A riddle to ponder: They do a kind of dance, but not usually on the ground. They’re exceptionally athletic, but their moves tend to be subtle rather than demonstrative. They are athletes who play without a ball, a bat or a net. So what is it?
“It’s San Antonio’s only professional aerial arts company and school," said Julia Langenberg, who runs Aerial Horizon. I asked her to describe what they do:
“Dancing in the air, or acrobatics on different apparatuses," she said. "Typically, I ask people if they know Cirque Du Soleil -- and most people have -- and so I tell them that’s kind of what we do.”
They also teach what she calls the circus arts, currently to 70 local students. And this Friday they’ve got a performance.
"It’s a free showing from 8-9 p.m. at First Friday down at the Blue Star Arts Complex," she said.
Their studio is there next to the Blue Star Brewery.
“So we’ll be at our studio showcasing a lot of students performances and then also our company members — a few of them will be performing as well," said Langenberg. "So we’ll have performances on hooks and trapeze and lyra, rope, hand-balancing and acrobatics. The whole variety of aerial arts and circus arts performances."
And if, like me, you don’t know what a lyra is: "a steel hoop hung in the air.”
I asked if music plays a role in what they do.
“They’re all choreographed to music and so our acts will all be performed to music,” Langenberg said.
As she explained, most of their acts take place high in the air, but not all.
“We have a hand balancer who is actually a former Cirque Du Soleil artist, and he will be balancing on his hands on canes, doing acrobatics off of the canes, and he’s also teaching a hand-stand workshop on Saturday,” she said.
- Visit Aerial Horizon online at: aerial-horizon.com
Here's a video from Aerial Horizon:
