On Thursday night, at the "Dance Baltimore!" celebration at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Towson University group Air Dance Bernasconi performed alongside the City Ballet, Niraja Dance Company and the Western Senior High School Dance Team. This night's performances by the various local dance groups were in the theme of Moulin Rouge, in honor of the BMA's new exhibition, "Toulouse Latrec: Master of the Moulin Rouge."
Immediately upon walking into the dimly lit theater, bright faces and a high energy level revealed the excitement and curiosity of the audience.
Two white hoops were the only stage props present for the featured act, Air Dance Bernasconi, and they were five feet apart from each other, suspended in the air by two ropes -- it wasn't much to suggest what the local dance troupe's performance would look like.
The celebration started with upbeat songs from the Broadway musical, Can Can, and a reverberating introduction from the emcee.
This festive atmosphere set the stage for Air Dance Bernasconi, made up of three female and one male dancers, all costumed in pink and purple leotards. The team leaped into sight, grabbing onto the white hoops and letting their bodies hang loose while swaying in the air.
During their first performance of the night, the dancers alternated between dancing on the floor and dancing in the air, with the help of white hoops. Using their costumes -- multiple layers of thin, bright colored material -- they teased the audience with the array of colors that they created while twisting, hanging upside down and swinging around with their legs and arms intertwined on the rings. It was an amazing combination of quick-paced action and grace as they deftly moved from one hoop to another; sometimes, all five of them were suspended in the air, two on each hoop, twisting the rope to create a whirlwind effect while stretching their lithe bodies into contorted gymnastic positions on top of their set.
The second performance was even more spectacular. The stage props, this time, were two white sheets stretching from ceiling to floor, forming a teepee-like structure. The music, composed by Brian Eno, sounded with a slow, hypnotizing, rhythmic pulsation.
The dancer, Jayne Bernasconi -- dressed simply in a shiny gray leotard -- sat in between the sheets, moving inside them to make them appear as though they were breathing, then she slowly appeared, one arm at a time.
She then climbed to the middle of the sheet curtain with surprising speed, about twelve feet in the air, and twisted the sheets around her feet and waist to keep her suspended in the air while she posed in several positions, hanging upside down, stretching her legs and arms in very fluid motions, literally dancing in the air.
She then unwrapped the sheets from her feet and waist, all the while still hanging onto the sheets, and wrapped them quickly around her hands to raise herself into a crucifixion pose. Finally, as the last act in this aerial dance, still suspended, she twisted the remainder of the two sheets from the bottom up and created a womb in which she sat hidden to the crowd. Even the fluidity of the way she emerged from the suspended womb and wrapped her feet and torso with the sheets and folded her body down to the ground was amazing in itself.
Jayne Bernasconi founded Air Dance in 2000, and is currently the artistic director. Her troupe has appeared in venues such as The International Dance Festival in New York City, as well as the Aerial Dance Festival in Colorado. Her dancers are specialized in combining modern dance with aerial apparatus, including low flying trapeze, fabric and steel hoops.
I had the chance to talk to Andrew Suseno, a member of the Air Dance Bernasconi to ask a few questions after the show.
"Aerial dancing was started in Colorado about fif years ago, and now there are thirty aerial companies in the nation. Aerial training lasts about three hours a week, along with modern and jazz dance training," he said. "There is a lot of contact improvisation, and for the most part, everyone has a different set of training, depending on what area of dance they perform." According to Suseno, there are classes open every Sunday from 1 - 2:30 p.m. on Falls Road, at a dance studio called Gerstung.
