Seasonal color
Aerial dance ‘Leaves Must Fall’ celebrates autumn
The changing of seasons is like clockwork each year.
This is part of the inspiration behind AirDance New Mexico’s latest production, “Leaves Must Fall.”
The aerial dance experience will be staged Thursday, Nov. 8, through Nov. 11.
“We’re really excited about this one, because we’re doing environmental staging,” says Joanna Furgal, AirDance New Mexico executive director. “There will be many staging areas with wooden areas. We’re bringing the outdoors inside for this. It’s going to be magical.”
The production explores many topics related to fall, including harvest, seasons, nature, darkness, color, celebration, death and traditions.
The company has been working on the concept since August.
Between shows, company members have been building new materials to use in the production.
Furgal says the company is waiting to stage the area after a student showcase on Nov. 3.
“We can’t load in just yet,” she says. “We’ve been building pieces, and we haven’t been able to see them on the physical set.”
The production will feature AirDance regulars Cortney Baca, Amy Bourque, Christina Cavaleri, Monica Demarco, Joanna Furgal, Ronnie Gialouris, Zachary Sears, Gina Shorten and Erik Siegler. Music is composed by Charis Hurst and Monica Demarco, with samples from other local musicians.
Furgal says the company is always coming up with new concepts to build shows around.
The company also works year-round creating new pieces.
“They happen in casual conversations,” she says. “This one came because someone was joking about pumpkin spice season. There is a lot of culture tied into the changing of seasons. Harvest cycles and death, they’ve all been celebrated in various ways. This allowed us to dig into it.”
Furgal is looking forward to seeing how the piece resonates with audiences.
“No one has really seen it yet,” she says. “It’s going to be interesting to see the conversations start up with this one.”
The running time is 90 minutes, with an intermission.