COLORADO'S AERIAL DANCE FESTIVAL.

Until recently, only dancers with a big jump could float above ground. Then choreographer Terry Sendgraff invented the low-flying trapeze in 1975, and countless dancers took to the air. This special trapeze, with its double bars and hand and foot loops, spins as well as swings, yielding countless in-air choreographic possibilities.

Celebrating this and other aerial dance advancements, choreographer Nancy Smith presents Colorado's first Aerial Dance Festival August 2 to 7 in Boulder. It's the only festival nationwide that focuses entirely on technical training for aerial work. Smith has assembled a faculty of aerial experts: Catherine Gauch (Aerial Artistry of Aspen) whose new forms of air dancing employ ropes, bungee cords, hoops, and fabric; Smith, artistic director of Frequent Flyers, Inc., creator of large multimedia aerial dance productions, like her recent World War II-based Swing Swing Swing; and Carmela Weber, whose Vertical Dance members use rock-climbing techniques to literally climb the walls. Video showings, lectures, and classes in yoga and creative visualization round out the bill.