Flyaway Productions, directed by Jo Kreiter, performs off-the-ground dances that expose the range and power of female physicality. They experiment with height, speed and gravity, dancing on steel objects that are both architectural and fabricated. They dance at the intersection of social justice and acrobatic spectacle. They offer performance as a medium for social commentary and choose projects that advance female empowerment in the public realm. At its core, their work explores the female body– its tumultuous expressions of strength and fragility.

A pioneer in vertical dance performance, BANDALOOP seamlessly weaves dynamic physicality, intricate choreography and the art of climbing to turn the dance floor on its side. Founded by choreographer and artistic director Amelia Rudolph, BANDALOOP’s work has been presented in theaters and museums, on skyscrapers, bridges, billboards and historical sites, in atriums and convention halls, in nature on cliffs, and on screen. BANDALOOP honors nature, community and the human spirit by bringing dance to new audiences, activating public and natural spaces, and re-imagining what dance can be.

Zaccho Dance Theatre is best known 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, the company has made large scale works for many extraordinary landmarks, including Popes’ Palace in France, the San Francisco International Airport, Fort Point National Monument, and Port Authority Grain Terminal in Brooklyn. Under the direction of Joanna Haigood, Zaccho has been making history since 1980.

Karl Gillick, a former tree canopy biologist and rock climbing guide, began producing his own aerial dance work in 1998. The creativity and dexterity required to traverse delicately among the crowns of ancient trees inspired him to share his tactile sense of movement and love of nature with an audience. With his penchant for large, interactive, site-specific work and inclusive, collaborative processes, Karl rethinks commonplace environments to enrich audience/performer shared experiences. As a master rigger, accomplished visual designer, artistic director and performer, Karl’s bold, emotional imagery engages with art as primary research into the human condition.

Danielle Sandia Sexton is a San Francisco based aerial artist and instructor. An alumnus of the Circus Center’s Professional Aerial Program, Sandia uses her conservatory training as a foundation for exploring acrobatic and aerial techniques in immersive theater and traditional vaudeville performance, and as a platform for social commentary. Sandia choreographs solo performance as well as collaborates with Bay Area innovators of aerial dance, walking the line between stuntwoman, fine artist, and circus performer. She has performed for Zaccho Dance Theatre, Vau De Vire Society, Flyaway Productions, Treat Social Club, Cielo Vertical Arts, Capacitor Dance, Extra Action Marching Band as well as in festivals and supper clubs locally and internationally.

SHANNON GRAY has a strong foundation of international performance and teaching experience through a wide variety of festival and music shows, corporate events, and five consecutive years touring with the New Old Time Chautauqua. She currently resides in San Francisco, CA furthering her studies and artistic projects. No matter the context, Shannon has a deep passion for integrating various art forms into her work, opting for live music and improvisation whenever possible. With a degree in Psychology and Sociology and a passion for these studies, she is often engaged in shows that highlight deeper expression, connection, and story-telling.

CHELSEA O RILEY founded Chelsea O Productions in 2009. Her works have been supported by the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, Conseil des Arts et lettres de Quebec, Adesam, and the City of Vancouver public art program. Chelsea combines aerial acrobatics with dance and theatre to create poetic shows about the human experience. Currently based in San Francisco, Chelsea O Productions has produced work in Canada, the US, Iceland and the UK, and was most recently featured in New York for SummerStage Festival.

Acrobatic Conundrum, Seattle's premier contemporary circus arts company, creates performances that amaze and inspire audiences. Founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Terry Crane, the company blends virtuosic circus skill, dance and physical theater to create work that is poetic, a little absurd, and deeply relatable. Acrobatic Conundrum has appeared nationally and internationally at such venues as New York City’s SummerStage, the Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Vancouver CircusFest, TEDxRainier, and The Backstreet Festival in Alexandria, Egypt. The company is a 2015 and 2017 recipient of the City of Seattle’s CityArtist Projects Award.

Alex Allan is an aerialist and dancer from Sydney, Australia. In 2008 he completed a BA in Communications (Theatre/Media) with a focus in physical theatre creation. 6 months later Alex was accepted into the Professional Aerial Program at the San Francisco Circus Center where he specialized in Aerial Rope. Alex has performed and taught workshops in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. He currently resides in Seattle, WA. Alex combines his background of Theatre, Dance and Circus to create unique and original work. Whether in coaching or onstage, Alex utilizes directionality and momentum-based movement to create choreography that is both fluid and dynamic. Alex is also a LMP and Certified SOMA Practitioner.

Meléa Emunah started taking aerial dance classes with Joanna Haigood when she was seven and joined Zaccho Youth Company during high school. She and Azraa collaborated during those years—performing together in the 2016 San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival among other venues in the Bay Area. Meléa just finished her freshman year at Princeton University, where she is studying Environmental Engineering and is in the process of bringing aerial arts to campus.

Azraa Muhammad is an emerging aerial artist, dancer, and performer. She received her training from artistic director of Zaccho Dance Theatre, Joanna Haigood, and began flying with the ZacchoYouth Company at the age of 7. After 10 years of training, she began apprenticing as a member of Zaccho Dance Theatre and has now begun teaching young children of the Youth Performing Arts Program and Center for Dance and Aerial Arts beginning aerial skills and technique.

Azraa and Meléa are both thrilled to be working together again!

A pioneer in vertical dance performance, BANDALOOP seamlessly weaves dynamic physicality, intricate choreography and the art of climbing to turn the dance floor on its side. Founded by choreographer and artistic director Amelia Rudolph, BANDALOOP’s work has been presented in theaters and museums, on skyscrapers, bridges, billboards and historical sites, in atriums and convention halls, in nature on cliffs, and on screen. BANDALOOP honors nature, community and the human spirit by bringing dance to new audiences, activating public and natural spaces, and re-imagining what dance can be.

Xochitl Sosa is an Oakland based aerial performer and instructor. In her youth, she was a competitive figure skater and varsity softball player. She discovered aerial acrobatics as a camper at Camp Winnarainbow, in northern California; over time, she progressed from student to head of the camp’s aerial program.
In 2012, after helping establish Sky Candy, an aerial school in Austin, Texas, Xochitl was accepted to the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA.) In NECCA’s year-long professional program, Xochitl concentrated on dance and duo trapeze under renowned coaches Aimee Hancock, Ser enity Smith, and Elsie Smith. After graduating, she continued her training in Montreal with coaches from Cirque du Soleil and the famed National Circus School: Rachel Walker, Victor Fomine, Chloe Farah, and Itzel Virguenza.
In addition to static, single point, and duo trapeze, Xochitl has extensive experience performing on vertical apparatus such as silks and rope. Her work is inspired by a variety of forms including Latin and modern dance. She has performed nationally and internationally, with such companies as: Circovencion Mexican Circus, Vespertine Circus, and Acrobatic Conundrum. When she is not performing, Xochitl teaches both recreational and professional students at Kinetic Arts (Oakland, CA), the San Francisco Circus Center (San Francisco, CA), and at workshops across the US and Mexico.

Caroline Wright was born with a passion for climbing and acrobatics. She spent her early teens performing and touring with the Flying Gravity Circus, and went on to complete NECCA's Professional Track Program. Specializing in Trapeze, Hoop and Silks, Caroline has performed with many companies across the country and internationally.

Felicity Hesed is a Clown and Trapeze Artist. She delights and surprises viewers with her vibrant characters, technical skill, and audience interaction. Felicity's San Francisco performance credits include The Pickle Family Circus, Cabaret Lunatique with Teatro ZinZanni, Circus Adventure with Bay Area Children's Theater, and Cabaret Metamorphosis at the Circus Center. Felicity can regularly be seen performing at the Circus Center Cabaret and the Red Hots Burlesque Cabaret. Felicity received her BA in Theatre Arts from Kalamazoo College (Michigan), completed the Clown Conservatory Program (San Francisco), and has been training Static Trapeze with Elena Panova for nearly 10 years. Felicity is currently the Director of the Youth Program at Circus Center as well as the Mother of two sweet and wild little boys.

Helen and Kate first worked together when they performed GroundedAerial's Recoil in 2016. As individual artists they perform, educate, and collaborate in the Bay Area dance community and beyond. The duo's current work, Magnificent Sister, explores melodrama of sisterhood. Magnificent Sister questions the relationship between chosen and genetic family lineages. Helen and Kate use clowning, rope and harness, and a 1954 film score conducted by Helen's great grandfather to investigate crisis and co-dependence.

Andrea Keene and Jessica Curl Rose were mothering, homesteading, and minding their own business when they fell in love with the aerial rope a few years ago. Their duo rope work is a natural extension of the supportive sisterhood they have found in circus arts training. They live in Mendocino, California where they both teach and perform with Circus MeCCA.

Kameko Shibata, a yogini Ayurvedic practitioner by day, is a fierce aerial performer by night. She brings her passion for human strength and grace into captivating performances that invite you to become radically present.

Kameko specializes in dynamic aerial rope, inspired by the simple and stark nature of the apparatus. Inspired by the natural world, live musical collaborations, social justice story telling, site specific work, invented apparatuses, and warm beverages of all kind she uses performance as a invitation to engage with our environment directly, explore our creative potential and test our physical capacity.

Kameko is an independent international artist and honored to collaborate with: Zaccho Dance Theatre, Karl Gillick Productions, Vaude De Virve Society, Quixotic Fusion, We Players, Metamorphosis Ballet, Fractal Tribe, Circus Mecca, Kinetic Arts and New Old Time Chautauqua. She dangled from the bay in the 2016 Aerial Arts Festival, danced off roofs, and from bridges, performed in huge venues in Las Vegas, in social justice soup kitchens, in small pueblo schools in Mexico and more festivals than worth counting.

A lifelong mover she combines a kinetic fascination with her background in yoga, functional anatomy, massage, gymnastics, acrobatics, capoeira, and dance to create art that is remembers we are animals : wild, raw and subtle.

Sierra grew up talking too loud and taking up as much space as possible in Santa Rosa, California. After wading in the worlds of dance and theater, she found circus to be a place that embraced her poignant skills as a physical theater artist, aerialist, and clown. An avid collaborator, Sierra is co-founder of Levity Aerial Troupe and Skytopia Aerial Arts where she shares her love of aerial art with kids and adults. Specializing in silks and trapeze, Sierra takes characters up into the air. Audiences have called her “an electrifying beam of positivity and happiness in this cynical world”. Sierra earned a BFA degree in theater performance and a certificate in nonprofit management from Southern Oregon University. She’s currently talking loudly and dancing about in Sonoma County.

Sonya Smith has been bungeeing around since she first smashed cake in her face with Eat Cake Productions in 2004. Since then she has created a variety of bungee dances, earned an MFA with an emphasis in Aerial Dance form the University of Colorado Boulder, and had the honor to be in creative process with Joanna Haigood/Zaccho Dance Theatre, Project Bandaloop Lizz Roman and Dancers, Flyaway Productions, Dance Brigade, Gesel Mason, Michelle Ellsworth, and Sara Shelton Mann among others. Smith’s draws on accumulated somatic experiences from modern dance, bungee and harnesses, Contact Improvisation, Alexander Technique, lyra, kinesiology, invented aerial apparatus, as well as a certificates in Pilates and the GYROKINESIS® Method to inspire her creation and teaching.

Driven by the bias Bacchus before Buddha, Bianca Cabrera’s work is informed by a vibrant amalgamation of baton twirling, go-go dancing, cabaret, camp, burlesque, Graham technique, Horton and contemporary dance. Bianca performed nationally for KT Niehoff/Lingo Dance from 2002-10 and is currently dancing for Jo Kreiter/Flyaway Productions. She trained at The Chicago Academy for the Arts and later studied at the Alvin Ailey School, the Martha Graham Center, Point Park College, before receiving her BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts. Her aerial training began with Jo Kreiter, Sonya Smith and continues as a member of Bandaloop’s second company. Since 2012, her company Blind Tiger Society has had performances and commissions through The Garage, ODC Theater, CounterPulse, vîv, SAFEhouse Arts, the Seattle Inter|National Dance Festival, Links Hall, Kate Mitchell Creative, YBG Festival and The Whitney Performance Center. Check out blindtigersociety.com.

In 2006, UpSwing Aerial Dance Company was formalized from a pick up company to full-fledged company under the direction of Artistic Director, Cherie Carson bringing her unique style, blend of movement, while encouraging improvisation and collaboration with her dancers. Our mission is to perform dynamic, original choreography by Cherie Carson both in the air and on the ground. Our focus is to explore our unique and rare blend of creativity, point of views, aerial and floor technique, in relationship to gravity, time and space.

Upswing has showcased its repertoire at the New York Aerial Dance Fest (2011), the YELP East Bay Summer Splash (2011); Open Air Fest on Vashon Island on Puget Sound west of Seattle (2012, ’13); Festival of Aerial Arts in Houston TX (2014); workshopped aerial dance on ropes in San Antonio & Austin, TX (2015-2016); and 2016, Cherie Carson was guest artist/teacher at the Santa Barbara Floor to Air Festival celebrating the contemporary and boundary-pushing genre of aerial dance. UpSwing Company is composed of 7 dancers, 1 rigger and 1 director.

Veronica Blair 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.

Zaccho Youth Company (ZYC) is a pre-professional aerial dance company founded by Artistic Director Joanna Haigood. It consists of 13 members, ages 9 through 19. ZYC presents work that is content driven and integrates aerial flight and suspension as a way of expanding the dancers‚ spatial and dynamic range. Under the direction of choreographer Joanna Haigood, the company members collaborate in the creative process by contributing important conceptual and choreographic material. Since its inception in 2002, ZYC has performed throughout the Bay Area to unanimous acclaim venues and festivals include, Circus for the Arts in the School Benefit, Vision Series Dance Festival, 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, Project Artaud Theater, Dance Palace in Point Reyes, the Discovery Museum, ODC Theater, Dance Mission, The Kofman Auditorium SOMArts, Zeum Theater, Montalvo Arts Center, Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater, Canopy Aerial Studios in Atlanta, GA, CounterPULSE, and the Bolinas Community Center. Zaccho Youth Company is part of Zaccho Dance Theatre’s award winning Youth Performing Arts Program, held at the organization’s studio in Bayview Hunters Point, where it has been based for the past 26 years.

A choreographer and researcher, her dance studies focus on systems of proportion and the harmony of the space. She is the first dancer in Italy to have undertaken vertical dance in 1990, developing and spreading this practice before creating a specialist technique and creating performances in which space and movement merge in a single scene. In particular, her artistic project concerns the relationship with the architecture and the landscape, the dance insinuating itself in any vertical environment and conversing with it, adding a value that completes the actual place. Parallel to this is her research on how the structured space influences human movement. Her vertical dance performances have taken place at numerous festivals and various national and international events.

In 1994, she and the musician Marco Castelli founded the Compagnia Il Posto www.ilposto.org in Venice. Since 2000 Moretti has focused her attention on site-specific creations for historical and museum sites. Ideal spaces for reflecting on the past and the future, for emotional explorations and experimentations, these spaces have acted as catalysers of the choreographer’s new artistic direction, in which the relationship with the place is of primary importance.

In 2002, she won the third Museum Education Competition run by the Veneto Regional Government with her project Le arti visive attraverso il corpo e il movimento (visual arts through the body and movement). She carries out educational activities, training courses and workshops for museums and other entities, and for many years has run a research programme working with prisoners in Venice’s women’s prison, developing a dance education pilot project that is the only one of its kind in Italy, working alongside the Ministry of Justice, the Veneto Regional Government and DES – the National Dance Education Association. She is registered with the Albo Nazionale Danzeducatori® (National Dance Educators Institute).

Since 2008 she has worked on the M.Ed. in Theatre through Art Education; in 2011, she worked on the M.A. in Pedagogic Actions and Interactions through Narration and Theatrical Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Milan.

In 2010, she created the International Vertical Dance Network, which unites the most important companies in the world, a project presented on www.verticaldancecompany.com

Her work has been performed in Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Lithuania, Thailand, Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Botswana, Qatar, England, Slovenia, Macedonia, Finland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, etc.

Moretti is founding member of Vertical Dance Forum composed by 7 European and Canadian Vertical dance companies aims to strengthen capacity and visibility of vertical dance.

www.ilposto.org www.verticaldancecompany.com www.verticaldanceroutes.org

Beth Clarke is one of a hand-full of women who perform on the slack rope. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale de Cirque, she has also studied with Masha Dimitri and Szilard Skeley, two of the world's most reknown slack rope artists. Beth's performing credits include working with les sept doigts de la main, Circus Cirkor, Cirque Elioze, The Pickle Family Circus, The Discover Channel, Disney, and many other circuses, varieties and theatrical groups throughout the world. She is one of the founders of Sweet Can, a theatrical circus based in San Francisco.

Veronica Blair is a professional aerialist with over 15 years of performing and teaching experience. She is currently Aerial Director for Celebrity Cruises Entertainment

Expanding her portfolio beyond performing, Veronica launched the development of “The Uncle Junior Project” in 2010. The ongoing documentary shines a light on the careers of African-American circus performers, including Emanual “Uncle Junior” Ruffin who remained largely uncredited for his contributions to American Circus until after his death. In 2010, she was invited to speak at the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival about her experience as producer and director of “The Uncle Junior Project”, and served as organizer and moderator on a panel highlighting the African-American circus experience. She’s also worked with the African-American Art and Culture Complex to stage "Entrapment to Entertainment: A Celebration of Blacks in American Circus", a three-month exhibition that ran from October, 2013 – January 2014 with over 1,000 attendees.

Since graduating from London Contemporary in 1984 Lindsey has worked with numerous dance, theatre and opera companies as a dancer, aerialist, teacher, mentor & choreographer. Her dance credits include; Extemporary Dance Theatre, Walker Dance/ Park Music, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Vincent Dance Theatre & Siobhan Davies Dance Company. Circus credits include; Ra-Ra Zoo, Gandini Juggling Project, The Dream Engine, Scarabeus, Momentary Fusion, Fidget Feet and Upswing to name a few. As a dance and aerial practitioner she has over 36 years of professional practise and has been creating vertical-dance for almost 20 years. In 2003, (after winning the Jerwood Award for Circus), Lindsey founded the aerial dance company, Gravity & Levity (G&L) to provide a vehicle for her artistic vision. What drives her work is a passion and curiosity for combining dance and aerial suspension techniques to liberate and intensify the possibilities of each. Under Lindsey’s direction, G&L have created 3 full length touring aerial dance productions, an outdoor piece and several site-specific commissions and won the Dance for Camera award and are currently touring a re-creation of a piece they made 15 years ago, vertical dance duet ‘Why?’

G&L also founded and run the annual European Aerial Dance Festival in August and have just completed their 10th year.

Much of Lindseys’ aerial choreographic work over the last 20 years has been 'building based' vertical dance commissions and she teaches master classes both in the UK and Internationally; France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Canada, Panama & Brazil.

She is also a founder member of the Vertical Dance Forum, a transnational group whose aim is to disseminate this practice and support the development of the art form.

Marco Castelli is one of Italy's most talented sax players with a brilliant and prolific career. He has travelled without prejudice across many different musical languages, highlighting the qualities present in each form of expression, and always pursuing a very personal sound, free of clichés yet rich in emotions and atmospheres. In addition to writing and performing jazz music, Castelli is an orchestra conductor and composer for theatre and modern ballet. As a sound designer, he has creatively interacted with various media: poetry, video art, visual arts.

Castelli has participated in international jazz festivals such as the Singapore Art Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Bohemia Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Athens Jazz, and San Sebastian, collaborating with prestigious artists like Lee Konitz, Markus Stockhausen, Philip Catherine, and many others. He has brought his music to audiences all over the world: Singapore, Canada, Thailand, Senegal, Tanzania, Morocco, Tunisia, Brazil, Venezuela, Jamaica, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Uruguay, Israel, Jordan, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, and Czech Republic.

At the age of 15 Beth Clarke ran away with the circus, sparking a life-long devotion to the transformative power of movement and creativity. She suspended her studies at Mills College to attend the National Circus School in Montreal where she created a solo slack rope act that she has performed on five continents over twenty five years. She is one of a handful of women to perform foot juggling on the slack rope. Always fascinated with finding balance, in 2009 Beth stopped touring internationally, created the Bay Area circus troop Sweet Can Productions, became a Pilates teacher and married her love and acrobatic partner. Thanks to Pilates, her supportive family, and good fortune, she continues to perform to this day. Beth has been featured in photo books, music videos and the Discovery Channel’s series Amazing Aerialists series. She has performed with many companies including Cirque Du Soleil, Seven Fingers, Pickle Family Circus, and Cirque Eloize. She speaks five languages, is mother to two boys and is doing what she can each day to dismantle white supremacy and smash the patriarchy. YesYouCanPilates.com, SweetCanProductions.com

A lifelong climber, Terry Crane surrendered to restless urges that led him to walk away with the circus at the tender age of twenty. Now a veteran acrobatic performer, he has climbed ropes hung from the truss arches of big tops across the globe and the lofty grids of countless proscenium theaters, as well as the shoulders of many a fellow saltimbanque. He is the director of Acrobatic Conundrum, a contemporary circus company based in Seattle since 2012. Terry delights in sharing his love of aerial technique, circus creation, and collaboration via workshops and performances. He is an alumnus of the National Circus School of Montreal, Oberlin College, and a dozen circus companies. As a director, Terry is on a relentless quest to tell true fictions, contradict human isolation, and portray paradox.

Melanie DeMore is Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together. In her presentations, DeMore beautifully brings her participants together through her music and commentary. DeMore facilitates vocal and stick pounding workshops for professional choirs, community groups as well as directing numerous choral organizations in the Bay Area. She is a featured presenter of SpeakOut!-The Institute for Social and Cultural Change and was a founding member of the Grammy nominated ensemble-Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. She became Music Director for Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks as part of the Luminato Festival in 2019. She is a charter member of Kate Munger’s Threshold Choirs and conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. In here own words: “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you”.

Born in Portugal in 1989, Joana is an aerialist/acro flyer. She began singing and dancing at a young age and was a National Champion in Ballroom Dance for 7 years. From age 18 Joana entered in a Portuguese TV Song Contest, participated in The Eurovision in 2008, and was part of Fame The Musical and High School Musical I and II in Portugal. Joana studied circus at Chapitô in Lisbon, then moved to London to further her circus studies at The National Centre for Circus Arts and earned a BA degree. Since graduating Joana has performed in many circus shows, cabarets, cruises, and events in the UK and abroad. In 2019 she performed with Mimbre, an all female acrobats company, at the Dior Haute Couture Paris Fashion Week and at the Brits Awards. She is a cast member of Bedtime Stories, a family circus awarded show from Upswing. Joana is now in the process of creating her first own solo show called 89.

Pamela Donohoo is Artistic Director of Awaken Circus and Dance Theater and an international performing artist: aerialist, acrobat, dancer, and choreographer. She has worked with performing arts organizations throughout the US and internationally. She has done commercials, award shows, large-scale events and spectacular acrobatic shows.

Pamela received her degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology from Stanford University. She completed field research projects and worked with nonprofit organizations throughout Africa, India, Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research interests include: social justice, peacebuilding, sustainability and the environment, folklore, culture, and history. Pamela specializes in creating socially relevant and globally engaged acrobatic performances. Her vision is to generate art that inspires people to think critically and contribute positively to their world.

pameladonohoo.com

I am Deon Fox. I have been performing on Rope for just over a year. I am located in Seattle Washington where I mainly perform and coach. I have a small resume of performing with Acrobatic Conundrum, Emerald City Trapeze arts and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Since 1980 Joanna has been creating work that uses natural, architectural and cultural environments as points of departure for movement exploration and narrative. Her stages have included grain terminals, a clock tower, the pope’s palace, military forts, and a mile of urban neighborhood streets in the South Bronx. Her work has been commissioned by many arts institutions, including Dancing in the Streets, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Walker Arts Center, the Exploratorium Museum, the National Black Arts Festival, and Festival d'Avignon. She has also been honored with the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the United States Artist Fellowship, and a New York Bessie Award. Haigood is also a recipient of the esteemed Doris Duke Artist Award. Joanna has had the privilege to mentor many extraordinary young artists internationally at the National École des Arts du Cirque in France, the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in England, Spelman College, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University, the San Francisco Circus Center and at Zaccho Studio.

Walter Kitundu is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on kinetic sculpture and sound installation, composition, public art, and teaching. He builds (and performs on) extraordinary musical instruments, while researching and documenting the natural world. Kitundu has created hand-built record players driven by the wind and rain, fire and earthquakes, birds, light, and the force of ocean waves. In 2008 he received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his art practice, and his capacity to make important cultural contributions. Kitundu was a visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice, and in the Sound Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a Bay Area resident for 15 years and is honored to be a collaborator on Picture Bayview Hunters Point.

Jo Kreiter is a nationally recognized choreographer and site artist with a background in political science. She engages physical innovation and the political conflicts we live within. Kreiter’s tools include community collaboration, a masterful use of place, an intersectional feminist lens and a body-based push against the constraints of gravity. She makes large scale public art via apparatus-based dance. Her work democratizes public space. Jo has spent 25 years building coalitions with women marginalized by race, class, gender and workplace inequities. Noted partners include Essie Justice Group, UC Hastings Center for Work-life Law, Tenderloin Museum, Code Tenderloin, Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center, and Tradeswomen, Inc. Her work has been supported by Guggenheim and Rauschenberg Fellowships, New England Foundation for the Arts, the and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Work Fund, Wattis and Rainin Foundations, the CA Arts Council, SF Arts Commission, and by seven IZZY awards. She is currently creating The Decarceration Trilogy: Dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex One Dance at a Time.

Lomask sees the world as an amalgam of seemingly contradictory, yet synergistic perspectives. The daughter of a biomedical research engineer and a visual artist, Lomask spent her childhood going to laboratories and gallery openings. She weaves these two worlds into the tapestry of her work, creating highly visual, biological images and rhythms. She is an entrepreneur, a sculptor, a director, a producer, a choreographer, and an environmentalists.

Upon founding Capacitor in 1997, Jodi Lomask began exploring the meeting point between arts, sciences, and new technology. Under her artistic direction, Capacitor created works that tackle the past and future of reproduction (futurespecies 2000), Earth's place in the Universe (Within Outer Spaces 2001), the hero’s journey in video games (Avatars 2002), the deep Earth (Digging in the Dark 2004), forest symbiosis (biome 2007), flower reproduction (The Perfect Flower 2009), the ocean's vital forces (Okeanos 2012), creativity in the mind (Synaptic Motion 2014), early childhood (When We Were Small 2016), and 20 years of sculpture in motion (Left To Her Own Devices 2018). Lomask designs movement structures out of steel, bungee, fiberglass, and wood. Her choreography unites unique characters, original motion sculpture, with articulated movement vocabularies for Capacitor's signature synthesis of visual magic and raw athleticism. Defined by a sculptural approach to the body, costuming, and props, her inventive choreographic solutions emerge from problems born of conceptual, physical, and spatial parameters.

Her events, talks, and panel discussions are direct assaults on confusion - helping people to come together and tackle practical, critical issues. She has produced over a hundred events and has contributed creatively to many more. She has toured as a public speaker do to her ability to effectively bring scientists, technologists, and creatives together to achieve shared goals. Lomask has created for Disney's World Showcase and Future World and consults for IDEO. She has been commissioned to create original works for Apple, NASA, TED, SFO, the Discovery Channel, Computers and Structures, the California Academy of Sciences, The Crucible, and the Salvadorian Olympic Gymnastics Team. She helped launch the Volvo S60 in Malaysia, a new line of activewear with Athleta, and celebrate the mapping of the human genome with Celera. She recently directed a 180 stereoscopic immersive film with Adobe, produced by the SF Dance Film Festival. Her work has been covered by Nature Magazine, The Smithsonian Magazine, Fast Company, Wired.com, Res Magazine, SHIFT Magazine, NBC 11’s Tech NOW!, CNET Radio, TECH TV, NPR, Dance Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, The New York Times, among other media outlets. She appeared in National Geographic's 'Wild Chronicles' with canopy tree ecologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni in 2007 and Discovery Channels 'Through the Worm Hole' with Morgan Freeman.

A choreographer and researcher, her dance studies focus on systems of proportion and the harmony of the space. She is the first dancer in Italy to have undertaken vertical dance in 1990, developing and spreading this practice before creating a specialist technique and creating performances in which space and movement merge in a single scene. In particular, her artistic project concerns the relationship with the architecture and the landscape, the dance insinuating itself in any vertical environment and conversing with it, adding a value that completes the actual place. Parallel to this is her research on how the structured space influences human movement. Her vertical dance performances have taken place at numerous festivals and various national and international events.

In 1994, she and the musician Marco Castelli founded the Compagnia Il Posto www.ilposto.org in Venice. Since 2000 Moretti has focused her attention on site-specific creations for historical and museum sites. Ideal spaces for reflecting on the past and the future, for emotional explorations and experimentations, these spaces have acted as catalysers of the choreographer’s new artistic direction, in which the relationship with the place is of primary importance. Parallel to her choreographic work, she has also done personal research into the educational potential of dance in a social and extracurricular setting. She participated in the first Training Course for Dance Educators run by the Centro Mousikè in Bologna together with the History of Dance sector of DAMS University of Bologna and Aterballetto.

In 2002, she won the third Museum Education Competition run by the Veneto Regional Government with her project Le arti visive attraverso il corpo e il movimento (visual arts through the body and movement). She carries out educational activities, training courses and workshops for museums and other entities, and for many years has run a research programme working with prisoners in Venice’s women’s prison, developing a dance education pilot project that is the only one of its kind in Italy, working alongside the Ministry of Justice, the Veneto Regional Government and DES – the National Dance Education Association. She is registered with the Albo Nazionale Danzeducatori® (National Dance Educators Institute). In 2007 and 2008 she was a lecturer at the Faculty of Design and Art at the University of Architecture in Venice. Since 2008 she has worked on the M.Ed. in Theatre through Art Education; in 2011, she worked on the M.A. in Pedagogic Actions and Interactions through Narration and Theatrical Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Milan. She was a lecturer at the Faculty of Communication and Art Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino from 2010 to 2011. She occasionally works with the Faculty of Motor Sciences at the University of Padua.

In 2010, she created the International Vertical Dance Network, which unites the most important companies in the world, a project presented on www.verticaldancecompany.com

In 2011, she created and developed Vertical Suspension Training®, a teaching method for dancers on a vertical plane. Since 2012 she has started a collaboration with the Ca Foscari University in Venice, courses in Design and Innovation Management and in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities.

In 2015 she created "Habitat Verticali" for the opening of the EXPO in Milan for Cascina Triulza Foundation and again in 2015 she realized the choreographies of the vertical roles of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" for the muscovite Company Ogennie.

Among the most successful creations she realized "Kinetic" in 2009 on commission of ENEL, "Exuvia" in 2010 from Teatro Cargo and Genova Festival, "Atto Bianco" (2012) Kuopio International Festival, "Little Nemo" (2014) International Festival of Bangkok, in 2015 opening of the Venice Carnival "Molto Tesa" on the Tese Cinquecentesche of the Venice Arsenal, "Forme Uniche" in 2016 Invisibles Cities Festival of Gorizia, "Sonora Lux", Teatro Politeama of Lecce. In 2017 "The Hill Sphere" aerial dance creation with 6 dancers suspended on a crane and "Full Wall" commission from Roma Europa Festival. In 2018 #Verdinaria on commission from Teatro Regio di Parma for the opening of the Verdi Festival. Her work has been performed in Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Lithuania, Thailand, Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Botswana, Qatar, England, Slovenia, Macedonia, Finland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, etc.

Moretti is founder member of Vertical Dance Forum composed by 7 European and Canadian Vertical dance companies aims to strength capacity and visibility of the vertical dance. Vertical Dance Forum is Co-funded (2017-2019) by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

Annually she conducts training workshops for dancers and international research on vertical dance. Moretti continues with her creations on vertical surfaces and architecture, and publishes texts and articles on vertical dance and the possibilities of learning through the body in movement in relation to the space that surrounds us.

In 2018 at the end of one part of her research “The Routes of Vertical Dance”, she is starting to spread the results in public lectures “First Generation: origin and history”, she is currently engaged in the other parts of the research: “Moon and the Movement” and “Reason”.

She has always been interested in the principles of choreography organization, in the last twenty years Wanda Moretti has proposed new approaches to documentation, research and teaching of vertical dance.

www.ilposto.org
www.verticaldancecompany.com
www.verticaldanceroutes.com

Laine Rettmer is a North American visual artist and opera director. Their work explores performance, gender, desire, and methods of social control. Rettmer’s work has been presented nationally and internationally and their opera productions have been praised as “wickedly smart” and “devastatingly funny” by The New York Times. They teaching performance and digital media in the Sculpture Department at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Amelia is best known as the founder and director of BANDALOOP, a dance company, that for thirty years has been on the vanguard of vertical dance. Based in Oakland, CA., the company performs and teaches locally, tours extensively and creates dance in technical mountain environments. A dancer/athlete, choreographer, writer, filmmaker, public speaker, Amelia shares a belief in our capacity for connection and transformation through creative explorations. Her work activates public and natural spaces, inspiring wonder and positive disorientation in audiences and students around the world. The dynamic, imagistic work, based in the unexpected use of gravity, investigates movement itself, social and environmental justice, human relationships and our connections with natural and built environments. Fusing post-modern dance, rock climbing technology and a spirit of adventure, the performances, which range from large scale shows and technical mountain films to intimate showings, strive to change what dance can be, and what it can do for audiences and communities. Amelia served for three years on the board of Dance USA and as chair of the council of managing directors for mid-sized dance companies. She holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in comparative religion from Swarthmore College and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Amelia has received over 40 grants and commissions and has been supported consistently for over two decades by the National Endowment for the Arts. Shared with millions of viewers worldwide through live performances, broadcasts, viral video and film, Amelia’s vision deploys the transformational and restorative nature of art to initiate a change of perspective, create dialogue and inspire courage in us all.

Marcus Anthony Shelby is an accomplished teacher, composer, arranger, and bassist. From 1990-1996, Shelby was bandleader of Columbia Records and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note and is currently the Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Orchestra, The Marcus Shelby Hot 7, and The Marcus Shelby Trio. Shelby was awarded a Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship in Chicago and a Fellow in the Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford University. Shelby also has had the honor of arranging for and conducting the Count Basie Orchestra featuring Ledisi, performing and recording with Tom Waits, and receiving the City Flight Magazine 2005 award as one of the “Top Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area”. As the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship, Shelby’s studies include work under the tutelage of composer James Newton and legendary bassist Charlie Haden.

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.

Xochitl Sosa is a Texas based aerial performer and instructor. She is a graduate of the New England Center for Circus Arts’ (NECCA) Pro-Track Program. In addition to NECCA, she has trained in Montreal with renowned coaches from Cirque du Soleil and the National Circus School. She performs her unique style of aerial work around the world in festivals, cabarets, and most notably with Seattle based company, Acrobatic Conundrum. After recently finishing a duo hoop contract with Cirque du Soleil, she is back in the USA working on new solo projects as a performer and a choreographer.

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.

Since his journey, Jason has earned several accolades:
2018 Second Place: Pole Sports & Arts World Championships
2018 Champion: US Pole Sports Federation National Championships
2018 Champion: US Pole Sports Federation Pole Art National Championships
2017 Champion: Pole Sport Organization Southeastern Pole Championship
2017 Champion: Men’s Professional Pole FL Pole Fitness Championships
2017 Second Place: Silks Professional FL Pole Fitness Championships
2017 Second Place: Men’s Elite Division US Pole Sports Federation Championships
2016 Champion: Men’s Professional Pole FL Pole Fitness Championships
2016 Men’s Silks Finalist: U.S. Aerial Championships

Mary Ellen Strom is an artist, curator and educator. Her installations and site-specific projects unearth submerged narratives within art, history and cultural discourse. Her work has been exhibited in a wide range of contexts including museums, galleries, passenger trains, on rivers, cattle ranches, large-scale video projections onto industrial sites and mountain rock faces, in empty retail stores and horse arenas. Recent awards include an International Fulbright Scholar Fellowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship to the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, The MAP Fund, Artadia The Fund for Art and Dialogue, Art Matters and Creative Capital. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the ICA Philadelphia, The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Walker Art Center, Mpls., the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH, the Pompidou Centre-Metz, Paris, the Satouchi Triennial in Japan, the Hayward Gallery, London, Nagoya Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan, Fundacion Union-Espacio Cultural Contemporaneo, Montevideo, Uruguay and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia. Strom is a Senior Researcher and Project Director for the Center for Art, Design and Social Research. She is a professor, Media Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA.

Choreographer Julia Taffe combines art, environment and adventure, making dances for buildings, mountains, neighbourhoods, theatres and trees, finding new movement perspectives in the realm of suspension.

Julia is the artistic director of Aeriosa, a Vancouver-based vertical dance company. She has choreographed over 25 works on location including: Stawamus Chief Mountain in Squamish BC, Taipei City Hall, Cirque du Soleil Headquarters, Vancouver Library Square, Banff Centre, Scotiabank Dance Centre and Toronto’s 58-storey L Tower.

Prior to founding Aeriosa, Julia performed across Canada with Ruth Cansfield, and around the world with Bandaloop. Julia attained ACMG Rock Guide certification in 1997. She has worked as a co-producer, choreographer, cast member, stunt performer, mountain safety rigger and creative movement consultant on various film and television productions in Canada and abroad.

Most of Lauren Weinger's works are related to specific sites and were created as part of mixed media performances that often include dance and visual arts. She rarely documents and release her pieces. A recurring theme in her oeuvre is the creation of natural-sounding sonic environments and the reconstruction through sound of places that no longer exist (selected sound sources bringing back specific memories) or the evocation of an object (in the form of sound portraits). The historical aspect is usually deeply integrated in the work as part of its essence rather than displayed in a didactic way. Some of her pieces have been staged in grain silos and mattress factories, others involved a dancer in a 500-gallon water tank and aerialists. All are based on field recordings made at the site, transformed and fed back into the site. She has worked with many choreographers but had a twenty year collaborating with Joanna Haigood. Their works together include In Steel’s Shadow, ChoMu - butterfly dreams, Open Systems and Picture Red Hook/Picture Powderhorn. Their 1999 piece "Descending Chords" featured harpist Zeena Parkins. Her installations have been heard at the Whitney Museum, The Walker Arts Center, the American Film Institute (all in the US), the Avignon and Arles festivals (France), and the Festival del Centro Historico (Mexico). Her piece "Gargoyle" was included on the compilation of works for dance An Ear for a Leg, released by Zoar in 2000. Silo, a solo album based on her grain silo recordings, came out two years later on ReR Megacorp. Weinger teaches sound design at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Shool of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Veronica began her acrobatic career at the age of 14. Her first professional performance was at the age of 17, making her one of the youngest professional African-American trapeze artists in the U.S. She has studied with some of the most celebrated coaches, including the renowned Gérard Fasoli of Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC).

Veronica has performed with several renowned groups and productions around the globe such as UniverSoul Circus (USA), “AFRIKA! AFRIKA!” (Germany) Universal Studios Japan (Osaka, Japan), and Warner Bros. Music. She was also a featured aerialist in the Seoul Street Arts Festival in Seoul, Korea, the San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival and KAMAU’s “Boodha” music video with over 100,000 views on YouTube.

Veronica is engaged in activities outside of teaching and performance. In 2010, Veronica began the Uncle Junior Project. A project that documents African-American circus performers from slavery to present today. In 2013 she staged a three month exhibition on Blacks in the American Circus, which earned her an invitation to present her work at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. In 2018 she led a panel discussion on Women in Circus at the San Francisco International Arts Festival.

Susan Voyticky, a native Brooklynite, traveled far and wide to study at both Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and The Circus Space in London. She has worked for the past two decades for a variety of wide companies; including performing with Keith Hennessy’s Circo Zero and the New Pickle Circus in San Francisco, touring the U.S. with the Universoul Circus, a year in Japan at Universal Studios and the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and Circus Abyssinia in New York. For the past decade Susan could also be found at the Circus Warehouse in NYC inspiring and training the next generation of circus artists. Hoping to take her artistic endeavors to the next level, Susan founded Loki Circus Theater with Michelle Arvin to create innovative movement theater productions using a mixture of circus, physical theater and dance. Through Loki, Susan has created work for SummerStage(2014), Circus Warehouse(2015) and the Rubin Museum(2018).

Summer's journey to the stage began with a childhood love of gymnastics, and a discovery of aerial arts and dance in college. Within a few short years she went from passionate novice to a highly sought after performer and instructor. In 2012 she dazzled millions of television viewers when she reached the top 100 on “America’s Got Talent.” Host Howie Mandel described her act as "both dangerous and very original."

With specialties including Aerial Chains, Aerial Hoop, Silks and Dance Trapeze, Summer has been seen in flight at The Economist Magazine's World in 2013 Gala, the 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards and appeared in the off-Broadway show "La Soiree". In 2018 she was a featured performer in the Circus Abyssinia show "Ethiopian Dreams" during their residency at the New Victory Theater. She is a member of the Dzul Dance Company, Constellation Moving Company, Loki Circus Theater, and is one-third of "La Cage Trio", a one-of-a-kind aerial cage troupe.

Summer embodies each performance with an expression of joyful intensity, seeking to inspire her audience to re-imagine what they think is possible, and embrace her mission to, “stand up, stand out and create something beautiful.” In addition to performing, Summer is a resident instructor at Circus Warehouse and Body & Pole in NYC, where she works alongside the industry’s best, teaching aerial dance to future circus stars!

Copper Santiago is a multidisciplinary artist and circus performer currently based in Cincinnati Ohio. Born and raised in New York City, Copper grew up training flying trapeze and has traveled extensively to study circus, notably at the New England Center for Circus arts and the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus. Currently enrolled at Goddard college pursuing a BFA in socially engaged art, Copper has performed at juggling festivals overseas and circus shows nationally. Her favorite food is arugula.

Darielle’s passion for movement germinated when she was a little girl in Trinidad and Tobago where she was born and raised. She danced with Guggenheim recipient Brazz Dance Theater, Binti Ensemble, AfroConTempo Dance Company and Animate Objects Physical Theater. The latter company introduced her to circus arts and there she got her start learning aerial, fire dancing and stilt walking, later discovering pole dancing and making the transition to full time instructing and performing aerial and pole.

Darielle has performed aerial for Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull for the opening of Premios Juventud 2013; stilts for Don Omar at the Latin Grammy's 2012 as well as Chino Y Nacho at Premios Juventud 2014; and fire on segways for Romeo Santos for Premios Juventud 2012. In 2014, Darielle moved to Las Vegas to perform in the water show Le Rêve - the Dream at the Wynn Hotel where she soloed in aerial chair, aerial hammock and a high diving character named Amazon Gris. From there, Darielle was selected to be the featured aerialist performing aerial cube in Beyonce’s Formation Tour 2016, which toured North America and Europe. Now based in Los Angeles, Darielle has been able to take part in an LA Opera show - Les Pêcheurs de Perles and was featured in Taylor Mac’s "A 24-Decade History of Popular Music" alongside Troupe Vertigo. Darielle has recently performed at the MTV Video Music Awards with 2019 Video Vanguard Award recipient Missy Elliot and The Little Mermaid Live on ABC, which can now be viewed on Disney Plus.

Is a Black transgender man who specialises in traditional Chinese Acrobatics. Toni is a company member of San Francisciso’s Circus Bella and the Ground-breaking Topsy Turvy Queer Circus.

Shannon Gray is a dance trapeze artist who brings a unique emotional honesty to all of her work. She performs and teaches internationally and is currently developing The Sentience Project- a body of work exploring injury, healing, and the natural world. She is a youth mentor, surfer, and animal rights advocate.

Pamela Donohoo is Artistic Director of Awaken Circus and Dance Theater and an international performing artist: aerialist, acrobat, dancer, and choreographer. She has worked with performing arts organizations throughout the US and internationally. She has done commercials, award shows, large-scale events and spectacular acrobatic shows.

Pamela received her degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology from Stanford University. She completed field research projects and worked with nonprofit organizations throughout Africa, India, Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research interests include: social justice, peacebuilding, sustainability and the environment, folklore, culture, and history. Pamela specializes in creating socially relevant and globally engaged acrobatic performances. Her vision is to generate art that inspires people to think critically and contribute positively to their world.

Choreographer, Writer and Composer Robert Moses has created over 100 works of varying styles and genres for his highly praised dance company, and has composed many of the sound and narrative scores for his works since 2008. Moses has choreographed for dance, opera, and theater companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, San Francisco Opera, Olympic Arts Festival, Ailey II, Philadanco, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Cincinnati Ballet, Eco Arts, Transitions Dance Company of the Laban Center in London, African Cultural Exchange (UK), Bare Bones (UK), Oakland Ballet, New Conservatory Theater, Los Angeles Prime Moves Festival (L.A.C.E.), Moving People Dance, and Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company, among others. He has taught on college campuses throughout the US, including UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Cal State Long Beach, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Goucher College, University of Texas, Stockton University, University of Nevada, and University of South Florida. Moses’ work explores topics ranging from oral traditions in African American culture, contemporary urban culture, and the complexities of identity, to the simple joys and expressive power of pure movement. Moses has worked collaboratively with numerous artists and organizations, among them are Terence Marling, Latanya d. Tigner, Julia Adam, Margaret Jenkins, Alonzo King, Sara Shelton Mann, Joanna Haigood, Carl Hancock Rux, SoVoSo, Marcus Shelby, Keith Terry, Frank Boehm, Will Power, Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, Bill Morrison, Ann Galjour, David Worm, Kid Beyond and Youth Speaks.

A highly sought after master teacher, Moses has taught nationally and internationally, including International Festival of Contemporary Dance "Espuma Cuanatica" (Ensanada, Mexico), International Dance Festival, "Crossing Bodies" (Tijuana, Mexico), OPEN LOOK St. Petersburg International Dance Festival, and Serendipity Arts Festival (Kolkata, India). Moses has been a returning guest artist at the Northwest Dance Project and a mentor with Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME). He conducted movement and performance workshops internationally for artists of African descent with State of Emergency Limited in the United Kingdom.

In 2005, Moses was named Stanford University Choreographer-in-Residence and the Artistic Director of the Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford University. He was Professor of Practice at Santa Clara University from 2018 to 2019 and is currently the Melody and Mark Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Dance and Theater Studies at Mills College in Oakland, CA.

Terry Crane With a background in theater and dance, Terry Crane began his circus journey at the National Circus School of Montreal in 2003. Now a veteran of the big top and the stage, he has performed in countless countries for various companies, including Teatro Zinzanni, Circus Flora, and Circus Monti. Terry shares his love of rope technique, circus creation, and collaboration via workshops across the globe. As a director, Terry aims to portray human virtuosity and vulnerability alongside one another. He is the founder of contemporary circus company Acrobatic Conundrum, which has been creating performances in the Seattle area since 2012. Conundrum’s work has toured widely in the US and internationally.

Cassandra was born into a family of modern dancers three generations running. She performed her first duo act with her dad the age of five. She has traveled the world performing primarily Aerial Straps with companies such as Recirquel in Budapest, Wow of Las Vegas, and Stufish of the UK.

Rachel Karabenick is a professional aerialist with a strong background in modern dance and ballet. She has toured and performed with professional circus companies large and small, i ncluding Absinthe, Circus Flora, Cavalia, Cirque Mechanics, Midnight Circus, and more. Her specialties include Dance Trapeze, Aerial Hoop, Aerial Pole, and Aerial Straps.

Faith Elder is a Seattle-based dancer specializing in modern and vertical dance. Faith began aerial and vertical dance while attending University of Washington, performing in works by Rachael Lincoln and Roel Seeber. In the future, Faith hopes to create a vertical dance community in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Ciarra D’Onofrio (they/them) is a dancer, aerialist, and educator with a passion for using dance as a means of storytelling, social analysis, and community building. They have most recently danced with Zaccho Dance Theatre and Helen Wicks Works, and are a recent recipient of a Fact SF Fieldwork award.

Kelsey Keitges is an aerial hoop artist and coach based in the Bay Area and Central Coast. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Kelsey found circus arts in 2006 after ten years of ballet training. She holds an administrative management role at the San Francisco Circus Center and performs and produces shows locally.

Meche is a born and raised San Franciscan, singer-songwriter, aerialist, and hoop instructor. She has trained in aerial dance since she was 12 years old with Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joanna Haigood and is an alumna member of the Zaccho Youth Company. She has collaborated with and performed for Flyaway Productions, Youth Circus Center Festival, and BAYCAT. Over the years, Meche has contributed her songwriting, singing, and acting talents to Zaccho performances. She loves making pieces, primarily about social justice issues that she is passionate about.

Meléa Emunah (she/her) grew up in West Marin and began aerial dancing when she was eight. She joined Zaccho Youth Company in high school and had the privilege to perform in the 2016 and 2018 SF Aerial Arts Festival. While in college at Princeton, Meléa co-founded the student-led Princeton Aerial Arts Club.

Nina Sawant is a circus artist, choreographer, and costume designer in Oakland, California. She has been inspiring audiences for more than 16 years with her evocative performances and imaginative costumes. Nina is a founding member of The Dahlias, a woman of color led circus ensemble, and performs locally for Vespertine Circus, Sweet Can Productions, Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Misfit Cabaret.

Circus Center's San Francisco Youth Circus (SFYC), is made up of students from all around the Bay Area who are passionate about circus arts. The SFYC is a comprehensive circus training and performance program that nurtures students through their development as circus artists. For students who want it, SFYC is committed to providing them with the tools and training needed to pursue a career in circus. The acts in this festival are from the SFYC show directed by Jeff Raz, Circus at the End of the World.

Circus Mecca (Mendocino Center for Circus Arts) is an all-volunteer run 501c3 non-profit founded in 2008 to bring high level aerial circus arts education and performance to Northern California. Our students go on to perform, teach, and win awards nationally and internationally. We are focused on making sure that anyone who is dedicated and passionate about aerial arts has access to affordable, safe, and supportive high-level instruction.

Kinetic Arts Center (Oakland, CA) is home to Circus Spire a 20 – 25 person, pre-professional circus youth troupe, ages ~13 – 18yrs, committed to excellence in circus arts training and performance.

Kinetic Arts Center’s Circus Spire program includes the highest training level in circus and performance skill development available. Annual performance opportunities include (but are not limited to): multi-week, full-length productions, individual act development, local off-site festivals and events, on-site special events, and showcases/cabarets.

Now in our thirteenth season, many of our students opt to continue their circus education by enrolling in professional circus training programs locally, nationally, and abroad. While we know that not everyone member of Circus Spire aspires to become a circus professional,Circus Spire is a program designed to give each student the skills to try if they choose.

Zaccho Youth Company (ZYC) is a youth aerial dance company 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, and the Bolinas Community Center. Zaccho Youth Company is part of Zaccho Dance Theatre’s award winning Youth Performing Arts Program, held at the organization’s studio in Bayview Hunters Point, where it has been based for the past 33 years.

Destiny Arts Center is a community that inspires and ignites social change through the arts. Destiny Arts Center has served Oakland and the Bay Area since 1988, bringing over 2,600 youth together each year. We provide a safe and inclusive space for youth to express themselves, build trusting relationships, and work collectively to create a better future by advocating for change. Through dance and martial arts, young people learn to perform and express themselves, overcome challenges, and connect with others. Our youth are empowered and able to achieve their full potential through the act of engaging in artistic and creative practices. At Destiny, we welcome young people into a community built on love, where they engage in creative and self expression, and realize their own potential to create change in the world.

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company was founded in 1993 to create innovative dance/theater productions, written and conceived by youth in collaboration with professional artists. The Company is a diverse artistic collective of teens who creatively address challenging personal and social issues that impact their lives and their communities. Their productions are a trademark combination of movement styles including hip hop and aerial dance, theater, spoken word, rap and song. The Company performs for over 20,000 audience members each year all over the Bay Area at schools, conferences and other community events, and has been the subject of two feature-length documentary films. The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, our nation's highest honor for creative youth development programs.

BANDALOOP celebrates the human spirit, nature, and communities through dance that uses climbing technology to expand and challenge what is possible. Since 1991, the work has re-imagined dance, activating natural and public spaces to evoke wonder and imagination in audiences and students around the world.

Photo credit: Layeelah Muhammed