NEWS

Air Troupers

Students join pros taking dance to an extreme.

January/February 2009

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Air Troupers

Photo: Toni Gauthier

Do these dancers need a choreographer or a traffic controller? “It’s sort of a cross,” says dance instructor and rehearsal director Diane Frank, “between a dance contest, a circus and a gladiator challenge.”

Working on gymnastic mats that cover a special “sandwich” floor—two layers of plywood with metal springs in the middle—a group of Stanford women gymnasts and student dancers have trained for a four-minute performance of launching themselves over, under, around and through one another.

Their big moment comes January 24 at Memorial Auditorium as part of the Stanford Lively Arts season, when their daredevil grace will be part of an evening of extreme spectacle from Brooklyn’s adventurous STREB company (founded by Elizabeth Streb).

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