A company of vertical dancers are set to take to a North Wales stage – and audience members can get roped into some of the fun if they’re up for it.
Hedydd Dance Company use rock climbing equipment including ropes and harnesses to perform their innovative high-flying act.
The members will be staging two performances at 2.30pm and 7pm on August 16 at Galeri in Caernarfon of their show Hiraeth, Lost Roots.
Before each performance, the public can enjoy a taste of what it takes to be a vertical dancer – even being suspended in the air if they’re brave enough.
The all-female company is directed by Lisa Spaull, Despina Goula, Angharad Jones and Kseniia Fedorovykh.
They will be joined by singer and songwriter Eadyth Crawford who has composed the live music and narration for Hiraeth, Lost Roots.
The narration in Welsh and English also allows visually impaired people to enjoy the performance as creative audio description will be given to all audience members during the show.
Lisa Spaull, from Colwyn Bay, said the performances will be a rare opportunity for North Wales audiences to enjoy a vertical dance show.
She said: “It’s fair to say vertical dancing is very niche, we use climbing equipment to suspend dancers off the ground and we fly through the air.
“We blend our vertical dancing with dancing on the ground.
“Vertical Dance uses different surfaces such as trees, cliffs and buildings. It can be very site-specific and you have to respond to the environment you’re in – it’s an exciting art form to be part of.
‘The show is set amongst suspended objects that gives a whimsical, ethereal atmosphere.
“The dancers shift from having their feet firmly on the ground, in day-to-day encounters such as sitting at a family dinner table to being swept up into the air in dream-like scenes where they are caught up in myths of the sea and forests.
“The show is full of surprises and the blend of physicality, narration and song makes this show so unique.”
Audience members can enjoy some of that excitement themselves by pre-booking a “touch tour” which takes place before the main performances.
Lisa said: “Touch tours are normally offered by theatres to visually impaired people before the show begins so they can meet the actors, feel the costumes and walk around the set.
“We’re adopting that model and including the option of having a go in the harness, so if somebody wants to, they can experience what it feels like to be suspended from the ground.
“People who are sighted can also come to that as well, it’s available for everyone – it’s a lot of fun.”
All four Hedydd members previously danced with leading vertical dance company Vertical Dance Kate Lawrence (VDKL) and developed their own company following the success of a research project last year.
Lisa said the four dancers’ different cultural backgrounds was a key aspect of the performance which explores themes such as belonging, migration and memory, intertwining the women’s personal stories with Celtic, Greek and Ukrainian mythology.
She said ‘Myself and Angharad are from North Wales, whilst Despina is half Greek, half Welsh. Both Despina and Angharad are Welsh speakers.’
“Angharad grew up in Old Colwyn, her first language is Cymraeg. It’s important to her that the show is bilingual to show that Welsh is a living, breathing, modern language.
“We have four languages between us and each of us has our own individual story and cultural background – bringing them together makes the show richer and celebrates our cultures and life experience.”
“Our different backgrounds have seen us looking into myths and stories and our own personal stories to see how we can bring that into the show.
Kseniia Fedorovykh, who now lives in St Asaph, said the show’s theme of lost roots particularly resonated with her because she had left her Ukrainian homeland in 2022 after the full-scale Russian invasion.
She said: “To leave was a forced decision, a decision I would not normally take in a peaceful time.
“Leaving is a huge decision and it definitely changes your life and I think this performance that we are doing is very personal.”
“I hope the audience who come to see the performance in Caernarfon maybe will take a greater interest in their own roots, learn about their past generations, about their families.”
The Caernarfon show is an extended one-hour version of the performance the company gave at the Pontio Arts Centre for the Bangor Music Festival in February.
She said: “We then applied for Arts Council of Wales funding and lottery funding from Tŷ Cerdd and we’ve been able to partner with Galeri in Caernarfon to finish off the rest of the show, making it an hour long.
“Everyone asks if we’re afraid of heights and I think it’s only a natural part of being human that we all do have that slight fear of heights – I actually think it’s important, it means you’re paying attention to your safety.
“The highest that we have done is when we were on a building in London which was 100 metres tall – that was scary!”
Lisa added the project has worked with North Wales-based visual artist Femke Van Gent, theatre director Gwen Thomson, Kate Lawrence from VDKL as mentor and with visually impaired aerialist and actor Karina Jones who is an audio description consultant.
She thanked all the organisations which had supported the development of the production, including Tŷ Cerdd Music Centre Wales, Arts Council of Wales, the National Lottery, the Welsh Government, VDKL, Galeri, Pontio, North Wales Society of the Blind, Royal National Institute of the Blind, and Disability Arts Cymru.
To book the pre-show touch tour and meet the artists email hedyddcyf@gmail.com or ring 07962 424410 and to book tickets visit www.galericaernarfon.com or call 01286 685222 or find them on social media @hedydd_dancecompany.
