The London 2012 festival in celebration of the Olympic games brings us yet another creative, boundary-breaking, and awe inspiring performance piece. This time, in the form of breathtaking aerial action dancers who bungee off of, descend from, and dance atop numerous iconic London landmarks.
The following video features two of seven choreographed pieces commissioned for the festival which premiered on Sunday. The collection of pieces, entitled, “Surprises: Streb,” were staggered throughout the day and the performances were only disclosed via twitter the day of the event. The first piece in the video, entitled, “Waterfalls,” features dancers bungee-jumping and aerial dancing off of London's Millennium bridge. The second piece, “Sky Walk,” takes place atop City Hall, in which the dancers defy gravity and traverse the geometric dome.
The other pieces in the series included a human hampster wheel in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, a spinning and precarious dance atop a ladder in Trafalgar square, and an extraordinary dance on the London Eye.
The company, “Streb Extreme Action,” was founded by dancer Elizabeth Streb in 1985. Streb describes the company as an “investigation of movement.”
“My dancers and I see the rehearsal as a laboratory for testing scientific principles on the body. We invent action ideas which we think are archetypal, noticeable, understandable. The outcome is a mixture of slam dancing, exquisite and amazing human flight and a wild action sport which captures kids, older people and the general public’s hearts and minds and bodies,” Streb notes on her company’s website.
Streb and her extreme action dancers have also been seen atop the Dubuffet sculpture in front of the State of Illinois Center, in the anchorage under the Brooklyn Bridge as well as on the mall outside the Smithsonian. The company is based out of a Williamsburg, Brooklyn mustard factory turned dance laboratory.
Take a look at the video below, it won't disappoint!
WATCH:
[Via Guardian]