Over the past weekend the women of Aerial Dance took the stage for our 12th Annual Show. With 111 performers and an audience of ~500 this was our largest event to date. And many people have said it was our best. I won’t argue that subjective thought but I will confirm that the show was truly outstanding.
When show planning started for this year there were SO MANY unknowns with Covid and what we should or shouldn’t be doing. We decided to Ostrich it (put our heads in the sand) and just do the event we wanted. Which meant DOUBLES!!!! We wanted to return to the high energy and sisterhood uniting event of the past were we had 6 women on stage in one routine. We wanted to return to the epic show opening and closing group numbers by having way too many instructors on stage doing crazy things. We wanted to return to the BIG audience screaming and the one big show time. What I’m most proud of is that even after the time off and the weirdness, we did it. We put on a “normal” event. And it was AMAZING.
“Normal”. Ha. Nothing about the Aerial Dance Annual Show is “normal” by industry standards. Most studios do their events at their studios or at a venue that already has rigging because it is so much easier. Not Aerial Dance. We move our entire studio and create a brand new aerial space off site in the process. This takes an INSANE amount of planning and coordination, as well as work, by a ton of people. Here are some of the companies that make our show possible:
- Tanners is our event venue. Their staff do an amazing job opening early so we can set up and taking care of our people the entire weekend!
- Wisconsin Concert Staging literally sets up our stage. What once was volleyball courts is now a performing stage! The also allow us to drill holes into their beautiful stage so our pole safely mount.
- JEM Productions does the rigging, video, sound, and lights and they were really incredible this year; Tabor and Caleb worked our event weekend and they were so kind and attentive. Most production companies turned me down when I asked them to rig our show because of the liability, so we are beyond grateful that JEM is willing to work with us and then does a truly artistic job on top of it!
- Three photography companies worked together to shoot our event: Debbie Daanen Photography, Giving Works Photography and Taylor Daniele Photography.
- Simple Simon Bakery sets out a delicious table of desserts for snacks during the show.
- Stella Graphic Design created our show poster, tickets and programs.
- Harrison Printing & Promotion prints our show tickets and programs.
- Health Matters Muscular Therapy is our event sponsor.
- Additional businesses that sponsor the show include: Nakashimas, TC Dance, Brennan Hussey PT, LUV, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group with Gary Schumacher, Debbie Daanen Photography, Upcycled, The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley, and Photography by Brittyni.
For those counting, that is 18 small businesses that worked on our show!!!!! The show does more than give our women an amazing opportunity, it also supports other small businesses in our area!
I am so grateful for all the companies that work with Aerial Dance to create this production. I am also insanely grateful for my instructor team for putting in the long hours year after year to make this happen annually. We literally bring a foam floor from the studio to put on our stage, that is the level of attention to detail that we executed to make this event next epic. My staff show up early to help set things up, they tear down at the end, they do all the set changes during the show, they perform in the show and the do all the choreography for the routines. This is a HUGE undertaking and it wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of the Aerial Dance Instructors.
As we prepared for this year it felt a lot more like the first show to me; I had a lot more anxiety then in recent years not knowing how things would work out after the year “off”. (Ok, it wasn’t off, but we did something different in 2020 so it didn’t feel like this monster event!) The end result, I couldn’t be prouder. What we created this past weekend defies good adjectives because it surpassed them. The women of Aerial Dance are simply mind-blowing.
