Those Dancin' Feet

Irish company Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre present the only aerial dance production of this year’s Dance Base programme, and their thrilling show RAW promises to sweep you off your feet. Aerial dance – a blend of dance and circus - has been practiced since the early 1970s but has recently reached an elevated status - in the public's consciousness that is -  with ropes dangling from the ceiling of Dance Base’s own studio 4 for several months and dissertations and doctorates being written on the subject. It has always been an elevated art form, involving dancing suspended from ropes and harnesses.
Founded in 2000, Fidget Feet also perform outdoor work and in Edinburgh will present a show which is too big for Dance Base, so that RAW has to decamp to the National Dance Agency’s other Fringe venue, Out of the Blue Drill Hall. The work will feature seven performers, including a live DJ who has “a very important and shamanic role”, and the artists- “a big company in this poor climate” - will consume all the space. Fidget Feet founder Chantal McCormick says, “If anyone likes dance, using circus and aerial dance just take it one step higher! In dance you only use the ground and there is such a lot of space above you. With aerial we fill that space with dance too. Everyone loves watching aerial dance and circus, and RAW is a treat for the senses”.

RAW is set in a nightclub, and both background and lighting explore the spectrum of blues and purples. We might assume that dark undertones come from more than just the designer’s palette, but while the dancers don’t spend much time on the floor, audiences might expect to leave the venue feeling less than uplifted. In fact, “Nothing in RAW is depressing,” Chantal assures us, “it just becomes a window into reality itself. The performers show some darker sides of human nature, but you need the dark with the light – life is all about balance”.

This is certainly true for aerial dance, which requires not only balance but also formidable core and upper-body strength. Fidget Feet’s dancers are trained in dance and circus skills, with Chantal having trained at London School of Contemporary Dance, where she was “always interested in mixing dance with other art forms”, before going to London’s Circus Space to learn trapeze. “In truth,” she says, “I never wanted to do aerial, I just fell into it. I remember when I was hanging forty meters off a building about to abseil down and thinking “why am I up here? I’m a dancer, I should be on the ground, not up here shitting myself!”. But then once you start you’re hooked.” As well as floor-bound dancing, the dancers use ropes and harnesses, and there is even pole dancing. As well as conventional pole dance, the company will also use a Chinese pole, “climbing up the pole and hanging and sliding down”. The Chinese pole originates from the circus and Chantal says it “takes a lot of upper body strength: it’s a boy thing!”

“We make it look easy,” says Chantal, “but until you try to climb a rope or fly in a harness you do not know the intense pain it is! I am amazed at the mental strength one needs to just keep pushing the body to train and train and train. I have been working now for almost twelve years and I still feel like a beginner: so much to learn and explore, I guess that’s what keeps me going.” While aerial dance is an amazing technical feat, Chantal emphasises the potential for artistry: “Some people are only interested in the circus tricks and drops but that is not what I am interested in. I love seeing people move seamlessly in the air”. This is harder than it looks: “Most female dancers don’t have the upper strength needed to do aerial at first and so you need to do a lot of body conditioning”.

More earth-bound dancers and even mere mortals needn’t despair, as “harness work is different, most dancers can do this, it will not take so many years to get good at it, and it’s fun once you can get past the pain factor!” Even non-dancers can give it a go, as Dance Base and Fidget Feet will be offering several workshops in August, for both beginners and improvers, taught by Lucy Deacon. A graduate of the Rogelio Rivel school in Barcelona, Deacon is a specialist in aerial work and indeed an expert at that ‘boy thing’, the Chinese pole. As Chantal says, “there is a wish in all of us to fly – we all have flying dreams”, adding “if you have ever dreamt of trying it, come along to a workshop, any level is welcome”. While the brave might realise that dream, those who are scared of heights or haven’t done enough press-ups can watch and marvel at this spectacular show from the safety of their seats, and while RAW explores some dark themes, few things can be more uplifting than watching human beings fly.