On January 31, members of the Repertory Dance Ensemble at Riverside Brookfield High School attended an aerial silks class at Aerial Dance Chicago, a nonprofit dance company located in downtown Chicago. The students learned a variety of techniques, skills, and tips that will help them in their dance careers.
Madelyn Dall, fine arts and wellness teacher as well as head of RDE, wanted to give her students the opportunity to experience something they wouldn’t be able to on their own. An aerial silks class was the perfect way to introduce them to a different, yet useful style of dance.
“One of the reasons I chose this field trip is that I don’t think the majority of the girls have access to this kind of experience, obviously not here at school and not typically at their studio if they dance outside of school,” Dall said. “I just thought it was a really great opportunity for them to try something that they don’t typically have access to.”
From the beginning of the class, students were exposed to the art of aerial silks with a demonstration from Katie Harmon, Principal Dancer and Program Coordinator at ADC. The students then got to work on their own skills, being taught proper techniques by Harmon and having fun with their peers.
“The setup that they had was amazing in terms of scheduling,” Dall said. “We got there and we had a soloist do a five minute performance for us, and she is one of their professionals. [She is a] beautiful, beautiful dancer. She did a five minute piece for us in costume, so the girls kicked off the workshop with that, which was really nice. We did a warm up together, and then we just started working on some skills. Everybody got to pair up, and each pair got their own silk that they got to work with. It just flowed really nicely, so that was great.”
Sophomore Kailyn Novak dances with RDE and found this event to be the perfect way to build on her previous aerial silks experience while also enjoying time with her friends.
“I thought it was really fun,” Novak said. “Going into it, I’ve had a little bit of past experience, but it was really nice to learn proper technique and just learn a couple new things that I hadn’t learned before. It’s something I haven’t done in a little while, so it was nice to do it again because I’ve had fun doing it before.”
Sophomore Emilia Royer, another member of RDE, also went into the class with some prior experience. She plans on improving her overall dance technique using what she learned at the workshop, hoping to return to aerial silks again.
“I feel like there’s certain skills and ways that you do it that I could use for other kinds of dance styles or other kinds of acro classes,” Royer said. “Since I’ve done aerial silks in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if I decided to take another class in the future, so I could use those skills then.”
Although the idea of being in the air on aerial silks is quite alluring, and the attendees of the trip greatly enjoyed themselves, the truth about aerial silks is that it takes strength and endurance. However, the hard work used when doing aerial silks only improves a dancer’s abilities.
“I liked going upside down, but after a while it got a little hard, and then, because you have to hold on to the silks so tight, your fingers start to cramp a lot, so that wasn’t very fun,” Novak said. “It’s a lot on your body, but it helps you get stronger and helps you think about things that you don’t normally think about when you dance.”
Just as in any field, widening one’s scope is a crucial part of mastering a skill. Dall keeps this idea at the center of her decision making, doing her very best to introduce new varieties of dance to her students.
“One of the biggest things that the girls want and ask for is just trying different and new things,” Dall said. “The majority of my dancers go to their studios after school and do their ballet and their modern dance and their jazz dance, so finding things that are different, new, and exciting is something that I can offer them. I think that it’s really important to widen the variety and the experience and their appreciation for different cultures of dance. It’s something that I think we’ll definitely continue to do.”
The skills learned at the class will be used in the 2024 Orchesis show, a dance company comprised of many RDE members, as well as student dancers who aren’t in the class.
“She [Harmon] is going to be the choreographer that’s going to be coming in [for the Orchesis show],” Dall said. “We’re rigging three aerial silks in the auditorium on the stage and setting a piece for six to nine dancers in our Orchesis show, so I’m really excited to have them take what they learned and [apply it to the show]. She said they learned a lot of skills at the workshop that they’ll be using in the dance, so they’ll be able to take those skills, turn them into a dance, and we’ll put it on stage with lighting and costumes, and it’ll be in our show. This is something that we haven’t done before. I’m really excited to have them coming and setting a piece on our dancers.”
Events like these are what allow RB dancers to improve their art and widen their abilities. Dall plans to go on more trips in an effort to better serve her students and allow them to truly thrive as artists. Dancers and enjoyers of the arts alike will benefit from the experiences made possible by RB and Dall by taking shows such as the Orchesis performance to the next level.
“I think it was worth it,” Royer said. “I think there were a good amount of skills that I hadn’t done before that were cool to learn and fun to try. I feel like aerial silks are just something you don’t do very often, so to be able to have that experience and get to go do that was fun.”
