Just when you think you’ve seen it all, Berkeley goes and surprises you once more.
Last summer we reported on a Berkeley team of climber-dancers — a discipline that was certainly new to us. The AscenDance Project were evidently skilled, however, as they made it to the Top 48 of TV show “America’s Got Talent”. Now we discover something called aerial dancing — and, of course, it’s a Berkeley group that is showing the way.
Studio 12, which is located on 8th Street, specializes in low-flying trapeze, sling, and rope and harness work. The studio holds classes with six teaching aerialists, but if you want to see what it’s all about before giving it a go, the UpSwing Performance Company is making its performing debut with a show called Seven UP! on January 15 and 16.
The dancers — Hannah Dworkin, Ashley Foster, Kiran Haithcox, Elizabeth Milne-Kahn and Cara Zeisloft — are choreographed by Cherie Carson and the show combines video and light projections and an array of rope and harness and trapeze.
Included is “Snowbird”, a contemplative dance where the stage fills with snow and “Inside the Circle”, a dynamic dance with two dancers “pushing the limits of what they can do inside a circle tied together by rope”.
For details and tickets visit Studio 12’s website.
