continue to explore dancing in one spot and then dancing while traveling to a new spot. If they take turns with someone else while doing this, they can draw what they see.

Slash, Fling, Dab!

2010-04-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

Both kindergarten and first grade had their best dance class of the year today. The students are getting comfortable with expressing themselves in space and using their bodies as tools-- we saw lots of high reaches and quick descents to the floor.

They "painted" the space with their movements and experimented with different brushstrokes. They slashed on the diagonal with strong movements using our arms, knees, and heads. They flung their limbs lightly in all directions and levels around them. They made delicate, precise dabs with fingers, toes, noses, and elbows. Each student envisioned a color of paint to fill the room with and made brushstrokes while traveling past their fellow dancers without bumping. The students had to make clear decisions about where to send their "paint" in space and enjoyed sending it to the ceiling and into the audience.

After making these imaginary paintings, the students received crayons and paper, then found partners to make real drawings. One partner danced while the other partner simultaneously watched and drew the dance. Then they switched roles.

We had enough time in the first grade class to go one step further. The first graders danced a second time while looking at the drawing their partner had made. To do this, each dancer had to interpret the marks on the page and re-create them with his or her body.

THINGS TO TRY AT HOME:
Prepare Blank Paper and Crayons and choose your favorite energetic music. Have your child dance as if painting the air around them. While they dance, draw the lines in space you see them "painting". Switch Roles once your drawing is done. Then look at the drawing you each made of your dances and try to dance the drawings.

Pathways into Imagery

2010-04-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today in dance class we expanded on the theme of dancing in one spot and dancing while traveling. We re-explored pathways in the air while dancing in one spot and pathways on the floor while traveling to a new spot. We also practiced clear beginnings and endings. The students were able to perform these tasks with much more clarity and showed interest in watching one another to see how their fellow classmates accomplished the task in their own unique ways.

We exercised our imaginations using the images of prancing like a horse (on a straight path), scurrying like a mouse (in a zig-zag path), slithering like a snake (in an S-path), moving our eagle's wings up and down (on a vertical path), and lying still like a seastar (in a star shape).

The students are beginning to understand that they can travel on the stage in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal paths. We practiced going from corner to corner on diagonal paths with the following steps: prances, side chasse, and skipping. The students finished their diagonal traveling with interesting shapes, both high and low.

Pathways - in the air and on the floor

2010-04-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

What's the difference between a pathway in the air and a pathway on the floor?

Floor paths can be traveled on (walking, skipping, etc) and air paths can go from high to low in the air around us.

Floor paths are what we walk on or drive. We walk in a straight line down the block, we follow an S-path on a road beside the river, we make a diagonal path across the playground to be the first one on the swing set.

Pathways in the air we know less about. When we stand up and sit down our head goes on a vertical path. When we do from sit on the couch to lying on the couch, our head goes on a diagonal path. In dance class we explore many different pathways in the air.

Ask your child to demonstrate the following traveling paths through your living room:
              * S-Paths
              * Circle Paths
              * Diagonal Paths
              * Zig-Zag Paths
              * Arching Paths
Next, have your child draw in the air the same paths listed above. They can experiment with drawing with different parts of the body (drawing with fingers, elbows, head, knees, belly-button). This should be done while staying in one spot on the floor.

The basic lesson is this: What's the difference between dancing in place and dancing while traveling through the room? This is not easy stuff for a 5, 6, or 7 year-old to understand, but we're on our way and we will continue this next week :)

More Word Play

2010-03-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Students learned a new short dance that included rhythmic hand motions (clap, slap, open/close, circling) as well as traveling sideways, forward and back without losing the circle formation. Dancing in unison in a group takes practice, focus, and teamwork and the students are gaining a deeper understanding of each of these.

We reviewed our descriptive words from last week with shapes and improvised dances. Some of the words we reviewed included round, bumpy, smooth, pointy, and itchy. Then we worked in groups to explore new objects and discover new words to describe them. Although all the kids examined the same objects, each group came up with a unique set of words. One group of kindergardeners explored dropping straight down, moving lightly, and moving in a smooth fashion. They put all of these together to make a dance in three parts. The other group of kindergardeners explored the words stretchy, bumpy, and sparkly, and created a dance that cycled through the three words with increasingly shorter intervals.

The First Grade class had one group that used springy, floating, and jiggly. and they spent time exploring how to apply each of these to different parts of the body (elbows, hips, hands, head, etc). Then they shared their dance with the other half of the class. The second group explored bendy, bouncy, and skinny, and found new places in their body to create the words while also changing levels.
In addition to their movement skills, the students are developing how to be good audience members by watching one another. While observing, they discover a vocabulary to describe their classmates' dances.
The students are becoming articulate with their bodies and their minds are getting quicker at solving movement problems. We look forward to meeting again in two weeks after the Spring Vacation Break!

HAVE A GREAT VACATION!!!

Some things to enjoy at home over spring break:

- Collect small objects and explore them one-by-one and come up with a list of descriptive words
- Incorporate how the object moves by exploring how it drops, rolls, it sounds it makes, etc.
- Put each of the words on an index card so you have a pile of cards with one word on each card
- Place the cards in the middle of the floor face-down
- Step in, draw a card, and improvise a dance based on that word
- Put the card at the bottom of the pile and continue until all the cards have been danced!

- Lay the cards out in three separate rows and recite them as a poem or sing them in a song

Describing Our World

2010-03-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

In Lesson 5 we did deeper explorations with opposites -
Big/Small
Soft/Loud
Round/Straight
High/Low
Fast/Slow

This gets the students to exaggerate their movements and fully commit to their dances so they become even more interesting to watch!

1st graders explore moving large (above) and then doing a very small dance (right)

We also played with something new today - exploring objects and then making a list of words to describe them. Then we picked the words that had the best movement potential from our descriptive list to explore through movement.

Here are some of the words the Kindergarteners' class explored through movement:
Pointy, Sunny, Triangles, Circle.

Here are some of the words the 1st Graders' class came up with to explore in movement:

Pointy
Dots
Flat (see picture left)
Sticky
Itchy
Smooth
Twirls
Stretchy
Clicks
Slides
Spikey
Rolly
Colorful

The skills exhibited in this exercise include both language skills (vocabulary and working with metaphor) and movement skills (improvisation, clear beginning and endings, physical control, expressiveness, and generally exercising their imaginations).

In the picture to the right you see a variety of solutions to creating a dance about triangles.
In the picture below you see different solutions to creating pointy dances.

This is the next step in students creating their own dances (we put three descriptive words together to create a dance with 3 parts). We hope to make the leap to the students working in small groups together to solve more movement problems like this.

THINGS TO TRY AT HOME THIS WEEK:
Look around outside or in the house for objects to describe and make a list. Then pick a few words from the list to explore with movement. Remember to use all parts of the body in your movement and play with changing levels and speed.

Over, Under and Through

2010-03-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

We began this class with a review of ideas we have covered in other lessons. We created shapes high and low and in the middle that were straight, round, curvy, and twisted. Everyone is now able to quickly change from moving with straight limbs to moving with three-dimensional curves and back again.

Next we explored dancing with different parts of the body over and under other parts of the body - elbows over and under the knees, head over and under the hips, hands over and under the belly button. We found ourselves upside-down a lot!

Marissa had fun dancing with Sabastian as they went over and under each others' knees and elbows. They built off of each others' ideas without using any words to communicate.

We found new ways to make shapes using two hands and only one foot on the floor. Then we tried two feet and one hand, one hand and one foot, and various other combinations. The students were able to solve these movement problems in a many different ways. Kelly was really focused when making her shapes. She had great physical control and balance and changed her shapes quickly and easily without losing concentration.

Next everyone moved into their perfect spots (a spot where they have plenty of space). The Kindergarten class did this especially well this week. With a powerful gentleness, everyone traveled around the stage at the same time without bumping into each other. They did various traveling steps while doing this and kept their eyes out for empty spaces to travel into. Eva worked especially hard to find her way through the space without any bumps even when others came really close to her.

We then explored how to create shapes that have spaces inside them. This became a partner dance - one partner creates a shape that has space and the other partner dances through the spaces. All the students were exceptionally focused during this exercise to combine the skills of balance, physical control, flexibility, and creativity. In the First-Grade class, James and Lorraine immediately began their partner dance and were great examples for the rest of the class to get theirs going.

There were great example in the Kindergarten class too. Emily had her best class and was really focused in her dances with her partner. She made terrific twisty shapes with spaces for her partner to go under and through. Alma was fantastic in creating unique shapes for her partner to curve through. In addition, there was Jenny who loves to partner with other dancers and really gave energy to the group. Tristan and Sabastian showed great teamwork in this dance.

The First-Graders did traveling across the stage in lines at the end of class. Margaret and Deirdre both demonstrated their ability to understand directions quickly and were able to show the class what to do. Maya was able to get in and out of her shapes quickly during the traveling portion of class as well.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work and enthusiasm! We look forward to another class together.

AT HOME:
In the coming week, teach other family members how to go through the spaces in your shapes. Then teach them how to make a shape with space that you can go through in different ways.

Pretzel Day in the Auditorium

2010-03-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

Our "Twisting like a Pretzel" lesson included explorations on how our bodies work. We explored how the shoulder and hip joints allow us to twist our arms and legs. Then we discovered that the twisting of our spine begins between our ears and ends at our tailbone.

The Kindergarden class explored the opposite of twisting (moving in straight ways) as well as the opposites of high and low. We will be looking at numerous opposites in the coming weeks.

When we moved out into perfect spots around the room, each student showed an increased awareness of the space around them as they molded into their shapes. The students are now clearly aware of when they are dancing in one spot and when they are moving through space.

Pretzeling in pairs brought up many issues of teamwork. We reviewed our third rule: "Safety of the Heart." This rule is about making sure no one's feelings are hurt during class (we have to be nice to our partners!) We also incorporated safety of the body, which means that each pair needed to work with gentleness and physical control. The students found numerous ways of twisting together with their hands held.

The First-grade class has begun to put together a sequence of four events. Our traveling events were walk, twist, freeze, and freestyle. We repeated this by substituting walking with sliding and then skipping.

Things to do at home:

- Have your child show you a twisted pretzel shape and use a pipe-cleaner or ribbon to re-create their shape. Then switch roles so while you do a pretzel shape, your child will re-create it using the pipe-cleaner or ribbon.

- Try creating pretzel shapes low to the ground as well as high up on your feet

Round, Straight and Curvy

2010-02-25T17:32:00.000-08:00

Students are becoming more familiar with our class format. We begin dancing in a circle, then move out to our perfect spots, then travel across the floor in lines and end together again in a circle. In our 2nd lesson we built on our explorations of levels (high, middle, and low) and added the ideas of moving our bodies in three different ways - round, straight, and curvy.

It is clear that the students' spatial awareness is growing - there is less bumping into one another while dancing in one place. Students are also gaining physical control while creating and holding various shapes. The team work needed to move across the floor together is another concept everyone is getting better at.

Students are also gaining confidence in their ability to solve movement problems. For instance, they are more comfortable creating their own round shapes and round movements and less likely to copy the teacher.

Students were able to use all parts of their bodies, arms, legs, spines, fingers, etc, to create interesting shapes and moves. You will see these individual differences in the pictures included here of the first graders. Some of the most creative shapes today were the curvy shapes.

THINGS TO TRY TOGETHER AT HOME:

We are working on moving sideways.

Ask your child to demonstrate this by walking sideways (like a crab) to the right side and to the left.

You might also ask your child to demonstrate round, straight, and curvy shapes.

Then see if they can do round, straight, and curvy dances and hold for 8 counts at the end of each dance.

Spirit and Cooperation - Students shaking up an Inwood Auditorium

2010-02-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

What an amazing first day! As we began filing students in for their first after-school dance lesson, we could feel that excitement was in the air. After introducing ourselves and handing out nametags, we were ready to commence the interactive lesson.

Immediately, we began shaking different body parts, including hands, shoulders, hips, knees, feet, and elbows, both close to the floor and up on our toes. Once the wiggles were out, we sat down to come up with rules altogether - safe bodies, understanding activities, and safe hearts were some of the categories we covered (parents, go ahead and ask your child what ideas they helped contribute to our rules.) Together, we were able to establish the agreed conduct for the class.

After finding open spots, we practiced making shapes and dancing in one perfect spot, both of which help with physical control and balance. All the students learned to solve movement problems, such as moving at different levels (high and low), different speeds (slow and fast), and with different parts of the body, all without bumping into each other.

At the end of class, the students showed great team work and cooperation in traveling across the floor in lines together.

Activities to try at home:
- Play with high shapes and low shapes and holding them for eight counts.
- Improvise an 8 count dance based on moving these parts of the body: hands, head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and feet

Dance Vocabulary:
- Perfect Spot
- Side-Slide
- Low shape, High shape
- Stand Tall
- For first graders, there is an additional word: Kinesphere

Dancer Profilel #3 - Beth Disharoon

2010-01-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

When she was attending Juilliard, Beth collected stories and pictures of aerial dance, but never dreamed it was something she could do. Her first experience in the trapeze was helping a pregnant Julie to restage a piece for the Perry-Mansfield workshop in Colorado in 2003 - a whirlwind experience for someone with no experience in the air! Six years later, Beth was thrilled to return to the trapeze for Fly-by-Night's 10th Anniversary Performances in September 2009.

Originally from Baltimore, MD, Beth currently lives in Brooklyn, where she is learning to grow flowers in the yard and vegetables in pots. In her spare time, she enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles, experimenting in the kitchen, traveling with her wonderful husband, and eating ice cream, lots of ice cream.

During her 12 years in NYC Beth has worked in many companies and styles of dance. Currently, she's a senior member of Jennifer Muller/The Works and Lori Belilove & Company, and a beginner at Fly-by-Night. She also works mornings as a part-time research analyst at an investment firm. So, her days are happily split between the two extremes of right and left-brain activity.

Dancer Profile #2 - Summer Baldwin

2010-01-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

Summer was born and raised in a small southern town in north Florida. Her mother is an actress, her father is a visual artist and her sister is also a dancer. Her childhood of growing up in the woods included no TV, playing dress up, rope swings and a trapeze over her pool. Now she is 25 years old, flying around on a trapeze, performing in theater, and venturing into the world of aerial harness work. Her day job is babysitting for two wonderful families in Brooklyn. Going to lunch, sleeping in, watching old movies and being involved in musical theater are a few more activities that you can find Summer doing around the city.

Dancer's Profile #1

2009-11-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

A window into Fly-by-Night....
Each week for the next month we will post a profile of one of our dancers. This one features Marissa Maislen.
DAILY ROUTINE: Between going to classes and rehearsals, Marissa delves into her own choreography. With various dance projects stimulating her everyday, she winds down with a long walk around the parks of Manhattan. When luck is with her, she is able to borrow her brother's dog on her treks through the parks (she's a major dog-lover).
AERIAL HISTORY: At 14, Maislen took her first flight on a trapeze and never forgot the exhilaration. This happened while she was attending a summer intensive in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where Julie (Fly-by-Night's Artistic Director), was teaching trapeze-dance.
DANCE BACKGROUND: She's a recent graduate from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. During her last semester at Tisch, she sunk her teeth again into low-flying and hasn't looked back.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY: "Ah listen, for Silence is not lonely: Imitate the magnificent trees that speak no word of their rapture, but only breathe largely the luminous breeze." - D.H Lawrence

Circles of inspiration

2009-11-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

I love teaching. It forces me to be present, it demands that I stay focused, and it allows me to share that way of being with other like-minded folks. Whether it is pre-professional teens, or adult professionals, or adult hobbyists, we are all working towards our best selves. I am privy to those small moments in life when individuals experience an expansion of themselves. Each class is a mini-performance - I inspire and in turn am inspired. How enlivening!

10th Anniversary Season

2009-09-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Richard Ruiz for these photos of our September show (www.richardruizphotography.com)

Fly-by-Night Dance Theater: It's a Puzzle

2009-08-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Fly-by-Night Dance Theater: It's a Puzzle

See video clips of past work here

It's a Puzzle

2009-08-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

You know how it feels when you put the last piece into an intricate jigsaw puzzle? That is how I feel when a dance is finished. There are always a number of trial and errors in the process (no, that piece doesn't fit there!) and then that YES! moment when the right solution is found. We finished our new trio "Streams" in yesterday's rehearsal and it is very satisfying.

Summer Trapeze Repertory Workshop

2009-08-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Watching the dancers in the summer rep workshop was a wonderful experience. Everyone brought their all to the material and it was amazing to watch the work take hold of each individual week by week. The men made the solo their own with subtle but powerful changes while each woman played the material in a distinctly individual way. By week six we were surprising one another by how far the group had come with their performances. Take a look at the photos from the last 2 classes to catch glimpses of this. Thanks to all who endured the summer heat (and blistered hands!) to share their artful approaches to the solo.

IMAGES FROM PAST SEASONS

2009-08-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Amazing Casts and Happy Audience Members from past seasons...

Photos by
Fred Hatt

The Process of Creation

2009-07-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

After 10 years of making trapeze works in collaboration with dancers it never ceases to amaze me how many ways new material emerges. Some of my favorite movement sequences come from accidents. By this I mean a dancer misunderstands what I've asked for and does something else I hadn't thought of or, a dancer tries to do what I asked but flubs it up and does something even better. This season our dancer Summer Tennyson had a finger injury so she couldn't grasp well with her strong hand. The result was 2-fold: she gained strength in her weaker hand and she came up with some amazing material that utilized elbow hangs instead of hand grips. So my favorite move from our new Streams piece is derived from her injury, not something from me at all.

Since the world just lost Merce Cunningham it is wonderful to find ways to continue his legacy of creating moves and movement sequences through random events. I will look for more random events that happen in our rehearsal process this summer and report on what we discover. Do you have random events that deliver wonderful surprises?

Motivation

2009-06-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

People often ask me why I do what I do. There are many reasons and most of them are so intrinsic that they are not easy to articulate. However, I recently had a visit from one of my oldest childhood friends and some answers came flooding in.

My childhood friend, Jill, and is a perfect example of an Alaskan who has always led her life as an individual. Our last year in high school (when most of our classmates were preparing for star roles on sports teams, and attending proms and graduation), Jill went to live in France. When Jill and her family recently moved outside of Alaska they didn't go someplace obvious or easy; they moved to Thailand. When Jill had a summer vacation to spend with her teenage son she didn't return to Alaska; she brought him out to travel through a number of East Coast U.S. cities until her husband can join them in Chicago.

This is why, on a recent Sunday morning, she made her way to my apartment in Upper Manhattan. After a good amount of catching up over coffee, we made our way to the park with my 5-year old son. Gradually we found ourselves on the soccer field kicking the ball around the wet grass. Jill was dressed for the city - high heeled sandals revealed beautifully painted toenails - but that didn't stop her from joining in. In midst of this she began pushing to get at the ball and laughingly cried, "I just pushed you!"

Then the memories came flooding back - Jill and I as the first (and only) two people in 2nd grade who could climb to the top of the rope and touch the gymnasium ceiling, Jill and I as the fastest runners in any 6th grade heat, and Jill and I climbing up on the high school roof to retrieve lost tennis balls. How can kids like that leave themselves behind in adulthood? Jill kept in touch with her inner youth as a Kindergarten teacher. I couldn't resist adding an aerial element to my choreography.

There are many things to leave behind in life - small towns, college life, late nights out on the town. Yet there are parts of us that we can never leave behind. Instead we redirect them and continue to nurture, cherish, and share that part of ourselves.

So come take a trapeze class, or see a show. You will find things to remember too.

2009-05-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Our 2009 Aerial Dance Festival last weekend was a huge success, full of strong performances given to a sold-out crowd. The audience was enthusiastic and focused (some audience members were willing to buy standing room only tickets for the seven act show!) and we just want to let you know we appreciate you as much as ever.

For those of you who weren't able to buy tickets, don't worry---next year we plan to have both matinee and evening performances, so your chances of getting a ticket before it sells out will double. In the meantime, check out the idanz review of our festival.

With the festival behind us, Fly by Night has plowed on. We dove straight in to rehearsals for a new dance called "Streams," which is inspired by the force and forms water can utilize. And, big news here: We've added a new dancer to the company! Marissa started rehearsing with us this past week and has added a pleasant new dynamic to our group.

Photo: Heather Hammond performing Soon September at 2009 Aerial Dance Festival
Photo Credit: Fred Hatt

Going, going....(gone!)

2009-05-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

If you're planning on coming out to see the New York Aerial Dance Festival on Saturday, you'd better buy your tickets fast! As I type this, there are less than a dozen tickets left....down from 27 left at lunchtime...so don't wait, cause there definitely won't be any left to buy at the door.

You can purchase your ticket thru TheaterMania by clicking here.

Sara Joel, pictured here, will be performing (along with her bubble chair) in the festival. She is one of seven choreographers featured in this year's show.

Photo Credit: Howard Schatz

I Can't Not

2009-04-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

We just received the photographs from the performance we gave as part of this year's Cool New York Festival in DUMBO. The dance is called "I Can't Not"--as in, I can't sit still, I just can't not move! We'll be performing an updated version of this dance on May 9th in the 2009 New York Aerial Dance Festival. Dancers shown are Janet Aisawa (orange), Kristin Hatleberg (green), Heidi Turzyn (blue).
Photography by Yi-Chun Wu.

Ready Set BID!

2009-04-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

Fly by Night's annual auction is up and the bidding has begun! The deals run the gamut, as you'll see once you click here. On the auction block we've got: Private sessions in shiatsu, facial rejuvenation, yoga, craniosacral, thai massage, acupuncture. Designer purses. Books. Tickets to Roundabout Theatre. Bike helmets. DVDs. Life coaching. Trapeze instruction. You name it. Whew.

We hold this auction every year as a fundraising event for our company. All of the items on auction have been donated by friends and colleagues who support the work of Fly by Night and who wish to see us soar. We are humbled by the amount of talent, generosity, and faith that is offered in support of our work. Please, take advantage of the wonderful gifts we're able to offer as our thank you for your support of us. Isn't it wonderful to find formats that allow us all to benefit? Hooray! Now, go browse.

Pie in the sky

2009-04-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

The day has finally come, trapeze-dance gets its chance to shine! Aerial dance has been gaining popularity as an art form for the past decade or so, maybe longer, and most Americans are familiar with it through mass media coverage of companies like Cirque du Soleil and Project Bandaloop. But most of America's population has yet to be exposed to trapeze-dance. (When I tell people I do trapeze work, I often hear as a response, "Oh, like in Cirque du Soleil?") Now, with TimeOutNY's help, people can try it all out for themselves!

TimeOut Magazine has written up a comprehensive review of the best places to go in New York City for different types of aerial training. Aerial dance includes all apparatus (silks, cord lisse, trapeze, hoop, harness, you name it) and has become mainstream enough that some Crunch gyms even offer--what else?--aerial yoga classes.

I would call trapeze-dance a subset of the aerial dance genre. The biggest thing that sets trapeze-dance into its own category is its focus on transition. In our work we are constantly transitioning from dancing on the ground to dancing in the air, and the work is inherently focused on the blending of these two states.

Guess whose classes were included in the review? You got it---ours. We're happy that trapeze-dance was acknowledged and we're thrilled that our classes got a shout out. What we do is pretty unique---but you don't need to hear it from me, hear it from TimeOut! Then come join us in the studio.

So what is trapeze-dance, anyway?

2009-04-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

If you want to know more about what trapeze-dance actually is and how it differs from circus work, you should check out Cycropia's website. They're an aerial dance company based out of Madison, WI, and their website has a very good page that explains the form, its origins, and who's a part of the genre. The list of active trapeze-dance companies looks a bit outdated, but is still a great resource. Check it out here

This Year's Festival Performers

2009-04-13T22:14:00.001-07:00

Announcing this year's 2009 NYC Aerial Dance Festival performers! We're really pleased with the line-up this year. We received such a solid batch of submissions, and it was very exciting to be reminded how the field is thriving. This year's festival is a nice mix of returning and newly presented guest aerial artists. The show will include works on cloud swing, corde lisse, fabric, single point-trapeze and circus (2-point) trapeze.Here's a little bit about the artists:

Aerialist Anna Vigeland creates a world of mixed emotion on the cloudswing as her inner musings are portrayed through turns, drops, and spins.

Fly-by-Night will present I Can't Not. This work for three women on single-point trapeze takes the dancers' irresistible impulses from floor to ceiling in unexpected moves based on a single phrase.

Helium Aerial Dance / Heather Hammond is featured in Soon September, a 2-point circus trapeze solo that takes modern dance gestures into the air and upside down in one woman's journey through her day.

Kristin Geneve Young experiments with speed, strength, and momentum on the corde lisse in three times. Sudden drops and vertical hangs put an intense edge on this sparse piece.

MOTH Aerial Dance / Deena Frank and Aimee Hancock will present De Anima, a sexy, haunting, and otherwise enchanting trapeze duet inspired by stories of the soul in departure.

Nathan Dryden will be featured in Reach, a trapeze-dance solo that explores motivations within the universal action of reaching.

Sara Joel will premiere Surface performing in, on, and around a transparent Plexiglas sphere. The work captures Joel mid-pregnancy; the apparatus symbolizes her womb while the movement captures the essence of the life within her.

2009 NYC Aerial Dance Festival

2009-04-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

ONE NIGHT ONLY
Saturday, May 9 @ 8:30 PM

Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Family Auditorium
The JCC in Manhattan 334 Amsterdam Avenue @ West 76th Street

Advance Tickets = $25 Tickets at the door = $35
Advanced Tickets through TheaterMania CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
OR CALL 212-352-3101

Fly-by-Night Dancers With Invited Aerial Guests:
ANNA VIGELAND
HELIUM AERIAL DANCE / HEATHER HAMMOND
KRISTIN YOUNG
MOTH AERIAL DANCE / DEENA FRANK & AIMEE HANCOCK
NATHAN DRYDEN
SARA JOEL

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Photo Credit: Nathan Dryden

putting in some studio time

2009-04-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

Rehearsals have been jam packed for the past few months. We've been busy resetting a work that Julie originally choreographed in 2004, called "I Can't Not." We pulled this piece out of the archives and dusted it up to perform as a part of the White Wave Festival back in February, but since then we've added a new dancer to the company (more on her soon!) so there's lots of work to do, incorporating her into the choreography. Julie is the type of choreographer who never misses as opportunity to tweak her work---she continually strives to refine the textures of her choreography. With "I Can't Not," that means whole new trapeze sequences and altered floor dancing. We'll be performing the newest version at our upcoming Aerial Dance Festival on May 9th.

Right now our company is rehearsing one or two times a week for four hour time periods. When we're not working on "I Can't Not" we are working, always, on basic strength building and on creating two new dances to be premiered this fall. We'll have a big anniversary celebration then: Fly by Night is turning ten! We'll be letting sneak previews of these works slip in the coming weeks, so keep checking back for more on that.

Audition Notice

2009-03-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

DANCER AUDITIONS
Thursday, April 23rd at 10 AM. Company position for Male / Female dancers for our 10th Anniversary Season (Paid NYC performances).

SCHOLARSHIP AUDITIONS
Dance students of color are welcome to audition to study trapeze-dance with us in our Sunday evening Williamsburg workshop. The audition will be the first workshop session, Sunday, April 5th at 6 PM.

Please contact us at flybynightdance@gmail.com to set up an appointment for either of the above auditions.

And We're Back

2009-03-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

We are back to blogging with the happy news that the six months since our last posting were chock full of goodness. We had wonderful performances at the Riverside Theater in Manhattan (December) and at White Wave in DUMBO (February). Our last workshop series concluded just yesterday and was a very satisfying ten weeks-- a particularly focused group of students took class this time around and we were able to explore new territories together. We've also had some exciting developments in the company's infrastructure due to new grant funding. We'll tell you all about it in our next postings, but for now we're happy just to report that 2009 has been shaping up to be a good year. We're excited to be able to share it with you! Keep a look out for us, as we'll be posting news every week. And, as always, we'd love to hear from you, too.

Pictures!

2008-08-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

We snapped some shots on our last day of the summer intensive. They're posted on our MySpace and FaceBook accounts, but if you don't have access to those sites you can check them out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26824577@N04/sets/

If you feel inspired, come join us for the next round! Fall classes start September 13th in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Contact flybynightdance@gmail.com for more info.

Summer Repertory Workshop

2008-08-18T09:21:00.001-07:00

I feel so grateful to the artists who joined us this summer to learn my dark and physically challenging solo "She Comes Flying". It is a gift for me to watch people learn my own dances - to see them dig into the material. This is especially true with the trapeze work because it is so challenging. Each student comes up against some fear to overcome and watching them do that is inspiring. It is amazing to watch artists at work. The focus in the room is intense - both on one's own performance and the performance of others.

On the last day of the workshop everyone had learned the entire 8 minute dance. Each student was cheered on as they attempted to perform the entire dance then watched as the performers melted into the floor, completely spent.

Julie

A Pleasing Success

2008-07-12T08:23:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since we've posted, due to all the attention we put into our show at the Flea Theater that ran June 19-22 2008. We had a great time sharing our take on early aviation with the crowds that came and were happy to perform for several sold out houses. Thanks for all your support! If you came, we hope you enjoyed it. And if you didn't, don't worry--hopefully you'll get another chance to see The Amelia Project. We'll keep you posted on that.

Lisa Jo Sagolla, critic for Backstage, wrote a lovely review of the production. You can read it here:
http://backstage.blogs.com/blogstage/2008/07/new-works-from.html.

And now Fly by Night Dance is on to the next project--we're in the midst of an adult repertory workshop, teaching early choreography by Julie Ludwick. It's a workout, that's for sure!

Piecing it all together....

2008-05-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

This week we saw some of the video that we have been filming and started the task of putting it all together. The start of this project was difficult, where to start, what pieces of the film were not quite right. And more importantly what was going to be distracting to the movement that was going on on the stage. We are all learning with multimedia performances that we can't have one thing take away from another. Now that we have a trapeze, 6 dancers, and a film. How do we make it one coherent, cohesive piece? We tried a bunch of different things, mostly working with the flights in the first section of the piece, which meant doing them over and over until we found something that worked. It's coming together bit by bit and we're working on keeping up strength for the movement and then working in the last part (film) for our final piece.

Check out our new pictures!

2008-05-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

Way back when in April, Fly by Night showed a sneak preview of The Amelia Project at the Aerial Dance Festival. The festival was great--lots of variety from act to act, strong performances, sold out house, and paper airplane races to win free tickets to The Amelia Project in June! We've just posted some photos from the night and would love for you to take a look. Just go to our MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/flybynightdance. You have to have an account to view the pictures on MySpace but if you don't have one, don't worry, you can still see our photos. Check them out on our Flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26824577@N04/sets. Hope you like what you see--let us know what you think!

filming from our point of view

2008-05-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the Amelia Project we did some filming yesterday. The idea was to give the audience a sense of what we see as we are flying around upside down, sideways, with someone above or below us. First we had one dancer (Kristin) hold the camera and film the floor, ceiling, and herself while spinning. The result could make those with weak stomachs a little woozy feeling. It showed us how fast we are actually moving. Next we put Janet at the highest point on the ropes to film Kristin below her. This had its obvious difficulties; holding on and finding the flying body through a view finder while spinning around 15 feet in the air, with your injured foot stuck in a tight rope. But nonetheless some interesting shots came out of it and Janet is still alive and well. Although she will not be admitted to the camera guild. The next stunt we tried was attaching the camera to some pipes on the ceiling. This really produces some interesting visuals. We put the camera directly below us, then had Fred the camera man below us following us as we jumped over him. We were trying to find view points that the audience would never see. Sometimes the resulting image didn't much resemble a human body and could have been a part of some psycodelic art show. I am interested to see how Fred puts this all together. Come see the Amelia project and you too can see what we've been up to.

Finding Kinship

2008-05-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Pulling this production of The Amelia Project together sometimes feels like it’s as impressive a feat as flying a plane was back when aviation first existed. There are so many small details that, even if attended to properly, could make the whole thing crash. That’s true for all productions in administrative terms, but when you add one single-point trapeze shared by six performers into the mix, the possibilities of a completely fixed production fly out the window. Julie incorporates the unpredictable nature of the art form into her work with instincts that really do remind me of an old time aviator, and we dancers have to be able to follow suite. We prepare for this through training of course, but also with a lot of research.

The facts we find permeate the production in every way. Julie choreographed the floor dancing in the same rhythm as was made by the engine in Amelia Earhart’s plane. Our costumes were designed off of archival photographs of Amelia’s own wardrobe. We have our own little library of aviation books circulating amongst us, and we all seem to agree on Beryl Markham’s West with the Night as the most inspiring account. (Beryl was an African bush pilot in the 1930s and she’s very amazing—you should read her book.)

The physical research connects us to the early aviators in two ways. One is through simulation—or, I guess you could call it acting. We take all of our understanding of the risks and thrills and challenges and mechanics of early aviation and we put it into specific intentions and motivations that cause the dance to unfold the way it does. During an earlier phase of rehearsing, we would impulsively narrate our way through the choreography. I never guessed I’d cultivate skills that transform me from a tangled mess of twisted metal into the propeller as it tilts down into a nose dive into the pilot about to bail as her plane goes down into the mechanic, waiting down there on the ground to see if the plane survives the tests it’s never taken on ever before. Actors usually play separated roles in productions, and they usually stick to one role per play. We play separate people too, but we are all constantly shape-shifting. We experience flight as the people, the planes, the elements.

The other way we connect is through recreation—we fly in our way for the same reasons those early aviators flew in their way. When we come in to take flight, no amount of training and practice is going to guarantee the trapeze will do what we expect. There is an improvisational aspect that is simply us, dealing with the reality of the elements within which we move. I think we all feel a kinship with the early aviators in that sense. One of the biggest rewards is the thrill of having nothing to keep you safely intact save for your own reflexes. To have the world reduce down to you, your machine, and the air. Of course, our machine is a trapeze and so we only experience this reduction for mere seconds at a time. Amelia and Beryl felt it for hours and hours…..

Intrepid Dancers That Fly

2008-04-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason I keep doing aerial dance (producing, choreographing and teaching) is because so many intrepid people are attracted to it. These are not your run-of-the mill movers; they like pushing past barriers about fear and strength and going past comfort zones and doing new things.
Imagine a ballet dancer who has trained all her life to master control (of her movement, her weight, her style) and then she switches to doing lyra. Lyra hangs from a single point and anything that hangs from just one point takes a very delicate balance - one inch to the right and you have lost control. Having an aerial apparatus as a partner is like choosing the most unreliable male dancer ever. So it is unusual to have a ballet dancer take herself in the direction of aerial dance. Yet in our upcoming NYC Aerial Dance Festival, Carol Knopf will be there in point shoes, dancing with her lyra. She is like the ultimate feminist ballerina - who needs a male dancer to get in the air when you can do it yourself?