Taking Flight
March 2, 2022 6:04 PM Subscribe
You've probably never seen anything like this before. Six members of the vertical dance troupe BANDALOOP dance on...skyscrapers.
Also, man walking down building, Defying Gravity, and reimagining dance.
Also, man walking down building, Defying Gravity, and reimagining dance.
Technically, I have seen something like this before. In July 2001, the IOC announced Beijing as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics. There was a short list of five finalists: the other four cities were Osaka, Istanbul, Paris, and Toronto.
I was living in Toronto at the time and on the day the winning bid was to be revealed, there was a grand shindig set up on Front Street for the announcement. The street was closed off for a couple of blocks and the stage and the big screens set up in the block between Union Station to the south and the Royal York Hotel to the north. If you look way up in that street view at the Royal York, you will be looking at where my attention was drawn -- the three windows on the top floor were flanked by four dancers, each suspended by a line from the roof. (They may have been from BANDALOOP for all I know.) They were waiting for their musical cue from below to begin to dance down the building when I noticed them high above.
Three of the four were waiting patiently: maybe stretching a bit but mostly just still. The fourth was a woman who was bopping along to the music from street level -- jumping out and away from the wall, somersaulting, doing handsprings off the wall, ponytail flying around. The best part of it was there as a little kid in the window next to her, staring out goggle-eyed at the dancer. It looked to me as if the kid turned their head a few times to speak over their shoulder as if perhaps calling over the parents to look, but I never saw anyone else come to the window.
That little kid would be in their mid-twenties by now. I wonder if they now have some weird dim recollection (likely dismissed as a dream) of looking out of a high window and seeing someone dancing on the wall outside.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:28 PM on March 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
I was living in Toronto at the time and on the day the winning bid was to be revealed, there was a grand shindig set up on Front Street for the announcement. The street was closed off for a couple of blocks and the stage and the big screens set up in the block between Union Station to the south and the Royal York Hotel to the north. If you look way up in that street view at the Royal York, you will be looking at where my attention was drawn -- the three windows on the top floor were flanked by four dancers, each suspended by a line from the roof. (They may have been from BANDALOOP for all I know.) They were waiting for their musical cue from below to begin to dance down the building when I noticed them high above.
Three of the four were waiting patiently: maybe stretching a bit but mostly just still. The fourth was a woman who was bopping along to the music from street level -- jumping out and away from the wall, somersaulting, doing handsprings off the wall, ponytail flying around. The best part of it was there as a little kid in the window next to her, staring out goggle-eyed at the dancer. It looked to me as if the kid turned their head a few times to speak over their shoulder as if perhaps calling over the parents to look, but I never saw anyone else come to the window.
That little kid would be in their mid-twenties by now. I wonder if they now have some weird dim recollection (likely dismissed as a dream) of looking out of a high window and seeing someone dancing on the wall outside.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:28 PM on March 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
Living up to their namesake, for sure.
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:29 PM on March 2, 2022
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:29 PM on March 2, 2022
Amazing. Thank you.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:39 PM on March 2, 2022
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:39 PM on March 2, 2022
Bandaloop! Been seeing their name (and sometimes their work) for years, and finally had to google it – suspicions confirmed, their name is a reference to Tom Robbins's Jitterbug Perfume. Years-long question, answered.
posted by wemayfreeze at 8:55 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
The name "BANDALOOP" comes from our friend Tom Robbins' international bestseller Jitterbug Perfume; the name came to him in a dream. In the book, the Bandaloop Doctors were a tribe living in the Himalaya who danced to achieve immortality.via
To make timeless the pursuit of beauty, new perspectives, and honor for community and nature - this is what bandalooping is all about.
posted by wemayfreeze at 8:55 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
When I lived in an Oakland warehouse nearly 20 years ago Bandaloop practiced in the space next door. They were terrible neighbors- playing loud music late at night during their practices, not abiding by the building "rule" that anyone who lived in the space got into neighbor's events or performances for free. It's cool they're doing well but my blood boils when I think of all the times I had to go over to their space in my bathrobe to tell them to turn the music down, only to find one big boombox pointed at our shared wall while the three people there were just hanging out on the other side of the room.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:05 PM on March 2, 2022 [22 favorites]
posted by oneirodynia at 9:05 PM on March 2, 2022 [22 favorites]
That was a beautiful video. Thanks for sharing it, Toddles.
In its defiance of gravity, it reminded me of this Yoann Bourgeois dance and this one by Kyra Poh
posted by yankeefog at 2:07 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
In its defiance of gravity, it reminded me of this Yoann Bourgeois dance and this one by Kyra Poh
posted by yankeefog at 2:07 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
PS: Oneirodynia, I'm sorry Bandaloop were such bad neighbors! By enjoying this video, I feel like I'm somehow profiting from your suffering.
But the warehouse you lived in sounds fascinating. At the risk of derailing the thread, if you have any other stories from your time there, I'd love to hear them.
posted by yankeefog at 3:10 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
But the warehouse you lived in sounds fascinating. At the risk of derailing the thread, if you have any other stories from your time there, I'd love to hear them.
posted by yankeefog at 3:10 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
The framing of this post, using the title from YouTube, confused me for a moment because I thought the idea sounded familiar. Then I saw that the video was posted in 2016. Not only have I seen something like this before, I've seen this specific performance before. Still cool though. Except for the part about them being bad neighbors. That's less cool.
posted by fedward at 6:23 AM on March 3, 2022
posted by fedward at 6:23 AM on March 3, 2022
I'm curious how something like this is received in the larger art community? They're great and the performance was sensuous, but tap dancing on the gentrification comes with some cost of street cred, or no?
Also I kept waiting for some kind of weave maneuver, but it's probably one of those, "don't cross the streams, it would be bad" situations.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 6:54 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also I kept waiting for some kind of weave maneuver, but it's probably one of those, "don't cross the streams, it would be bad" situations.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 6:54 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Very cool. I also want to know more about their harnesses.
posted by eotvos at 6:58 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by eotvos at 6:58 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
That was mesmerizing. Thank you for sharing it.
Even though that was clearly the best way to watch it, with the reflections dancing along with them, I'd love to see it from other angles - to see what it looked like from the ground, or from inside the building. I kept trying to figure out how the tethering system worked, since it was attached from two directions. Where were the anchors - how did the lower one help fight gravity?
Also I kind of loved that guy shouting "Encore" at the end. Why is there always a that guy?
posted by Mchelly at 7:18 AM on March 3, 2022
Even though that was clearly the best way to watch it, with the reflections dancing along with them, I'd love to see it from other angles - to see what it looked like from the ground, or from inside the building. I kept trying to figure out how the tethering system worked, since it was attached from two directions. Where were the anchors - how did the lower one help fight gravity?
Also I kind of loved that guy shouting "Encore" at the end. Why is there always a that guy?
posted by Mchelly at 7:18 AM on March 3, 2022
"In the midst of the mothership connection, white rolls of fabric were dropped, covering the tower. Three dancers from the Bay Area’s Project Bandaloop began performing acrobatics at the top, and then they began to gradually descend in front of projected patterns. The band was able to match the jam to the rhythmic motions of the dancers. This was accomplished via ground based video cameras and tiny television monitors on top of the tower."
-- The Tower Jam. Loring AFB, Maine. Saturday, 08/02/2003
posted by bondcliff at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2022
-- The Tower Jam. Loring AFB, Maine. Saturday, 08/02/2003
posted by bondcliff at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2022
Not unrelated
One must never sacrifice safety for speed.
posted by flabdablet at 10:01 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
One must never sacrifice safety for speed.
posted by flabdablet at 10:01 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Heh, yankeefog, no worries! It was a long time ago and I should really be over it by now, but as one of the few people who had a job in the City that started at 7am I have residual sleep-deprived anger.
I don't know that I have any particularly good stories, but it was a pretty great place to live at the time. Our part of the warehouse, the Otherworld, was 30,000 square feet altogether, and my housemates mostly threw electronic music parties ranging in size from 200 to a thousand people. We also hosted Deerhoof, our neighbors had numerous shows with bands like Lightning Bolt, another neighbor built a small wall in their loading dock and created an enormous swimming pool for a party (until the Oakland Fire Department showed up and shut it down). Most everyone lived in their spaces except for Bandaloop who only used their for practice and keeping me up at night ;-) This was at a time when the city of Oakland basically had an armistice with illegal warehouses and their events- definitely not something that could happen now.
The building was purchased and nearly all of it was torn down, barring the facade. It's now luxury apartments.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:54 AM on March 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
I don't know that I have any particularly good stories, but it was a pretty great place to live at the time. Our part of the warehouse, the Otherworld, was 30,000 square feet altogether, and my housemates mostly threw electronic music parties ranging in size from 200 to a thousand people. We also hosted Deerhoof, our neighbors had numerous shows with bands like Lightning Bolt, another neighbor built a small wall in their loading dock and created an enormous swimming pool for a party (until the Oakland Fire Department showed up and shut it down). Most everyone lived in their spaces except for Bandaloop who only used their for practice and keeping me up at night ;-) This was at a time when the city of Oakland basically had an armistice with illegal warehouses and their events- definitely not something that could happen now.
The building was purchased and nearly all of it was torn down, barring the facade. It's now luxury apartments.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:54 AM on March 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
This is beautiful and clever.
So do the window washers have to come in right after, because it would bother me to have an office with foot prints and hand prints all over the outside of my window. #hardtoclean
posted by RedEmma at 11:43 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
So do the window washers have to come in right after, because it would bother me to have an office with foot prints and hand prints all over the outside of my window. #hardtoclean
posted by RedEmma at 11:43 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
It just occurred to me that you could do this same dance on the moon.
posted by eye of newt at 12:12 PM on March 3, 2022
posted by eye of newt at 12:12 PM on March 3, 2022
There's lots of info about how they do what they do on their website.
Including info about a performance in Oakland in April if you want to see what they're up to now.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:15 PM on March 3, 2022
Including info about a performance in Oakland in April if you want to see what they're up to now.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:15 PM on March 3, 2022
Seattle-area people might be thinking of Yoshiyuku Takada right now.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:40 PM on March 3, 2022
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:40 PM on March 3, 2022
Gah, sorry, I should have said that my link is to an article about an accidental death.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:55 PM on March 3, 2022
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:55 PM on March 3, 2022
The building was purchased and nearly all of it was torn down, barring the facade. It's now luxury apartments.
I like to imagine that your informal rule from back in the day still holds, and anybody who used to live in the space can still get into events held there for free. Like, if some VC in a luxury apartment is doing a Zoom presentation to backers, all the artsy weirdos who lived there back when it was a warehouse are allowed to sit on his couch and watch him.
posted by yankeefog at 1:23 AM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like to imagine that your informal rule from back in the day still holds, and anybody who used to live in the space can still get into events held there for free. Like, if some VC in a luxury apartment is doing a Zoom presentation to backers, all the artsy weirdos who lived there back when it was a warehouse are allowed to sit on his couch and watch him.
posted by yankeefog at 1:23 AM on March 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
cirque do soleil's KÀ has an enormous stage on a gimbal and they do some vertical stuff similar to this. it's one of the few cirque shows with a front to back narrative.
posted by bruceo at 5:21 PM on March 4, 2022
posted by bruceo at 5:21 PM on March 4, 2022
Totally bummed I did not see this announced, would have loved to have gone in person.
posted by sammyo at 7:02 PM on March 4, 2022
posted by sammyo at 7:02 PM on March 4, 2022
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