1. 11December–January 2012 FrederickGorilla.com
like, ‘Every time [we dance on silks] we’re
dying.’ It may feel like that when you’re getting
conditioned. [But] you build up strength, and it
builds strength unlike anything else. It’s not like
lifting weights.”
Asked how she got involved, Lizard, who
was already taking regular dance classes, said
that when her mother went to her aerial dance
classes, she tagged along.
She wasn’t planning to take part, she says,
but when she saw what the dancers could do in
the air, she couldn’t help but be drawn to it.
“I was hanging out, along for the ride; and
as I watched it,” she says, suddenly sucking in
air and making a funny face to show her desire,
“I was like [to my mother], ‘You have to let me
do this!’”
Lizard’s sudden desire to fly doesn’t mean
she is completely fearless, however. Rather, her
fear of falling helps her stay safety-conscious
while rehearsing or learning a new move.
It’s fear that keeps a dancer safe, her
mother explains.
“We always have some students who are
not afraid enough,” she adds. “It’s scary as
hell, because they’re the ones who
fall. They’re the ones who
don’t get it that they might
[be seriously injuried].”
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Flying with the greatest of ease, aerial
dance company Updraft’s “A Conspiracy of
Movement” has been presented all around the
country—and the world.
“Aerial dance is really an amalgam of
modern and post-modern dance forms, as
well as circus arts,” said Therese Keegan,
founder, as well as executive and artistic
director for Updraft, Inc., during a recent
interview with Maryland Public Television.
Updraft: A Conspiracy of Movement
is a project with Global Homestead. Global
Homestead seeks to create and perform works
of art for rural and urban audiences, provide
performing arts training, and promote the arts
to stimulate dialogue around contemporary
issues, according to the group’s website—
GlobalHomestead.org. Keegan founded
Updraft about eight years ago when she was
looking for an aerial dance company and
realized she wouldn’t find one close enough to
her home in Knoxville.
Aerial dance” involves getting dancers
off the ground, through the use of equipment,
rather than just their own bodies. Typical
equipment might include things like low-flying
trapeze, aerial fabric or silks, rope and harness,
bungee, and all kinds of other really fun stuff.”
Stacy Brown, who works for Way Station
of Frederick County, is taking an aerial class
with Updraft at Dance Unlimited on South
Jefferson Street. She’s also taken several classes
that hangs from the ceiling as if it were a single
column. One may not realize it’s two pieces of
fabric until a dancer splits them during a move.
The dancers move up and down the fabric
using only their body strength—in particular,
that of their core—to pull or wrap the fabric
around themselves, or a body part, impelling
themselves about. During some moves, a
dancer—using only the feet—might even tie a
special knot for the foot, which then keeps the
Artist COLONY
By Adrienne Lawrence
Photos by Greg Phelps
in the circus arts and has studied it in
London.
“I don’t have a background in
dance,” Brown says. “I did pole dancing
for two years, like aerial pole dancing.
And I did a three-month circus course
in London.”
Aerial pole dancing uses metal
poles, similar to those found in strip
clubs, but these dancers aren’t taking
their clothes off, she explains. “It’s a
lot of inverted [moves] and spins,
that kind of thing.”
Brown is slim and graceful,
much like one would expect a
lifelong dancer to be. But she isn’t
a lifelong dancer. In fact, she only
recently became interested in
aerial dancing. She was drawn
to the class because of the pole
dancing she’s done.
“A lot of the aerial
[moves] is similar,” Brown
explains. “There’s actually
Chinese pole [dancing]; it’s
an ancient art form
in the circus, that’s
similar to pole
dancing. Plus they
also use silks and ropes,
the trapeze, and hoop.”
During the classes, students
dance, using swings and fabric.
One swing has a straight bar,
similar to a playground swing,but
the place where the seat usually is
isn’t flat, it’s round and slender
like a skinny pipe. The other
swing is a hoop, similar to a
hula hoop—and both swings are
suspended several feet off the
ground. There must be enough
space for the dancers to move
above, around and below the
swings.
When aerial dancers
work with swings, they call it
“steel.”
The aerial fabric, or
what the dancers call “silks,”
is long and a little springy.
It’s usually two pieces of a
specially designed fabric
“We always have some
students who are not
afraid enough,”
dancer safely on the fabric while dancing in
the air.
“Believe it or not, even though this
[fabric] looks all soft and pretty, this is
way-harder to dance with,” Keegan says.
“You have to be able to hold your own weight
on this.”
Lizard Keegan, Therese Keegan’s daughter,
agrees. Lizard is also a member of Updraft
and handles the company’s press relations and
marketing.
“It’s…physically exhausting,” she adds.
“But it does get easier. I don’t want it to sound
Flying
through the
air with the
greatest of
ease???!!
Frederick based aerial dance
company shows us their moves.