Denver Aerial Dance Collective returns to KC Fringe Festival
Photo by Martha Wirth Photography Inc.
The Kansas City Fringe Festival is right around the corner, celebrating the arts throughout the KC area for its 20th season. Films, theatre, music, and dancing will be performed across the city for an action-packed fortnight. While many local artists will take the stage for the festival, artists from far and wide will travel to Kansas City to participate. The Denver Aerial Dance Collective (DADC) will stun the city with their performance of “Dream State.”
The Fringe Festival and “fringe” art in general began as a way to highlight artists who may be unable to conform to or obtain mainstream recognition or opportunities. Kansas City’s Fringe Festival impresses not only its citizens but artists across the country. Dancer and media spokesperson for the DADC, Taylor Conglio says, “We were very attracted to the size and scope of it and very, very impressed that they had such success for so long.”
One of the dancers, Elena Kramda, is a University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory alumni who informed the collective of the underrated, booming KC arts scene.
Unlike many traditional dance companies, the DADC doesn’t follow a hierarchical system of power. “The way we do things, every single member contributes to what is put on stage, both through choreography and through their performance,” says Conglio.
Dancers contribute through various aspects outside of dancing, like media work, costuming, choreography, and booking. The eight-member troop works hard together to achieve a collective goal. “It’s not just a product of one person’s hard work, it is everybody. And that’s just awesome,” says Conglio.
Photo by Kalen Jesse
When the collective began, they centered their show around Radiohead’s Kid A album and they liked the structure of a piece revolving around one musician. This year they will bring “Dream State,” a work inspired by the music of Son Lux, an ambient and experimental band. After a hard year of growing pains from injured dancers and job transitions, everyone resonated with Son Lux’s music. “There were a lot of themes about recovering and going through a time that was hard,” says Conglio.
Aerial dance differs from standard dancing, as gravity doesn’t restrain the show, and allows for jumps and positions to be held longer. “If you use an aerial apparatus, you can suspend the shapes and extend to them for many seconds at a time so that people can actually appreciate them as dancers’ bodies can make incredible shapes,” says Conglio.
After a trial run of touring at last year’s festival for only a weekend, the crew looks forward to their extended Kansas City stay. Conglio says, “So this year, we’re very, very excited to come back and stay for the whole festival. Also to really get to you what this Fringe Festival has to offer for the entire time and hopefully get to connect with a lot more audiences than we did last time around.”
Another exciting aspect of their arrival is the opportunity to perform back-to-back with their KC friends in the Circus Scorpius. “It’s going to be a great combination. They show all of the best sides of like the circus aspect of aerial, and we have the dance aspects,” says Conglio.
Tickets to “Dream State” by the Denver Aerial Dance Collective can be purchased on the Fringe Festival’s website. The aerial dancers will take stage on the City Stage Theatre at Union Station on July 16, 21, 24, 26, and 27.
