Aerial Arts and Dance Improvisation: A Practical Guide to Creativity for Aerialists

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Elizabeth Stich Julianna Hane

Aerial Arts and Dance Improvisation

A Practical Guide to Creativity for Aerialists

Elizabeth Stich, Julianna Hane

$96.95 $82.32

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
22 December 2025

Performance art; Theatre Studies; Dance

Aerial Arts and Dance Improvisation is a comprehensive guide for developing creativity in aerial arts. It offers a fresh perspective on how to move beyond rote aerial technique and toward meaningful, artistic movement.

Forty creative activities guide you in exploring musicality, developing transitions, trying on characters, and expanding your unique movement signature. Authors Elizabeth Stich and Juliana Hane, lifelong performers and educators, share their findings from years of embodied research at the intersection of dance and aerial arts. They approach aerial movement through the lens of dance improvisation, framing it with the literature of creativity research—a vast and interdisciplinary field drawing upon psychology, neuroscience, and education—and provide evidence from somatic movement practices, dance education, and creative movement traditions. The activities are arranged thematically by the authors’ framework of the Aerial Movement Elements—body, time, dynamics, space, and partnering. Also included are 20 ground-based creative warm-ups and 25 practice session guides that give you the tools and confidence to engage in a self-designed aerial creative practice and chart your own path through the creative wilds.

This book is an invaluable resource for students, instructors, and professionals across aerial arts disciplines working in dance, theatre, circus, and fitness settings.

By: Elizabeth Stich, Julianna Hane
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032824598
ISBN 10: 103282459X
Pages: 212
Publication Date: 22 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Elizabeth Stich is an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, USA, specializing in aerial and contemporary dance. She holds an MFA in modern dance from the University of Utah and is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) through Integrated Movement Studies. Elizabeth studied aerial arts in the Professional Training Program at New England Center for Circus Arts. She has taught, choreographed, and developed aerial arts curriculum in recreational and higher education programs across the United States. Elizabeth’s practice-research in aerial arts has been published in Choreographic Practices, Performance Research, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training, and the Journal of Dance Education, and presented at numerous conferences. Julianna Hane is a dancer, aerialist, and physiotherapist. She holds an MFA in modern dance from the University of Utah and a doctorate in physical therapy from Baylor University, USA. She is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) through Integrated Movement Studies, and a National Certified Pilates Teacher (NCPT) with a diploma from the Pilates Center in Boulder, CO. Julianna studied aerial arts in the Professional Training Program at New England Center for Circus Arts and ran Revolve Aerial Dance, a small studio and performing company in Salt Lake City, UT, and Charleston, SC. She has taught dance and aerial arts in private studios, public schools, and in higher education and is the author of the Aerial Teacher’s Handbook.

Reviews for Aerial Arts and Dance Improvisation: A Practical Guide to Creativity for Aerialists

""Elizabeth Stich and Julianna Hane’s Aerial Arts and Dance Improvisation: A Practical Guide to Creativity for Aerialists is exactly that! A very practical support book to help students and teachers of the aerial arts develop a shared vocabulary for advancing the art and craft of aerials."" Serenity Smith Forchion, founder Nimble Arts & New England Center for Circus Arts ""Aerial Arts and Dance Improvisation adapts lineages of dance improvisation to the aerial context with exquisite care and playfulness. This inspiring, accessible, and practical book is a thrilling resource for enhancing aerial practice, aesthetics, and creative applications across the field."" Nicki Miller, Artistic Director, Only Child Aerial Theatre; aerial arts faculty, Pace University ""This book offers—with clear structures, skills, and ideas—how we can make dances that are authentic and moving; that wed emotions with a performer’s inner intentions to communicate meaningfully."" Susan Murphy, Founding Director, Canopy Studio