![\"image9\"](\"https:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image9.jpeg\")
<\/a>ADF 2016 offered the spectrum in terms of level of skill and variety of subjects.\u00a0Beginning classes included static trapeze, mixed apparatus, sling, lyra, and bungee (so so fun!)\u00a0in addition to floor based classes for all levels in Gyrokinesis, injury prevention, handstands,\u00a0acro-partnering, and pre-contortion. Intermediate\/advances classes explored techniques and\u00a0flows of fabric, lyra, low-flying trapeze, rope, and sling. Invented apparatus is a particularly\u00a0interesting class where students get to try out equipment like The Moon or The Cube and use\u00a0improvisation scores to explore movement on non-traditional apparatus.<\/p>\nSeveral classes went beyond technique drills and vocabulary to investigate more deeply\u00a0the creative process. Fabric composition and lyra choreography, for example, explored ways to\u00a0find new approaches to generating material as well as developing a dynamic and evocative\u00a0performance presence. Vertical theater method, taught by Rain Anya, co-Director of Paper Doll\u00a0Militia, focused on performance building theater-type scores, or \u201cgames\u201d, that have a variety of\u00a0objectives like getting out of your habits, new approaches to apparatus, body and spatial\u00a0awareness, and creating captivating characters.<\/p>\n
Each of the instructors had a piece featured in the showcase held\u00a0at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder.\u00a0A sample taste of these\u00a0performances was presented at the informal showing and discussion event the first week of the\u00a0festival called Intimate Encounters on campus at the University of Colorado.\u00a0The style and tone of each piece in the showcase demonstrated Ana Prada, who is from Costa Rica and just returned from teaching in France, let her body\u00a0breathe in her solo. She moved from a primal internal space, spiraling herself like liquid along\u00a0her black fabric in the low lighting designed by Craig Bushman (actually, all the lighting in the\u00a0show was designed by Craig). Ana taught Gyrokinesis as well as fabric and lyra at the festival;\u00a0the foundations of Gyrokinesis are the basis of her aerial work and approach.<\/p>\n Tanya Burka, who lives in Montreal, Canada, comes from a circus background and is a\u00a0contortionist, so her solo piece, based on the imagery of Starling bird formations as they\u00a0migrate, featured her extreme flexibility and some very impressive drops that were even more\u00a0accentuated by the super stretch fabric she used.<\/p>\n Rain Anya, a Los Angeles resident and the only instructor to teach rope this year,\u00a0demonstrated her exquisite momentum skills like butter on pancakes. Her\u00a0performance was an example of that cathartic moment when technique and stage presence\u00a0grab hands and go for a dance.<\/p>\n Nancy Smith presented a new work for FFP built from the reality that she has four long\u00a0standing company members, four new faces in the group Valerie Morris also choreographed a group piece, an autobiographical aerial dance using\u00a0the static trapeze as the common denominator between her intra-personal characters. The toe\u00a0hang as the closing image by Valerie, was a crowd pleaser every show.<\/p>\n Danielle Garrison stepped out strongly with her trio based on women\u2019s reproductive\u00a0rights. Red apples in mouth, Danielle and the two other performers used fabric tied in the\u00a0middle so to support weight like a sling, allowing the dancers to use dance phrases as well as\u00a0aerial skills to move through the space with different qualities. The audio was hard-hitting. Her\u00a0message was clear. Audience members applauded her for making a piece about something that dives into a topic\u00a0that is both important to her Sonya Smith, on the other hand, shared with the audience a hilarious, speech-impeded,\u00a0clown character who demonstrated haphazardly how butts can be art, as long as they are in a\u00a0frame using two differently sized steel window frames with handles.<\/p>\n April Skelton, the new Education Director for FFP, demonstrated the fabric-like\u00a0approach she uses in her classes for low-flying trapeze. Big drops and unique ways to flow\u00a0through vocabulary were contrasted by simple gestures and stillness of the body while the\u00a0trapeze spiraled and swung through the space. Very satisfying and just dang beautiful to watch.<\/p>\n Danielle Hendricks\u2019s solo choreographed by Katie Elliott featured an antique typewriter\u00a0and had addressed letters in envelopes across the front of the stage. Many other\u00a0dancers have performed this solo, but I\u2019m sure Overall, ADF 2016 was a success!\u00a0Whether local or international, everyone seemed to be there to play, learn and most of all have\u00a0fun. You could feel the solidarity of everyone working together to make this festival\u00a0happen and be a positive experience for all.\u00a0As a community, artists were actively helping each other, friending each other on\u00a0Facebook, getting excited about connecting with faculty, and sharing ideas and experience.\u00a0Even the rigging class got excited testing the load generated from the biggest drop the class\u00a0could think of. Even more funny was trying to get each other to do the drop because everyone\u00a0was so tired. The environment was supportive, the information was impactful. ADF is highly\u00a0recommend for aerialists of any level or no experience at all to check out what is happening in\u00a0the aerial dance scene. Just make sure you drink A LOT of water. Happy Dancing, y\u2019all!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many Thanks: All photos above are by Nina Reed Photography. Find more pictures of the festival on Nina’s facebook page.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n professional dancer, teacher, aerialist, choreographer, and musician, currently based in Austin, TX. Her favorite thing about aerial dance is “noodling”. She been know to put her pug in a sling and pretend he is dancing. \u00a0Find information about her at vitamindance.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 18th annual Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, CO recently brought together aerial\u00a0artists from across the U.S., as well as abroad, for two weeks of training, networking, and\u00a0soaking up the beauty of Boulder. Attendees came from all over ranging from Lake Tahoe, CA\u00a0to Madison WI, to Hawaii, to New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Canada. August … Continue reading “Aerial Dance Festival Wrap Up 2016”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1022,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aerialdancing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>As Nancy likes to remind students at ADF, aerial dance is a descendant of modern\/post\u00a0modern dance and that is why there is always a dance class offered. It shows\u00a0for our individual and collective dance and aerial lineages. As such,\u00a0Katie Elliot, co-Director of 3 rd Law Dance\/Theater, held down the dance studio both\u00a0weeks teaching an int\/adv quirky and momentum-driven modern dance technique class as well\u00a0as presented two works in the weekend showcase, one of which was her first dabble in aerial\u00a0choreography in collaboration with Nancy Smith.<\/p>\n<\/a>the ideologies and\u00a0themes of the performer and, in turn, what these performers focus on in their teaching.<\/p>\n<\/a>and how do you bring all these people\u00a0together? The piece featured an invented apparatus called The Window, flow flying trapeze,\u00a0fabric, lyra, and the piece demonstrated creative ways to weave soft and hard, vertical and\u00a0horizontal, bodies and equipment.<\/p>\n<\/a>as well as is a political and religiously charged one.<\/p>\n<\/a>none do it like Hendricks. She is quite the\u00a0powerhouse.<\/p>\nAuthor<\/span><\/h3>\n
Veronica DeWitt<\/span><\/h6>\n