Our last Island Connect 2021 group is formed by Chrissie and Beverly, a professional dancer, aerialist and rollerskater and a dancer and circus artist based in Ireland. They will be exploring with the cyr wheel, aerial hoop film and a long rope duet during their work in progress.
They will be exploring weight, restriction and balance with the wheel. Creating a duet but also finding ways to dance together and what happens when we aren’t in sync. The Aerial Hoop inspires a clash of skin, textile and metal. Fighting against fabric and yarn in the struggle to create beauty on a ring of steel. A visually beautiful circus film, rich in texture, moving between light, beauty, strength and dark, ugly struggle. Finally, the long rope duet mean for the artists separation. They want to revisit the apparatus without pinning a narrative on it.
Beverley Grant is a dancer and circus artist based in Edinburgh, she trained at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London. Since graduating she has performed nationally and internationally with multiple dance, opera and aerial companies. In 2015 Beverley was awarded a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship in collaboration with Dance Base. She is currently performing regularly with All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre (AoN), Fidget Feet, Aerial Cirque and Wired Aerial Theatre.
Chrissie Ardill is addicted to exploring and creating with movement. With a degree in dance and over a decade of professional performance experience, she has worked extensively with performance companies, from Glasgow to Ireland and Skegness to Puerto Rico. Chrissie works in the air, on the floor and on any structure around, creating dynamic and original performances as well as teaching people of all backgrounds and abilities. She also works extensively for camera, having choreographed and/or performed in 12 music videos and counting.