Negotiating two ropes and a bar: performance training for aerial dance duets

Abstract

This article proposes a methodology for training partnering in aerial dance that I developed while restaging a trapeze duet with four undergraduate students in a semester-long performance course. Due to safety considerations inherent in the aerial arts, including risk of falling, beginning instruction typically focuses on individual skill acquisition and solo performance. Training for partnering, defined as two dancers sharing one apparatus, involves re-calibrating foundational aerial skills while sharing space and weight with another person. It also involves a shift in perspective from focusing solely on one’s own personal safety to attending to the well-being of another. To facilitate this transition, I implemented a training programme focused on soft skill development alongside physical skill acquisition. Drawing on my embodied lineage of modern dance and improvisation, I adapted ground-based dance exercises that highlight cognitive and interpersonal skills for a novel context in the air. I found this methodology effective in helping novice duo performers safely and successfully achieve aerial partnering choreography.

Keywords:

• Aerial dance
• aerial arts
• partnering
• pedagogy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Stich

Elizabeth Stich is an artist-scholar specialising in contemporary and aerial dance. Elizabeth holds an MFA from the University of Utah, a certificate in Laban Movement Analysis, and is a graduate of New England Center for Circus Arts. Her research on aerial dance in higher education has been published in the Journal of Dance Education and presented at the National Dance Education Organization. She created and directed the aerial dance program at Utah Tech University and is now an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Georgia.