Soaring troupe Aeriosa bonds with bamboo in Second Nature

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      Aeriosa’s aerial performers have brought their unique combination of contempor ary dance, rock climbing, and acrobatics solely to outdoor settings since 2011. Locally, they have swung high on the rock cliffs of the Stawamus Chief, through the treetops of the Greenheart Canopy Walkway at the UBC Botanical Garden, and from the heights of a grove of old evergreens in Stanley Park. They have danced vertically along the sides of buildings like the Scotiabank Dance Centre, Taipei’s city hall, and Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House.

      So, unlike most dance companies, when Aeriosa actually heads inside a theatre—as it will for its new work Second Nature at the Scotiabank Dance Centre—it’s big news. And its first indoor show since 2011 holds its own challenges for a group accustomed to fluctuating weather, crowd management, and flowing breezes.

      “It’s daunting and inspiring at the same time,” says choreographer Julia Taffe, over the phone between rehearsals in Vancouver. “Even though it’s in the theatre, it’s still site-specific. You’re not sure what you’re going to be able to build on it. I did miss having a team of designers you get to work with in a theatre and having a little bit more control over the environment.

      “One of the reasons I don’t often work in theatre is because I’m really sensitive to light and to nature,” she adds. “I’m always looking for ways to pull what I love into the work.”

      She achieves that with Second Nature, a bamboo-themed work that carries on Taffe’s long interest in communing with the natural world. She traces its inspiration back to Hong Kong, where Aeriosa performed in 2015.

      “I was stunned by the scale of the architecture in Hong Kong, and the designs were really powerful,” she says of the shiny skyscrapers that reminded her of Transformers robots that might shape-shift at any moment. “Some were very high-tech, but others were encased in this skin of bamboo scaffolding. It was this organic skin against this modern infrastructure, and I found it really profound.”

      As she delved deeper into her subject, she was struck by how many different ways bamboo is used around the world. She found it had cultural significance in diverse countries, and loved its architectural, aesthetic, and sensory appeal. “As a tourist I’ve walked through bamboo forests in South Pacific islands,” she says, “and there’s the sounds of it gently knocking against each other, the smooth texture, the rustle of leaves, the smell of it.”

      Working with installation artist Dan Law and safety and rigging designer Colin Zacharias, Taffe’s created an environment where six dancers move amid, and with, the bamboo. Sometimes the bamboo columns hang down and sway like pendulums while the dancers float and twirl in the air among them on wires; at other times, the bamboo bends and attaches to the dancers’ bodies like long, spindly spider limbs. Jordan Nobles has created a haunting orchestral soundtrack for the work.

      From the earliest, wide-open brainstorming sessions she and her team had about all the ways the material could be used, “It’s become very much the movement of the bamboo with the dancers,” Taffe says. “I don’t really feel like it is a set. It’s almost like a presence or a character.”

      Bamboo has so inspired the troupe, Taffe’s not quite sure whether she’s ready to let it go. The dance artist, who’s also a rock-climbing enthusiast, has devoted years to exploring aerial choreography across buildings and atop trees, and bamboo might warrant that lengthy attention too.

      “I’m at a crossroads. I feel like it takes seven years to fully explore things,” she says. “It’s been a great material for bringing our work into the theatre.”

      Second Nature is at the Scotiabank Dance Centre from Thursday to Saturday (May 24 to 26).

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