Blue Lapis Light presents Radiance: A Site Specific Aerial Dance, June 13-18 at the Long Center.
There is a presence, an energy that vibrates through all of life, a field of Light connecting us to stars, planets, this earth, animals, and to one another.
Blue Lapis Light’s Artistic Director, Sally Jacques, recounts one experience of this Light:
“When I was in a teenager I hitchhiked throughout Europe. One night I was dropped off in a village in France in the mountains. It was late so I wandered around until I found a field laid down and went to sleep. When I awoke I was lying next to a field of wild red poppies, which was next to a field of strawberries and green peas. The early morning sun was radiating rainbow colored sheaths of light over the fields and village. It was breathtaking. Radiance is about this Light, this Light that is within each of us.”
The staging of this transcendent work will include performing on the Long Center’s terrace, ring and columns, as well as the making of two “celestial harps.” These “harps” will be created by connecting the columns with multi-level steel cables, allowing dancers to move across and ‘play’ notes as the mic’ed cables capture the sounds of their feet. These 20 x 30 foot “harps” will be located at both ends of the terrace.
About Blue Lapis Light
Blue Lapis Light is a group of gravity-defying dancers in Austin, Texas, led by Artistic Director Sally Jacques. Our passion is creating site-specific dance works that inspire our audiences with beauty and wonder, as living prayers for the planet. As a site-specific company, over the last 10 years we have created original performances and danced on numerous urban buildings, on the edifices of hotels, over water, the inside of a power plant, and on an abandoned structure.
We take great joy in bringing aerial dance to our community. BLL’s aerial dance classes have been going strong since 2007 and regularly engage students from ages 6-60 in creating stunning performances. Our Youth Taking Flight outreach program is in it’s ninth year of engaging underserved youth through collaborative dance performances.
With much support from our community, in the Summer of 2015 we opened the doors on our 3,000 sq. ft. custom aerial dance studio. In just a few short months, this Studio has already increased class offerings for our adult and youth students, hosted student performances, provided adequate rehearsal space for our performers, and offered rental space for other local performers.