:::::vertical dance network: Aeriosa Dance Society

Newsworthy

Home/Domicile

Clip of recent movement research developing new material for site-specific choreography of our Home/Domicile project. Thank you to EDAM for donating their beautiful rehearsal space. Free admission performances will be presented on The Dance Centre building.

Home/Domicile ~ An Urban Eclipse of Moths ~

Home/Domicile is an urban iteration of the ongoing collaboration between visual artist Sarah E. Fuller and choreographer Julia Taffe, performing with Sarah's camouflaging moth cloaks in the landscape. Aeriosa will be welcoming Vancouver-based visual artist Stuart Ward to the Home/Domicile creative team during rehearsals on the exterior of the Scotiabank Dance Centre in August and September 2021.

Home/Domicile evokes issues surrounding urban displacement by releasing an ‘eclipse of moths' into a vacant lot behind the Dance Centre Building. Part art installation, part live performance, the collaborators examine how moths fascinate and repel us. These tiny alien creatures provoke visceral human responses: fear, loathing, and wonder. We exterminate moths for the heinous crime of nestling into our personal domiciles, and we extirpate them by destroying the delicate ecological systems they need to survive. Whether they are eating their way through our treasured clothing or fluttering in great numbers through the air, moths never fail to capture our attention.

Free admission performances of Home/Domicile will be presented on the exterior of the Dance Centre Building at the Scotiabank Dance Centre 20th Anniversary Open House on October 2nd. Stay tuned, the show times will be announced in September.

Current/Dance Community
Butterflies in Spirit join Aeriosa on the Wall

Next week, Aeriosa will be resuming vertical dance training workshops with Butterflies in Spirit on the exterior of the Scotiabank Dance Centre Building. Practicing with ropes and harnesses on the 90ft wall is an effective way for dancers to build skills and stamina for performing in the air, while the wall functions as the vertical dance floor.

Due to Covid precautions, our artists haven’t been able to dance together in person since 2020. Our last group training sessions took place in June 2019, when the Butterflies took part in the Vancouver International Vertical Dance Summit professional development workshops. Below are some photos from their very first session, working with Aeriosa company dancers Julia Carr, Cara Siu, and Keely Sills, along with UK guest artists Kate Lawrence and Vince Virr.

We are so excited to start dancing together again and are preparing a new performance that releases the spirits of MMIWG into the air and also honours Butterflies in Spirit's 10th Anniversary in 2022.

New Aeriosa T-shirts and other fun Merchandise

Our Aeriosa shirts have been loved by many over the years, and we are committed to caring for the earth by reducing our waste wherever we can. In that spirit, we have a new ‘shop’ page on our website where you can order exactly what you want and have it shipped directly to you. We have Organic T-shirts in addition to some other fun items available. Check out our shop page.

The annual Orange Shirt Day on September 30th opens the door to global conversation on all aspects of Residential Schools. It is an opportunity to create meaningful discussion about the effects of Residential Schools and the legacy they have left behind. This is a discussion all Canadians can tune into that can help create the bridges needed for reconciliation. This is a day for survivors to be reassured that they matter, as do all those who have been affected. Every Child Matters, even if they are now an adult. To learn more, please visit orangeshirtday.org.

Please note that all proceeds from the sales of Aeriosa's orange T-shirts will support artist fees for Butterflies in Spirit dancers.

Aeriosa is often inspired by nature. When dancing outdoors, we regularly encounter other species. This next column is dedicated to learning about our friends in flight.

Featured Feathered Friends

The Hawaiian Nēnē bird (Branta sandvicensis) is a medium size goose with a black head, nape and bill, and oblique black and white furrows on the neck, with the white predominant at both ends. The breast is grey, and the under parts finely barred with grey. The back is darker grey with the feathers edged in white. The Latin species name ‘sandvicensis’ refers to the former name of the Hawaiian Islands, the Sandwich Islands.

The nēnē is the world’s rarest goose, having gone down to a population of only 30 in 1952. However this bird breeds well in captivity, and there are now around 1,000 individuals in zoos around the world. Thanks to conservation efforts, the wild population has rebounded to around 800 birds.

Found only on Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island of Hawaii, the nēnē is endemic to Hawaii and is the state bird. DNA analysis has shown that the nēnē evolved from the Canada goose over hundreds of thousands of years. (There are still some Canada geese that will show up in Hawaii during their yearly migration.) At some point in the past, there was also the giant nēnē, but it is now extinct.