Projects

Aerial Spiral

Photo by Jym Daly at the Irish Aerial Dance Festival 2012.

Spiral workshop at The Dust Palace, Auckland, NZ.

History

Designed, fabricated, and premiered in Seattle in 2011, the Aerial Spiral was created by Tanya. It has gone around the world, gaining fans far and wide in the circus community. It is now a familiar apparatus to be seen in shows and festivals on many stages.

Application

Tanya is available for workshops and performance on the original spiral within the West Coast US region, and worldwide to teach on locally fabricated engineer-approved versions. Similar in practice to the aerial hoop, technique from other circus modalities are uniquely translated to the diagonal bars and whirlwind like torque on the inside of this mesmerizing shape.

Legacy

It all started with a whimsical idea. I never imagined it would become so popular with such a wide audience. I’m honored to have contributed in this way to the worldwide circus community and hope the spiral will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Photo by James Falk. Blacklight burlesque spiral act at the Moisture Festival, 2018.

Photo by Nate Gowdy for Seattle Gay News

Tangyo (“Birth of a Moon”) with Yuri Kinoshita

Fabrication with bamboo fiber over steel frame by Yuri Kinoshita

Lit up at Smoke Farm Lo-fi Festival 2013.

Co-created with Seattle lighting artist Yuri Kinoshita, Tangyo was a collaboration of epic proportions. Originally designed for Smoke Farm’s beloved Lo-Fi Festival, it was fortunate to have been able to make a few more appearances around Seattle. Created with bamboo fiber woven over an 8’x8’ steel frame, a performer can fit inside to create shadow shapes before emerging from the 3’x3’ hole in the base. Lighting is powered by a suspended car battery in a custom made frame. Tangyo combines aerial performance with visual art and lighting to transport audience members to another world where the fantastic is reality.

Emerging from the moon. Rigging by Thomas York at Smoke Farm 2013.

Descending on aerial silk from the moon.

Torchlit procession gathering the audience for the site specific outdoor performance at Smoke Farm.

Tangyo at Duwamish Revealed Festival

West Seattle Blog photo; walking on water

Performance capture by Bruce Clayton Tom

West Seattle Blog photo of crane rehearsal

Emergence from the moon at about 80’ over the river

An epic day

August 8th at 8pm at Terminal 108 on the Duwamish river was a performance of epic proportions, a culmination of months of planning between a large and diverse team spanning multiple roles. Duwamish Revealed was a festival from the minds of Seattle artists Nicole Kistler and Sarah Kavage in collaboration with the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS) to highlight the natural science and legacy of the river.

Utilizing an 8’x8’ woven light sculpture by lighting artist Yuri Kinoshita and live music by Salish tribe member Paul Chiyokten Wagner, a 30 minute illuminated night performance over the river was hatched, paying homage to the river’s history while blessing it’s future abundance. Raised and lowered by a rigging team headed by OnSight Access and Thomas York and crane operators from Pacific Pile and Marine, Tanya descended from the moon from 80’ above the river and descended to the surface while flying, spinning, and flipping through the night sky.

Curators: Sarah Kavage and Nicole Kistler, ECOSS

Concept: Tanya Brno and Yuri Kinoshita

Barge Crane rental and operation provided by Pacific Pile and Marine

Live Music: Paul Chiyokten Wagner

Ground lighting: Mercedes Aristotle Lindholm

Rigging: OnSight Access and Thomas York

Barge support: Tim Stackpole and Yuri Kinoshita

Promotional material for the river performance

Initial costume sketch. Bodysuit by Jamie Von Stratton and custom dyed silk wings by Chrissy Wai-Ching

Thank you to my 800 best friends who came out to support from the ground at Duwamish River Terminal 108. This was truly one the best days of my life!

Downriver Hymns

Crunching numbers for pole proportions to generate specific tones

Performance + forces of nature

I’ve always been enthralled by the concept of art that can make the unseen seen. I love multidimensional and cross-disciplinary works, and the team of experienced aerialists I curated for this project was able to take my idea and run with it.

Aerial pole was a yet unheard of if at the most a very new performance medium at the time this was created. I wanted to take it one step further, though, and combine natural forces (wind) as a nod to the site specific nature of this work. I envisioned human sized wind chimes, with aerialists learning 7 custom created melodies written for notes in the G scale.

Poles were cut to and nodes were placed using mathematical proportions to produce the notes, and tested using a tuner during the residency. Tanya cut and drilled holes in remaining steel pipe to produce 50 hanging luminaries hung around the perimeter. The ground was set with electric votives, and a crowd gathered at 9pm under a huge oak tree. Aerialists performed a series of vignettes, both in the air and striking the chimes with live accompaniment by John Olufs on guitar and Dune Butler on upright bass.

Thank you to Versatile Arts for rehearsal space and Smoke Farm Lo-Fi Festival 2014 for hosting us.

Artists: Adrienne Jack-Sands, Jill Marissa, Lara Paxton, Kari Hunter, Oliver Parkinson, Sara Sparrow, Tanya Brno.