High on air

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 At the base of the tall building, a crowd assembles, waiting. The buzz of excitement fills the air.

Then, high above, a single figure appears at the edge of the roofline, teetering on the brink, and then it slowly leans over and....

 

walks down the side of the building.

"Man Walking Down the Side of a Building" is one of choreographer Trisha Brown's most amazing works. First performed in 1970, the piece presents a dancer doing something simple - walking - but in a horizontal plane.

Performed here by Oakland-based company Bandaloop's Amelia Rudolph, "Man Walking Down the Side of a Building" takes place at UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, and is part of an historic presentation of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and the choreographer's works, taking place this weekend thanks to the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.

You can watch a video of an earlier rehearsal here:



Brown began choreographing dance works that explored our relationship with gravity, devising harnesses and rigs that allowed dancers to walk on walls, communicating from roof to roof, walking on water and dancing on rafts. Much of her work is site-specific - which has the effect of granting ordinary passers-by a magical glimpse into another imagination.

Sometimes even ordinary acts are special if you look at them the right way.