Aerial Dance - Jayne Bernasconi and Nancy Smith

Aerial Dance

by Jayne Bernasconi and Nancy Smith

NEW, 144 pages plus DVD

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About Aerial Dance

Aerial Dance is the first book to showcase this newest dance genre. The book traces the historical roots of this latest art form, which is rapidly gaining in popularity. It also defines its place in the lineage of modern dance and addresses aesthetics, philosophical approaches to teaching, and safety issues.

Aerial Dance will be of great interest to all those associated with or attracted to this emerging art form. Whether a novice or professional, a practitioner or educator, they will learn from those who helped shape aerial dance into what it is today. Through this book and DVD package, readers will

• gain insight from essays written by leading choreographers in the field;
  
• gain a greater understanding of and appreciation for aerial dance choreography through “Look Up!” features that provide cross-references to video performance clips on the DVD; and
  
• view high-quality photographs that illustrate the origins of aerial dance.

Part I details the evolution of aerial dance and its place in a postmodern world. It delves into the aesthetics of aerial dance and the differences between this genre and circus-based aerial arts.
Part II presents a variety of essays from many of the top artists in the field who provide insight into their own approaches to aerial dance. The book also presents a variety of teaching applications, including ideas for working with special populations and related art forms.
Part III is all about safety, including injury prevention, rigging, other safety-related issues. This part helps readers understand anatomical and physiological issues regarding safety.

Note that Aerial Dance is not meant as an instruction book in choreographing or executing aerial dance moves. No book can ensure safe rigging or keep a dancer from falling. Those who are interested in learning and practicing aerial dance must first find a skilled and experienced teacher. The appendix includes contact information on aerial dancers, teachers, festivals, and aerial dance equipment.

Readers will find great insight and direction from seasoned experts in this innovative dance form. Aerial Dance captures the passion of the genre and helps readers appreciate the creative possibilities it offers.

About Jayne Bernasconi

Jayne Bernasconi, MA, is an adjunct professor of dance at Towson University and aerial dance instructor at Gerstung in Baltimore. A professional dancer, choreographer, and educator for 25 years, she is the founder and artistic director of Air Dance Bernasconi, a nonprofit aerial dance company in Baltimore since 2000. Since that time, her dance company has created more than 25 full-scale aerial dances.

Ms. Bernasconi teaches all levels of modern dance, composition, history, and fundamentals of dance courses at Towson University, and she has designed and taught aerial dance classes, including aerial yoga and a mixed-ability aerial dance, to more than 800 students in the Baltimore and Washington, DC, area. In addition to founding her own dance company, she founded and was artistic director for Forces of Ability (a mixed-ability dance company) and Artsability (for children). She has received several grants and fellowships to further her choreographic endeavors.

When she's not busy with her dance company or teaching, she enjoys competing in triathlons, playing the piano, and hanging out with her family (without, if possible, embarrassing her two teenage daughters).

About Nancy E. Smith

Nancy E. Smith founded Frequent Flyers Productions in Boulder, Colorado, in 1988 and serves as the artistic director.

Ms. Smith is an alumna of the Colorado College and studied in the master's program in dance at UCLA before moving to Seattle to work with Joan Skinner's dance company. Since 1985, she has taught low-flying trapeze and releasing technique around the United States. Her work with Frequent Flyers Productions has been seen in the Bahamas, Boston, Utah, New Orleans, and Montreal and throughout Colorado. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the first Cutting Edge Award from the Colorado Dance Alliance, the Boulder County Pacesetters Award for Arts and Entertainment, Women Who Light the Community Award from the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, a Neodata Endowment Fellowship in Dance, and the Arts Innovation Award from the Colorado Federation of the Arts.

Frequent Flyers Productions has gained international recognition as a pioneer in the field of aerial dance. The company launched the highly acclaimed Aerial Dance Festival in 1999. This annual offering has brought prominence to the company for advancing the art form of aerial dance.

Ms. Smith enjoys spending time with her family, reading, knitting, and traveling.

About Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans, and is also performed by other animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance). Gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are sports that incorporate dance, while martial arts kata are often compared to dances. Motion in ordinarily inanimate objects may also be described as dances (the leaves danced in the wind).

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.

Dancing has evolved many styles. Breakdancing and Krumping are related to the hip hop culture. African dance is interpretative. Ballet, Ballroom, Waltz, and Tango are classical styles of dance while Square and the Electric Slide are forms of step dances.

Every dance, no matter what style, has something in common. It not only involves flexibility and body movement, but also physics. If the proper physics is not taken into consideration, injuries may occur.

Choreography is the art of creating dances. The person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a dance is known as the choreographer.

Dance does not leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to say when dance became part of human culture. Dance has certainly been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. Archeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the 9,000 year old Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC.

One of the earliest structured uses of dances may have been in the performance and in the telling of myths. It was also sometimes used to show feelings for one of the opposite gender. It is also linked to the origin of "love making." Before the production of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation.

Another early use of dance may have been as a precursor to ecstatic trance states in healing rituals. Dance is still used for this purpose by many cultures from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert.

Sri Lankan dances goes back to the mythological times of aboriginal yingyang twins and "yakkas" (devils). According to a Sinhalese legend, Kandyan dances originate, 250 years ago, from a magic ritual that broke the spell on a bewitched king. Many contemporary dance forms can be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.

Aerial Dance