The San Francisco Bay Area is home to some of the most important pioneers in aerial dance and award-winning circus aerial artists. Every two years, Zaccho celebrates these unconventional and innovative artists alongside their international counterparts in a world-class festival devoted to aerial artistry in all its shapes and forms.
Founded in 2014, Zaccho’s biennial San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival is a curated festival devoted to the excellence of aerial artistry. Our goals are to support, challenge, and inspire leaders in the aerial dance field to explore new territory and to deepen public appreciation of this complex art form.
The San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival is a place of convergence for the finest performers and practitioners working today in circus aerial arts and aerial dance. The artists appreciate our festival as an opportunity to showcase their artistry as it is rarely seen side-by-side in a multi-faceted, site-specific celebration presented against the historic backdrop of the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture. Zaccho’s legacy as a presenter of groundbreaking site-specific work and aerial dance makes it the perfect organization to realize these goals.
For the 2024 festival, the proscenium and site-specific performances will be presented at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture on August 16-18, 2024. Fort Mason provides an extraordinary canvas for the festival and allows us to present our artists with distinction. Fort Mason's Cowell Theater is a 435-seat house well-suited for concert aerial work.
To facilitate engagement and deepen shared knowledge about aerial dance, we invite attendees and performers to participate in community talkbacks and panel discussions with established artists.
New in 2024, the San Francisco Aerial Arts Film Festival will showcase a curated selection of films that capture the grace, strength, and imagination of the aerial arts, pushing the boundaries of what's possible. The film festival will screen parallel to the live performances at Fort Mason. Learn more about the Film Festival here.
Come hang at The Hub! The perfect landing ground between film screenings and performances for festival goers and artists. The Hub is a space for relaxing, conversing, and recharging. Food and beverage will be available for purchase, or bring a snack of your own to enjoy on the beautiful 2nd level landing of the Gateway Pavilion. Open Saturday & Sunday afternoons!
Accessibility Services:
Live Audio Description and Haptic Access Tour will be offered for visually impaired audience members by Gabriele Christian of Gravity Access Services during the following performances:
Friday, August 16th - Cowell Theater Showcase at 8 pm
Saturday, August 17th - Gateway Pavilion Site Works at 3 pm
Saturday, August 17th - Cowell Theater Showcase at 8 pm
Haptic Access Tours begin one hour before curtain at 7 pm for the 8 pm showcases and at 2 pm for the 3 pm matinee.
ASL services will also be provided by ASL Interpreters Cathleen Riddley and Debby Kajiyama during the following performances:
Friday, August 16th - Cowell Theater Showcase at 8 pm
Saturday, August 17th - Gateway Pavilion Site Works at 3 pm
Saturday, August 17th - Cowell Theater Showcase at 8 pm
Please email sfaerialartsfest@zaccho.org or call (415) 822-6744 with questions and to pre-register and reserve a headset.
Support for the 2024 SF Aerial Arts Festival is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, the San Francisco Dream Keeper Initiative, San Francisco Human Rights Commission, California Arts Council, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, the Terry Sendgraff Trust, and Zaccho's community of generous individual donors.
At its core Dawson’s creative philosophy is rooted in the notions of cultural and human respect that aims to move beyond social biases and divisions that may otherwise prevent individuals from expressing who they truly are. Working from truths allows us to be open and giving with our works.
Aeriosa Dance Society
Dance on earth, in air. Aeriosa creates dance in unexpected places and in unusual ways. Artistic Director, Julia Taffe merges choreography, environment, and theatre with her professional climbing background and traditional dance training.
Julia's dancers are empowered to fly, yet remain connected to the wild and natural landscape of the seashore, forests, mountains and crags. Her innovative choreography also has roots in the urban world of high-rises, historical buildings, public plazas, theatres, parks and gardens.
Taffe founded Aeriosa in 2005, to explore the transformative potential of vertical dance in collaboration with diverse local and international peers. Tracing connections between traditional and contemporary practices, Aeriosa artists contribute to the worldwide impact and relevance of vertical dance.
Aeriosa keeps in mind our privileges and impacts as non-Indigenous people prospering on the unceded homelands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm , Skwxwú7mesh , and Səl̓ílwətaɬ in our urban Vancouver home. Our rural office is in Ucluelet, within Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government Maa-nulth Treaty Lands and we are proud ƛaʔuukwiiʔatḥ Tribal Parks Allies.
Corporeal Imago
Corporeal Imago (CI) explores contemporary tragedy through an intersection of aerial acrobatics, contemporary dance and visual theatre. Speaking to the disenchantment of our times, the company’s work bridges the apotheosis of circus, and its metaphor for surpassing our human limitations, with the cathartic potential of dance.
Brought together by their shared background in dance and theatre, choreographers Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes co-founded CI while performing as principal characters with Cirque du Soleil’s TORUK in 2018. For two artists used to performing circus as entertainment, CI has become a carte blanche to explore the shadow side of our human experience. Since founding the company in 2018, their work has been presented across Canada and internationally, was nominated for a TOTAL THEATRE AWARD in Physical and Visual Theatre (UK, 2019), and won The Dance Centre’s Isadora Award for excellence in choreography (Vancouver, 2022).
Zaccho Dance Theatre
Under the direction of Joanna Haigood, Zaccho Dance Theatre has been making history since 1980. Zaccho is internationally renowned for its site specific performances that investigate dance as it relates to place. Using innovative aerial techniques to create a dynamic and more dimensional performance space, Zaccho has produced large scale works for many extraordinary landmarks, including San Francisco City Hall, Popes’ Palace in France, the San Francisco International Airport, Fort Point National Monument, and Port Authority Grain Terminal in Brooklyn.
Veronica Blair
Veronica Blair, performer, has emerged as one of the top Black aerialists in the country, and has taken her high-flying talents all around the world. Blair, a Bay Area native, began her career at the age of 14 at the former San Francisco School of Circus Arts, now known as the Circus Center San Francisco. Shortly after making her debut at 17, she was noticed by Cedric Walker, the founder of the Universoul Circus. Walker named Blair as a solo trapeze artist, and she was Universoul’s Resident Aerialist for over five years. Blair has performed in “Afrika! Afrika!,” Germany’s largest circus event, and also worked for Universal Studios Japan. She still works with the Circus Center, and has put on shows featuring other Black aerialists and circus performers for themed events, such as a tribute to recording artist Prince that took place in 2014. Black circus performers are rarely recognized, and Blair has taken on the task of filming a documentary that puts a new light on those who work in the industry. Blair’s The Uncle Junior Project came about after the death of little-known Black circus animal trainer of the same name. In an attempt to uphold Junior’s legacy and that of the Black circus, Blair has the ambitious aim of bringing those unknown entertainers to the forefront.
Kelsey na Gealaí
Kelsey na Gealaí is an aerial hoop artist and coach based in Santa Cruz. Originally from Seattle, WA, Kelsey founded circus arts in 2006 after ten years of ballet (Cornish College of the Arts) and acrobatic training. She studied static trapeze at SANCA (Seattle, WA) and Zuzi (Tucson, AZ) before landing on aerial hoop. Kelsey began training with Elena Panova at the San Francisco Circus Center in 2018, focusing on aerial hoop with a side of dance trapeze and swinging trapeze. Kelsey began working with Marie Michelle Faber (Cirque du Soleil) from 2021-2022 on act refinement and creativity. She performs and produces shows locally as Founder and Director for Circus of the Moon.
Shannon Gray
From the time she could remember, Shannon Gray’s relationship with dreams and the unseen world was profound; as was her relationship with movement, creativity, and the natural world. The merging of these passions led her to discover circus arts 17 years ago. Over the years, Shannon has cultivated her unique and emotionally honest approach to aerial dance and has performed and taught internationally through circus festivals, aerial dance companies, and social circus organizations. Nestled in an ocean-side town north of San Francisco, Shannon is currently developing The Sentience Project - a body of work exploring injury, healing, and the wild. She is a youth mentor, surfer, and animal rights advocate.
Megan Lowe
Megan Lowe (she/they) is a dance maker/performer/teacher, aerialist, and singer-songwriter of Chinese and Irish descent, making dance art in the SF Bay Area, situated on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. With an affinity for dynamic places and partners, her creations through Megan Lowe Dances explore complex identities and experiences by tackling unusual physical situations and inventing compelling solutions, opening up the imagination to what is possible. Megan’s recent choreographic works have been seen at ODC, de Young Museum, Legion of Honor Museum, and The Annex, as well as in the United States of Asian America Festival, SF Trolley Dances, CAAMFest, and on KQED Live. She won an Izzie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance for “HOME(in)STEAD”, a site-specific dance she created with Johnny Huy Nguyen at 500 Capp Street. Megan has performed with Flyaway Productions, Lenora Lee Dance, Dance Brigade, Scott Wells & Dancers, Lizz Roman & Dancers, and more. She is a teaching/choreographing artist for Joe Goode Performance Group, Bandaloop, Flyaway, and her alma mater Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, where she currently works as the Program
Roel Seeber
Roel Seeber (he/they/any) is an Oakland based artist who graduated cum Laude from Purchase College, State University of New York, and holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington. From 2008-2020, Roel was a company member of the vertical dance organization BANDALOOP, dancing, performing, stage directing, and teaching with them. Roel currently works with BANDALOOP in performance projects and as Lead Teacher. As a solo artist, Roel collaborates with other vertical dance artists, including a creative partnership with Magalie Lanriot in Lisbon Portugal. He has taught workshops for Il Posto, Vuela, Danza Area, Dimegaz, Sparrow Dance, and Gravity & Levity. From 2001 to 2008, Roel danced with The Límon Dance Company. Roel first fell in love with dancing through contact improvisation. Instagram: @roelseeber
Sam Wilder
Sam Wilder is a trans nonbinary contemporary circus artist driven by their passion to create work that embodies the power and beauty of queer expression. They specialize in Aerial Fabric and Pole, and believe in performance as a means to bring people together and inspire change. Sam spent three years studying at the New England Center for Circus Arts ProTrack Program and graduated in May of 2022. They have performed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in cabaret and ensemble shows including Misfit Cabaret, Ruckus and Rumpus, and Flux Vertical Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Fantasy."
Joey “The Tiger” Moore
Joey is a visually stunning aerialist known for his strength and graceful movement. On stage a good part of his life by way of performance groups, he has naturally taken to the skies. He performs on a variety of apparatus, specializing on dance trapeze and aerial straps. He has trained at the San Francisco Circus Center as well as Chez Victors’ and L’Acadamie du Monastere in Montreal. He is a resident artist at Berber in SF, co-directed “Circus Pop Ups” as well as produces and directs the fundraiser “Spectrum”. Other performance highlights include: Montreal Completement Cirque, medalist at De Leon Cirquefest, Circus Bella, Cirquantique, Lunar Circus and Cirque de Boheme. He currently teaches and performs around the San Francisco Bay Area.
To watch Joey perform is to be momentarily wrapped in a glittery cloak and shown a glimpse of a secret, stirring world of vibrant beauty. The most human of movement, of feeling, and of strength are raw and open in each of Joey’s pieces and tangible in every minute detail of his work. As a stand-alone artist, this performer is a blaze of originality and brings an honesty and vulnerability to the stage that will stir and compel any audience to touch their own depths of courage and love.
Os Roxas
Os Roxas spent the early half of his childhood on a US military base in the Philippines playing war games in the jungle. Eventually he would move to San Francisco, spending his days with his face buried in comic books, dreaming of becoming a super hero when he grow up.
As an adult, he was introduced to aerial & pole by a dear friend who just happened to be the aerial & pole instructor at the gym he worked in at the time. He took a class. It kicked his butt! He was hooked and haven’t looked back since. Now He’s a full time aerial and pole instructor, coaching his students on how to flip and fly into action—turning their own dreams of being a super hero into a reality.
Nina Sawant
Indian American choreographer Nina Sawant resides in Oakland, California, having relocated there from the South in 2012. She earned a B.A. in Dance Choreography from the University of South Florida, where she concurrently began her career as a dancer at Busch Gardens in 2006. In 2010, Nina began her circus career as an aerialist with the Krymskiy family in Ukraine. Continuing to add new skills to her repertoire, Nina earned an A.A. in Apparel Design from the College of Alameda in 2018. The same year, she founded Dahlias Entertainment with a group of Asian American women, where she prioritizes diverse representation with fair and safe working conditions for artists in event entertainment. In 2022, Nina joined Zaccho Dance Theatre’s production of Love, A State of Grace. In 2023, Nina co-founded Hypothetical Circus, a collaborative, queer circus company in Oakland. Nina continues to pursue concert performance and entertainment and bridges the divide between the two in her work.
David Freitag
David Freitag is a San Francisco-based rigging designer who has spent the past 20 years flying aerialists, performers, and heavy objects all over the world. He has served as lead rigger for a wide range of site-specific aerial dance and circus productions including Cirque Mechanics touring productions of Birdhouse Factory & Boom Town, The 7 Fingers (Dear San Francisco), Zaccho Dance Theatre (The View From Here, Picture Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival), Capacitor (Okeanos), Flyaway Productions (Meet us Gently with Your Mercy), Printz Dance Project (Hoverspace), Sens Productions (Rapture), and Circo de la Luna. Dave spends his time between aerial dance gigs working as an ETCP certified journeyman member of IATSE Local 16, the house rigger at the SF Masonic Auditorium, Stanford Memorial Auditorium, and (formerly) the Curran Theatre.
Andrew Castle
Andrew Castle is an artist and professional rigger. He has developed his style of Treenets over many years influenced by his experience living in Yosemite National Park. Andrew was inspired by walking slacklines, rock climbing as well as practicing the craft of wilderness travel with horses, mules and on foot. His work as a theatrical rigger has also led him to develop a unique design capacity for practicing the singular art form of Treenets.
Cirque Vida / Xochiltl Sosa
Born in Oakland, CA, Xochitl Sosa grew up sandwiched between the bay area's urban culture and the redwoods' fertile soils. Exposure to circus arts at a young age gave Xochitl a purpose. Specializing in aerial dance, she has been a highlighted artist and coach in the circus community since 2007. Her original work has won such praise as an Isadora Duncan Award, and most recently won 2nd place at Vivafest for her aerial duo. She has worked as an artist, most notably with Cirque du Soleil, and Acrobatic Conundrum.
Alice Sheppard
Accepting the outcome of a dare, dancer and choreographer Alice Sheppard resigned her tenured professorship to train with Kitty Lunn and Infinity Dance Theater. After an apprenticeship, Alice joined AXIS Dance Company where she became a core company member, toured nationally, and taught in the company’s education and outreach programs. Since becoming an independent dance artist, Alice has danced in projects with Ballet Cymru/GDance, and Marc Brew Company in the United Kingdom. In the United States, she has worked with Marjani Forté, MBDance, Infinity Dance Theater, and Steve Paxton. As a guest artist, she has danced with AXIS Dance Company, Full Radius Dance, and MOMENTA Dance Company. Alice has also performed as a solo artist and keynote academic speaker throughout the United States.
A USA Artist, Creative Capital grantee and Bessie Award winner, Alice creates movement that challenges conventional understandings of disabled and dancing bodies. Engaging with disability arts, culture and history, Alice's commissioned work attends to the complex intersections of disability, gender, and race. Alice was a 2018 AXIS Dance Company Choreo-Lab Participant made possible with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Her choreography has been commissioned by producers from KQED and UCLA as well as physically integrated companies such as CRIPSiE, Full Radius Dance, and MOMENTA Dance Company. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and such journals as Catalyst and Movement Research and Performance Journal.
Alice is the founder and artistic lead for Kinetic Light, a project based ensemble, working at the intersections of disability, dance, design, identity, and technology to create transformative art and advance the intersectional disability arts movement. Through nuanced investment in the histories, cultures, and artistic work of disabled people and people of color, Kinetic Light promotes intersectional disability aesthetics as a creative force and access as an aesthetic critical to the creative process and not a retroactive accommodation.
Jason Span
Jason Span is a former gymnast of eleven years and a former US Navy Hospital Corpsman based out of Jacksonville, Florida. He was honorably discharged from active duty in the United States Navy after serving for ten years to pursue his dream of becoming an aerial artist. Jason quickly developed his artistry on aerial silks in June 2015 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He relocated back to his home town in Jacksonville, Florida on October 2015 when he joined Bittersweet Studios. Always seeking to improve his skills, Jason began to cross train on multiple apparatuses such as aerial hoop, aerial straps and pole (dance). Jason began teaching and performing aerial arts at Bittersweet Studios and is currently touring with AIDA Cruises based out of Germany.
Saharla Vetsch
Saharla Vetsch (she/her) is a Somali American multidisciplinary artist rooted in the Bay Area. Her focus is on movement storytelling using elements of vertical dance, drag, and spectacle. Saharla earned a degree in Performing Arts and Social Justice with a focus on dance from the University of San Francisco, her academic journey has been marked by a profound commitment to the transformative power of movement. Saharla's creative spirit takes on a new form with the emergence of her drag persona, Major Hammy (he/him). As Major, Saharla strives to be a beacon of self-expression, harnessing the liberating power of dance to ignite the same sense of freedom in others. In addition to performing in Bay Area Queer nightlife Saharla was a Radiate fellow with RAWdance and has had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with companies such as Detour, Flyaway Productions, & Zaccho Dance Theatre.
Helen Wicks
Helen Wicks is a San Francisco based choreographer, performing artist, and educator. Helen’s training began as a competitive gymnast where she was a member of the National Team 2001-2004. She is Artistic Director of Helen Wicks Works, a company that creates spellbinding aerial and contemporary dance performance for multigenerational audiences. Wicks’ choreography has been presented at Triskelion Arts, SAFEhouse Arts, Project Artaud’s SPACE 124, Circus Center, SF Aerial Arts Festival, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Herbst Theater, ODC and more. Helen performed works by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, and Merce Cunningham while she earned a BA in Dance and Psychology from Bard College. She is influenced by her time with Deborah Hay and Quincy Jones, who bestowed her nickname, Baby Lady. She has performed with Zaccho Dance Theatre, Flyaway Productions, GroundedAerial, and others. She is currently the Arts Specialist at The Nueva School where she runs an integrated visual art, dance, and theater program.
Flyaway Productions
Founded in 1996, Flyaway Productions makes dances that are off the ground, site-specific and politically driven. Flyaway's tools include coalition building, an intersectional feminist lens, and a body-based push against the constraints of gravity. Recent coalition partners include the Museum of African Diaspora, Empowerment Avenue, Essie Justice Group, Local 2, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, the Tenderloin Museum, and UC Law. We have been supported by Guggenheim and Rauschenberg Foundation fellowships, NEFA’s National Dance Project, the National Endowment for the Arts, Center for Cultural Innovation, New Music USA, The Gerbode Foundation, MAP, the Creative Work Fund, the Wattis, Fleishhacker and Rainin Foundations, CA Arts Council, SF Grants for the Arts and the SF Arts Commission and have received seven IZZY awards from the SF dance community. The SF Bay Guardian describes Flyaway as makers of “art at the heart of the democratic ideal.” www.flyawayproductions.com
Ashland Aerial Arts
The Ashland Aerial Arts Performance Company commit themselves to training, exploring and creating together as an ensemble. They embrace performing in the studio and in the community as well as sharing their knowledge by assisting with classes and camps throughout the year. This is their second opportunity to share space and inspiration in an ongoing relationship with the Zaccho Youth Company.
Thai Lam
Thai Lam is a professional aerialist who embodies versatility in his performance. He received professional training at the Circus Center in San Francisco
and has trained extensively with renowned aerial coaches in multiple disciplines. Thai’s performances focus on smooth lines, clean technique and powerful movements — all the while giving the audience a taste of that Thai spice
Ross Travis
Rosss Travis is an award-winning Bouffon, Physical Comedian and Circus Performer, who has studied with world renowned master pedagogues, including; Dodi DiSanto, Giovanni Fusetti, Ronlin Foreman, Stephen Buescher, and Master Lu Yi. Ross’ lineage of training and experience allows him to create provocative performances combining circus and bouffon to develop extreme characters and tell stories from the fringes, igniting dialogue and change around ignored or taboo social issues. Ross has developed four shows with his company Antic in a Drain; The Greatest Monkey Show On Earth, Bucko: Whaleman!, Tempting Fate and Where Do We Go From Here?
Prince Dance
Prince Dance Institute’s mission is to teach excellence in the performing arts and provide a place for art appreciation, connection, and education for people on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Zaccho Youth Company
Zaccho Youth Company (ZYC) is a youth aerial dance company for ages 7 through 14. Founded by Joanna Haigood in 2002, ZYC has performed throughout the Bay Area and nationally, including Circus for the Arts, The Luggage Store Gallery’s In the Streets Festival, the Black Choreographers Festival, Global Youth Media and Arts Festival, Sky Dancers Festival, ODC Youth Festival, the Discovery Museum, Montalvo Arts Center, D’AIR Aerial Studios in Atlanta, GA, Project Artaud’s SPACE 124, and the Bolinas Community Center. Zaccho Youth Company is part of Zaccho Dance Theatre’s award winning Youth Performing Arts Program hosted at the organization’s studio in Bayview Hunters Point where it has been based for the past 33 years.
Kinetic Arts Center’s Circus Spire
Kinetic Arts Center’s Circus Spire is a pre-professional youth circus program, ages 13 – 18yrs, that centers artistry by introducing performers to rigorous training, goal setting and skill acquisition as well as creation, character development and collaboration.
Circus Center
San Francisco Youth Circus is a circus arts performance program. Its members are ambassadors for Circus Center's values and commitment to excellence. The program highlights youth community members who have mastered their skills to a level ready for a large public audience. The artists have the privilege of growing in a professional performance setting under the mentorship of industry and community leaders. The program teaches the diligence and the personal and social responsibility required to succeed in any career.
Sentient Arts
Sentient Arts is an approach, a program, and a philosophy revolving around the power and process of embodiment. Developed by Shannon Gray over her performing and teaching career, Sentient Arts is based out of West Marin where Shannon currently runs youth-focused aerial programs in both Bolinas and Woodacre. While skill and technique are an important part of the curriculum, Sentient Arts is most inspired by the how and why of movement and focuses on creativity as a healing force. Shannon’s aerial programs revolve around full-human development and support- giving young people permission to find authentic expression through their bodies, movement, and connection to the natural world. With a MA in Depth and East-West Psychology and over 15 years of teaching experience, Shannon understands that the body, mind, and spirit are intertwined in complex and beautiful ways. Sentient Arts reflects this interdependence.
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