Introduction to aerial skills

An introduction to the basic principles of aerial movement on corde lisse (vertical rope), tissu (vertical cloth) and static trapeze. The Alexander Technique and release dance techniques will inform the teaching approach to encourage participants to develop a safe and creative understanding of aerial skills.

As Above So Below:
Corde Lisse and Tissu aerial skills

This workshop takes the floor as its starting point, and moves upwards to the ceiling, The vertical rope and tissu will be the focus of exploration, these being the pieces of aerial equipment which reach from above to below, linking earth to air. Basic and advanced aerial skills will be taught in a way which encourages creativity rather than rigidity.
Contact Improvisation, Dance and The Alexander Technique will all inform the approach. This workshop will be suitable to all, whether an experienced aerialist, dancer, or with no experience of either.

Several Stories High:
devising aerial performance

This workshop will look at how to use aerial technique and skill as a tool for creating work, a means and not an end in itself.
Games and exercises drawn from physical theatre and dance will be used to explore the choreographic potential of dancing in the air, the range of images and qualities that are possible, and the relationships on different levels of space and of meaning which can be formed.
Rather than focussing on any one piece of aerial equipment, the characteristics proposed by different pieces of equipment will be explored and how to work with and against these. The perception of the aerialist as an ethereal distant spectacle will be challenged by focusing on relationship: to the ground, to the air, to the equipment and to an audience.
We will map out the common ground shared by dance, theatre and circus, from which to climb into the air.
Solo and group work will be included.
Students for this workshop will be required to have had at least some previous experience of aerial, although this need not be extensive.