Rigging Intensive and workshops with Jonathan Deull!

The wonderful and talented Jonathan Deull will be presenting a pre-festival rigging intensive as well as three rigging workshops during the festival.  I had the opportunity to take one of his rigging intensives last year- any person working with or around aerial apparatus should take this intensive- it is AMAZING!

INTENSIVE

Aerial Performer Rigging and Risk Management Intensive 

Wednesday,  August 19, 2009  10:00 am – 5:00 pm

(this intensive involves an addition fee, price tbd shortly)

When you walk into a space and look up in the air, what do you look for to know that your students will be safe?  What are the questions you need to ask?  While this workshop will not make you a qualified rigger, we will provide tools you need to be an educated consumer.  We will explore many of the key issues which arise in rigging safely for aerial performance: dynamic loads, applied forces, strength of materials, selection of apparatus and hardware, attaching to building structure, proper techniques for termination or ropes and cables, inspection and equipment retirement. Leave your calculator at home; there will be no math required. There will, however, be ample opportunity for hands-on practice of basic rigging skills, as well as live demonstrations of rigging scenarios using a computerized digital load cell and an assortment of apparatus. 

FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS

Aerial Performer Rigging Basics

An introduction, including live demonstrations, to the basic principles and practices of defying gravity.  This session will be useful – and eye-opening – for performers, coaches and program leaders.

Aerial Performer Rigging: “Lab” Session I

A direct follow-on to the Rigging Basics session, this student-driven workshop will provide an opportunity to learn hands-on rigging skills and explore/demonstrate specific scenarios in a relatively unstructured environment. Participation in the Rigging Basics session, or other prior rigging experience, is recommended but not required. 

Aerial Performer Rigging: “Lab” Session II

 

This student-driven workshop will provide an opportunity to learn hands-on rigging skills and explore/demonstrate specific scenarios in a relatively unstructured environment. Participation in the Rigging Basics session, or other prior rigging experience, is recommended but not required.

  About Jonathan Deull

Jonathan Deull has been a student of aerial performer rigging since 1996 when his daughter began performing as a circus aerialist at the age of seven. He has designed and executed aerial circus and dance rigging both in the US and internationally, and is the author of the chapter on rigging for the recently published book, Aerial Dance, by Jayne Bernasconi and Nancy Smith.  A co-founder of AirBorne! DC and director of Zip Zap Circus USA, he currently works freelance on theatre and special event production and design projects, teaches seminars on aerial performer rigging, and serves on the performing arts faculty at Edmund Burke School in Washington, DC.  He is an ETCP Certified Theatrical Rigger and ETCP Recognized Rigging