Keyvious is an aerial artist who discovered his passion when he was eight years old and now teaches aspiring dancers of all ages and abilities. He came to EXPLO to step outside of his comfort zone and try something new, just like our students!
Aerial dance is one of the earliest forms of acrobatic circus arts. Its origins go back to Europe and its motherland is considered France. Cirque du Soleil is based heavily on aerial dance because they don’t use animals, and that means they have to get entertainment from somewhere else. It is basically like acrobatics but the really cool thing about aerial dance and the style that we do is mixing a lot of acrobatics and formal ballet training. It’s really awesome because you get to choreograph your own routines and put on your own production, but even more interesting to me is that you get to tie in theatrics, you get to do theatre-like pieces because everything you do has to tell a story or else the audience will be confused and bored.
It’s fun because I’ve noticed it’s something everyone could do. I taught this one girl who was a ballerina but she developed a brain tumor. She couldn’t dance anymore, she lost her hair and through that process she lost her sight and went blind. I was teaching her during that time and that really reminded me that everyone can do it — aerial dance is a great outlet for anyone.
Every time I come out with something new I’m discovering new things about myself — they are different phases of me through the years. They are all equally as challenging because the better you get the more you try to push yourself. But there are certain pieces I look back to and think, “Oh I could do that with my eyes closed!” But at the time it was challenging when I was doing it.
The hardest parts in aerial are two things: on a personal level, it’s finding your own signature. The other hard part is working in a group with people of different fitness levels. You have to make sure that you both stand out, that they don’t feel like you are doing too much but you don’t feel like you are doing too little or you’re outshining them. This is the most difficult thing to do in aerial but it’s also one of my favorite things — finding that middle ground between two people.
Fidelia Randmäe