"Being a professional dancer requires skill, determination and core strength. And when you're dancing hundreds of feet in the air - with no safety net - it requires fear. "I'm opposed to the culture of 'no fear,' because fear reminds you of what's important," says Amelia Rudolph. "We like to say that we love our fear because our fear keeps us alive, our fear keeps us vigilant.""
"It turns out the Bay Area is a hotbed of vertical dancing. Some of the biggest influencers and pioneers in the art form made their careers here. Aside from Rudolph and Bandaloop, there's Jo Kreiter's Flyaway Productions in San Francisco with its "apparatus-based dance" and Zaccho Dance Theatre, which holds a biannual Aerial Arts Festival taking place in 2026 at the Fort Mason Center."
Amelia Rudolph opposes the culture of 'no fear' and frames fear as a protective, life-preserving instinct. Rudolph founded Bandaloop and A.R.M.A., performing vertical dance that blends contemporary dance and rock-climbing to ascend and interact with skyscrapers and natural cliffs. The Bay Area hosts many vertical-dance pioneers and companies including Flyaway Productions, Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Terry Sendgraff, with festivals and apparatus-based techniques. Performers use harnesses and support systems to move along vertical surfaces, generating a unique relationship with gravity. Vertical dance delivers slowed, suspended sensation and intense bodily freedom distinct from traditional floor-based dance.
Read at The Mercury News
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