Aerial dancer passing on her art
The silk road is a legendary pathway, a trade route of the ancient world, but in the hands of Jamie Holmes it connects humans to the sky.
The Toronto acro/aerial dancer has been rising and falling on waves of silk suspended from the high ceiling beams at Enchaînement Dance Centre, and classes of children and adults alike are learning to silk-surf right along with her.
She is one of the elite few in Canada who dance vertically on long sashes of silk as a profession, but she wanted northern B.C. to learn the craft without having to travel to metropolitan Canada.
She might be one of the stars of this performance art in Toronto, but she is a Smithers girl born and raised and never forgets it.
This is the second year in a row that Holmes has run an introduction to aerials course in both Prince George and Smithers. She was coming back to her home region to visit family anyway, and local dance studio proprietor Judy Russell offered to host her for a three-day class. It is now becoming a regular event.
“It’s becoming my home region tour,” said Holmes, who said many familiar faces were in this year’s class back for more after last year’s edition.
It’s perhaps surprising to think so many entry-level dancers are interested in a skill that requires such precise specialty training to do at the professional level.
“It does,” Holmes agreed, “but it’s the kind of art form that gives almost instant gratification. Part of this is reliant on how you teach, but a newcomer to the silks will feel themselves improving. Every class you will get a sense of your own development. That gives a lot of enthusiasm to a high percentage of the classes I see. You accomplish something every lesson.”
Safety is such a constant priority in the aerial dance field that new students have enormous assurances from the start that they will be put in no danger.
You have to start low and slow, develop those basic skills in ways that pose little more danger than any other dance class, and then you quite literally work your way up.
“As the instructor, the art is on your mind for sure, but safety is always the first and biggest thing you think about,” she said. “You have to make it safe and you have to make it challenging so the students want to push themselves, and you have to make those challenges realistic so the students get accomplishments that motivate them to learn more. You also have to watch the people in each class and figure out which ones are visual learners and which ones are auditory learners so you know they understand what you’re teaching them, and that is also for their safety. You have to be confident that each student knows what’s about to happen before they do it.”
No dance experience is required to take these courses, but Holmes said that because the Prince George classes were based at a dance studio, it attracted experienced dancers. She could accelerate a lot of the lesson plans because they already had an understanding of how the body worked and experience with athletic arts, but that wasn’t a free pass on the safety elements.
“They are used to using their bodies to make forms and shapes and particular movements, but then they use the silks and their bodies are in unfamiliar territory. You’d be surprised what people do when they get a shot of adrenaline while they’re doing something they suddenly can’t predict. That’s why we start low and slow.”
The praise goes high. Those who have been in the lessons have been enthused at the end of the sessions. Parents of the children reported a high level of talk at home about what they got to learn and what they want to learn next. Even among the regular dancers at Enchaînement, acro-aerials is a novel form of the art.
Holmes is already considering how to expand the Prince George program. Should she come for longer durations? Come more than once per year? Or is this the correct pace to keep it at?
“Whatever people are up for, I’m up for,” said Holmes.
A great deal of her professional life is up. She is a regular performer at a luxury restaurant in downtown Toronto. She is frequently hired for special events, corporate functions, she has a thriving student base, and she does an annual aerials retreat in Costa Rica. She has performed live in locations as widespread as Las Vegas and Dubai, on the open seas on cruise ships and all over Europe.
Home feels just as exotic and exciting to Holmes as the Caribbean or Middle East so she is looking at more opportunities to swing through this region.