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| Photo by Mauro Dann |
Buenos Aires-based choreographer Brenda Angiel draws from elements of tango, hip-hop, and modern dance, taking them into the air and up the wall in her innovative style of aerial dance. But her dancers' movement and safety would not be possible without the strength, talent, and extreme concentration of three key members of the company: Andrés Puertas, Laura Casalongue, and Alejo Gago, the riggers.
The company is in town this week as part of BAM and the State Department's dance diplomacy initiative DanceMotion USAsm, performing in the Next Wave Festival with New York-based company Doug Varone and Dancers. We caught up with the Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company rigging team to talk harnesses, carabiners, and exactly how one becomes an aerial dance rigger.
How did you start working as a rigger and how did that lead you to dance?
Andrés Alejandro Puertas: I’ve been a climber for over 15 years now, and now I have a climbing gym in Buenos Aires called Realization. I run the gym, and do rigging for aerial and theater shows. I started working with Brenda’s company 10 years ago.
Laura Sofia Casalongue: I joined the company in 2006. I’m an actor, and I started taking aerial dance classes at school to complement my acting training. Then the company presented a work at the Konex Theater (in Buenos Aires) and they needed a tech assistant, and years later I learned how to rig and ended up being part of the crew.
Alejo Gago: I played in trees a lot as a kid, and I lived in a nautical neighborhood, so you could say my contact with ropes and cords started there. Later on, I ventured into climbing, and started working with Brenda through a friend. Doing rigging for dance is artistically gratifying, which you don’t get from other kinds of rigging work.
