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Updraft: a conspiracy of movement
Frederick News Post, October 2008, by Lauren LaRocca
 KNOXVILLE - Nestled on the edge of thickly forested, rolling Appalachian hills is Slipperyslope, a house-turned-dance studio, run by Therese Keegan, who also lives there.
"I don't know anyone else doing this," she said recently over a cup of ginger tea in her kitchen, within eyesight of two rehearsing dancers. Studios and venues for aerial dance -- an amalgam of dance and circus arts that began in the 1970s -- is usually found in urban areas.
But city dancers don't get the inspiring views -- sunset, sky, treetops, birds -- that can be seen from the addition Keegan designed for her house a few years ago. The space is now home-base for the aerial dance company she began, Updraft: a conspiracy of movement. Updraft dancers, or "movers," as she sometimes calls them, come to the studio from Martinsburg, W.Va., Sugarloaf, Baltimore, and other areas in the region to rehearse. The five members then perform as Updraft in various venues. "We are a touring company," Keegan said. "Wherever we go, we are touring." Occasionally, they hold what they call Open Studio, when the public is invited to come to Slipperyslope, a name derived from the windy entranceway up a hillside, to see Updraft dancers perform. One such event is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 23.
"The hardest thing about aerial is finding rehearsal space," she said. Updraft doesn't perform much in this area. Old theaters cannot support their equipment -- low-flying trapeze; aerial fabric, or "silks"; rope and harness; bungee. They have performed at the Baltimore Theatre Project a couple times and The Folly, an outdoor timber-frame structure located in Shepherdstown, W.Va. During the annual Evening on the Riviera, just north of Frederick, on Oct. 10, Updraft will perform "Purple Haze," a duet with Keegan and her daughter, Lizard Walker-Keegan, with music by the jazz ensemble Absolut. "Dancing was a part of my life really early," Walker-Keegan said. "My mom danced and so did I."
"People have gotten into it all sorts of ways," Keegan added. Keegan has been a dancer all her life, but it wasn't until she ran into a friend who was learning trapeze that the seed for aerial dance was planted. Keegan began taking trapeze lessons in Baltimore almost immediately and then discovered aerial dance, finding a whole new world of creativity was possible while suspended in air. She formed Updraft, about six years ago, so the group could produce their own work, and the company currently consists of five members, though one recently relocated to New York. "We talk about and try out everything," Keegan said. "We create all the choreography collectively." As artistic director of the company, Keegan said, "I keep things moving, but I don't have any authority. Most post-modern dance companies rely on dancers for choreography, and the dancers don't get any credit. ... Even if I do a solo, other people are crafting that. And I think that is unique."
Updraft has created and performed two single-project shows, those with an overall theme, and they're working on their third. "Suite Earth" was based on a talk given by Alice Walker after 9/11 about reclaiming our humanity with all these disasters and wars going on. "It's A Matter Of..." was about "comings and goings, in a cosmic sense," Keegan said. They did a bungee piece about the deceased contacting people through dreams.
Their next single-project show, "Mountain Missive," will focus on Appalachia. "We're at the edge of Appalachia in this studio," Keegan pointed out. Themes will focus on mountaintop removal, disappearing African American churches, "you know, cheery subjects like that," Keegan said, laughing, "to really give voice to some of the voices we don't hear so often." Updraft is thinking of moving musically from traditional to contemporary Appalachian music, with pieces to include some stereotypical hoe-down tunes.
Keegan works with people individually, rather than teaching classes, and said her students have varied, from professional dancers to those who are just curious. She once had a client with a frozen shoulder, but they were able to work around that. "She could have this aesthetic experience beyond her limitation," Keegan said.
She and the rest of Updraft also work with community members, and because they use mostly original music, they are always looking for emerging musicians and composers. Updraft dancer Kerianne Hinerman said, "I grew up next door and eventually made my way over here. ... I saw this stuff hanging around and thought, I want to do that." She'd been trained in classical ballet as well as modern, and is "the strongest human being alive," Keegan said.
"The creative process is different because you have something to work with other than your body," Hinerman said. "It's very different, and it's very challenging. And I like the challenge."
"For decades, I've been dancing on the ground," Keegan added. Aerial dance is a novelty, she said, "and it's gonna continue to be a novelty because it's so innovative."
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