Aerial Dance Chicago has been bringing people together through the transformative power of aerial dance since 1999.

Mission

The mission of Aerial Dance Chicago is to enrich our community with the fine art of dance. Through innovative choreography, engaging performances and energizing hands-on experiences, our programs educate, strengthen and connect people of all walks of life.

Highly inventive, intensely physical, and naturally having a universal appeal, the work of the company reawakens humanity's craving for live, kinetic and creative experiences and contributes to the vibrancy and empowerment of our community.

History

Aerial Dance Chicago (ADC) was founded in 1999 with a vision of taking dancers into flight. Incorporating a variety of apparatus such as suspended fabrics, bungee cords, hoops, bars and ropes, dancers were no longer bound to the traditional dance floor, and the company set out to explore the potential for compelling and powerful expression within multi-dimensional space.

One of the world’s first professional concert dance companies in flight, Aerial Dance Chicago is an international leader in the field of dance. Using human power and strength, ADC launches itself into the creative and physical possibilities of the vertical realm and transcends assumed limits of dance.

Characterized by extraordinary physicality and originality, the company's work has been presented across the United States at theaters, museums, schools, universities and festivals, including hometown venues such as The Athenaeum Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Navy Pier, Museum of Science & Industry, Millennium Park and the historic Grand Ballroom of the Drake Hotel.

In January 2014, ADC opened Chicago’s first dance center dedicated to the field of aerial dance. Located at 4028 W. Irving Park Rd, with immediate access to 90/94 and the Irving Park Blue line and Metra stop, Aerial Dance Chicago is situated at a cultural and transit hub in Chicago, and serves as an asset to the professional performing arts community in Chicago.

Today, Aerial Dance Chicago continues to deliver an underrepresented art form to the diverse cultural spectrum in Chicago, reaching over 10,000 people annually. As the company moves forward, creating, performing, teaching and stretching the boundaries of dance, it continues to connect and strengthen our community.