Arial Ballet With Sculpture

It was very cold here in Baltimore this past Saturday night, as I ventured out to see sculptor Tim Scofield’s Arial Sculpture performance, at The Sub-Station. The Sub-Station is in a sort of No Man's Land on E. Oliver Street in East Baltimore. Many brave artists have inhabited some of the old warehouses as studios/homes. Area 405 Gallery is across the street. The spaces are fabulous and the rents are low, but safety is an issue.

Tim’s partner in this lighter than air dance was actor/aerialist Mara Neimanis. Together, harnessed into identical counter-balanced flying machines; they bounce, swivel, and somersault up to fifteen feet in the air in a gracefull ballet.

The program was a free-form choreography to the accompaniment of a technoish rock band, which played in a loft overlooking the cavernous warehouse space. Each performer gracefully launched from a standing position, meeting the other in mid-air, casting beautiful long shadows across the warehouse walls, and then gently floating back to earth. It was a wonderful twenty minutes of weightlessness; I want one of these!