Aerial Dance: A Guide to Dance with Rope and Harness

Aerial Dance: A Guide to Dance with Rope and Harness provides an introduction for the beginning aerialist. It covers rigging, equipment, advice on optimal conditioning, and a step-by-step guide to technique, including anatomical references, space and time considerations, and elements of force when working with and against gravity. Specific movements and choreography are framed anatomically and together reflect the pattern and order of an aerial technique class. Challenges inherent to this type of dancing are discussed, as well as wellness instruction and methods of altering these techniques for intermediate and advanced dancing. A companion website hosts video that corresponds with the technique and phrasing in the book.

Jenefer Davies is the Associate Professor of Dance at Washington and Lee University and Artistic Director of the W&L Repertory Dance Company. Her choreography and performance work has toured to Spain, Greece, Scotland and throughout the United States. Davies founded the contemporary modern dance company, Progeny Dance, which has performed at Green Space and Dixon Place in Manhattan, and The Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn. She created one of the first academic programs in aerial dance in the country and teaches master classes in aerial rope & harness, bungee and silks. Her aerial dancers have performed at the Ailey Citigroup Theatre in NYC, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC and from the rooftops of buildings on the Washington & Lee campus.