Bandaloop presents DANCES FROM THIN AIR on the Great Wall of Oakland

Vertical Dance Company BANDALOOP presents Dances from Thin Air, a multi-media evening of vertical dance and film of the company's recent mountain dances. For one night only, the Bay Area's own BANDALOOP will light up the Great Wall Oakland at Broadway and West Grand with its acclaimed, dynamic vertical dance. The award-winning short film SHIFT, shot in Yosemite National Park in 2015 and recent footage of the new work Coyote Waltz filmed as part of the National Park Service Centennial will frame the live performance on wall. Bringing wild space to urban place, Dances from Thin Air shares with our Bay Area audiences the mountain heart of BANDALOOP's artistry.

In the short film SHIFT, founder and artistic director Amelia Rudolph leads a company of eight dancers hiking from Yosemite Valley to the crest of the Sierra. Dances are staged and filmed on multiple terrains, including 3,000 foot cliff faces, on slabs of granite and in the spray of a waterfall. Both virtuosic and human, SHIFT invites viewers into the implausible endeavor of bringing dance to the wilderness. As the performers find grace in the midst of high altitude effort, their artistry highlights the dignity of the mountain environment and transports viewers into exhilarating, playful, and visually stunning BANDALOOP choreography filmed by JAmes Adamson.

2016's Coyote Waltz explores the interplay between human versus wild, a study of the intersection of the so called "civilized" and "wild" explored in mountain spaces. Emmy award winning director Michael Graber led the film team in capturing the deconstructing of the waltz form on vertical and horizontal granite in the heart of Yosemite Valley in 2016. Both films will be woven with live dance to create a visual dialogue.

The performance begins at 8:00 pm and admission is free and open to the public. A limited number of reserved seats will also be available for $20. The public is encouraged to bring their own chairs or mats and to reserve free or paid tickets at www.bandaloop.org.

The commissioning and production of this world premiere is made possible by the Gerbode-Hewlett Foundations 2014 Choreographer Commissioning Awards Initiative, the National Endowment for the Arts, The East Bay Community Foundation's East Bay Fund for Artists and The City of Oakland Cultural Arts and Marketing. BANDALOOP Bay Area performances would not be possible without the support of Paragon Real Estate Group and our Great Wall of Oakland productions are hosted & co-sponsored by TMG Partners.

For more information, go to www.bandaloop.org and follow us @bandalooping.

Photo credit: Basil Tsimoyianis

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