Fly-by-Night Dance Theater’s NYC Aerial Dance Festival Set For Next Month
The event will run Tuesday, June 3 at 7 PM & 9 PM.
By: Stephi Wild May. 12, 2025
Fly-by-Night Dance Theater has announced their 10th NYC Aerial Dance Festival - presenting Aerial Dance as Concert Dance in works that push the boundaries of both. The performance will include dancers using various apparatus: Silks, Lyra, Harness, Trapeze and Span Set.
The evening will open with a ceremony led by Akim Funk Buddha, the critically acclaimed performance artist who draws upon a full spectrum of cultural traditions and disciplines, including rhyming, beat-boxing, mouth and body percussion, storytelling, break-dancing, Mongolian throat-singing, Indonesian monkey chants, body-balancing, martial arts, tap, and circus arts.
Featured Choreographers/Performers:
Akim Funk Buddha / Asha Flasha
Bobby Hedglin-Taylor
Cherie Carson / UpSwing Aerial Dance/ Helium Valentine & Dorian Maffei
Chriselle Tidrick
Julie Ludwick / Fly-by-Night Dance/ Maia Ramnath
Karen Potter / Helium Valentine & Richard Oaxaca
Wendy Chu
Aerial Dance Works to be presented:
**Navigate**, is a collaborative work by Akim Funk Buddha, Asha Flasha and Julie Ludwick. This groundbreaking odyssey combines Flexing and other street dance forms with the exhilarating art of low-flying trapeze. Drawing inspiration from the rich traditions of classic hip-hop and the visionary aesthetics of Afrofuturism, **Navigate** invites audiences to embark on a journey that celebrates creativity, culture, and connection. This unique fusion showcases athleticism while resonating with the spirit of both urban and cosmic landscapes with a music track by DTREE and live music by Akim.
The Dream Within, performed by Bobby Hedglin-Taylor, is part dream, part nightmare. The piece traces the tension between the longing to fly and the body’s revolt where the soul is whisked away to far-off places and the body knows no restraint.
UpSwing Dance Company, from Berkeley, CA and led by Cherie Carson, will present Origin of Happiness, a harness duet performed by Helium Valentine and Dorrian Maffie. The dance showcases the balance/counterbalance relationship between the dancers; the line they share is a heart nerve which, when stretched, not only holds, but ultimately opens the heart.
Homenaje a Lorca is a solo for aerial silks created and performed by Chriselle Tidrick. The piece brings to life the restlessness and despair expressed in Federico García Lorca's poem, “Ciudad sin Sueño”. The poem will be recited live during the performance.
Fly-by-Night Dance, will present Slippery When Wet, choreographed by Julie Ludwick and performed by Maia Ramnath. Driven by Joshua Geisler's electric guitar riffs, the dancer snakes out to the edge of what is vertically and horizontally possible, first along the floor in wheeled shoes, then by flying through the air.
Choreographer Karen Potter will present a silks duet, Into The Wind performed by Helium Valentine and Richard Oaxaca and set to music by Elena Kats-Chernin. The work blends the beauty of contemporary partnering with acrobatic aerial dancing; dancers emerge from a forest of aerial silk fabric, sweeping and swirling, then ascend in a breathtaking, gravity-defying duet.
Wendy Chu will perform Drunk on Lotus Wine, a solo on the aerial hoop, or Lyra. The work is inspired by the otherworldly heroes of the beloved martial arts fantasy genre of contemporary Chinese literature called Wuxia. The work was collaboratively choreographed by Chu and her mentor Kris Olness. Original music will be performed by the INTERWOVEN ensemble led by Grammy Award-winning violinist/artistic director Keiko Tokunaga.
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