Serendipity Stilt Dancers
I started stilt dancing by saying yes to a surprising invitation to join a troupe called Mortal Beasts and Dieties. I took to it immediately, despite some fears about the heights and a fall on the first lesson. Since then, I have stilt danced all over New England, with both this original group and a small troupe I founded in 2012, Serendipity Stilt Dancers.
Quite the high happens when one has such an elevated perspective and is making contact with the eyes, hands and hearts of so many people on the ground. For instance, when we danced down the Avenue of the Americas in New York City, just hours after a terrorist attack, in the annual Village Halloween Parade, we connected deeply with the amazing crowds with high fives, waves, physical comedy, chants and blessings and helped bring a great sense of exuberant hope and resiliency to the streets. Another example of one of many experiences of uplifting people’s spirits came along when I was selected to stilt dance in the Joy Parade. The parade made its way through several under-served neighborhoods of Boston, with the great public artist Nicolas Cave at its center, bringing music, dance, bright costumes and multicultural community to life. At one point I detoured off the street towards a bunch of wide-eyed boys I saw in a fenced in basketball court up a grassy slope. One of the boys quickly scaled up the fence, and there we met, giving each other a real high five, pun intended, in a fleeting yet momentous moment of connection over and across fences of many kinds.
Serendipity Stilt Dancers also performs in special costumes and roles that convey natural features such as rivers, fish, trees and snow. We do this at rallies, parades, festivals and benefit fundraisers. One of my favorite events was representing a tree as I danced on my tall wood stilts to Jim Scott’s music for a benefit I also helped plan to raise funds to save a Silver Maple Forest from development. This work has been a humbling exquisite honor.
Finally, I have also performed onstage with my stilts in amazing shows such as the Gaea Star Goddess shows in Northampton and the Horse’s Mouth at the Cambridge School of Weston, the private arts high school from which I graduated.
Stilt dancing, with or without wings and costumes, is truly an outstanding way to channel between Earth and Heaven!
Serendipity Stilt Dancers is available for your parades, festivals and rallies. Contact me here.
