World-renowned contemporary choreographers Daniel Ezralow, David Parsons and Moses Pendleton, in collaboration with Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, creators of the percussion/theatre sensation STOMP, have joined forces with athletes from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and created a soaring evening of entertainment. As a challenge to the law of gravity and binding the physical power of a team of ranked athletes with the creative genius of these remarkable individuals, AEROS is truly unique and the first in its genre.

The genesis of AEROS came about in 1997 when a multi-national company, looking for a novel event, contacted Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone of AGR Associati in Milan. His brainchild was to bring gymnasts into the creative world of the performing arts, having them work with Ezralow, Parsons and Pendleton. That experience ignited the idea to create a permanent group that would perform exciting new shows and spotlight performers who offer a stupefying demonstration of muscular strength, equilibrium and harmony.

In 1999, Gnecchi and Columbia Artists, one of the producers of STOMP, went together to Bucharest, Romania to meet with Adrian Stoica, General Secretary of The Romanian Gymnastics Federation, with a proposal to create AEROS – the world’s first performing arts project for a national gymnastics team. Stoica embraced the concept and Gnecchi and Luckacovic set out to secure the creative team who would develop AEROS’ first project. With new work by Ezralow, Parsons and Pendleton, in collaboration with Cresswell and McNicholas who also oversaw the creation of an original score by TTG Music Lab, which will be performed live, everyone was ready to launch AEROS. Creative work began on September 11, 2000 at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The athletes who comprise this unusual performance troupe range in age from 19 to 26. Five are World Champions in Artistic, Rhythmic and Sports Aerobics, while the others are European Champions. It was quite a feat to convince the sports directors at the Federation, hungry for gold medals, that they were not losing their prized athletes. On the contrary, the gymnasts who comprise AEROS remain active in world competitions and the combination of rehearsals, performances, training and competition brings an added dimension to their athletic talents.

Its name AEROS recalls the element of air and the Greek god of love: it is a short circuit between athleticism and dance, where synchronicity, lightness and high-voltage energy, physical power, sensuality and humour flood the space and ignite the adrenaline, drawing open applause.

Protagonists, in an impalpable scenography made up of only lights and projections, are some of the best athletes of the Romanian Gymnastic Federation, rhythmic and aerobic specialists, whose usual competitive aggression is softened by the fluidity and playful aspect of the dance. Perfect, sensual bodies, full of strength, balance and harmony, which twirl in space, defying every physical law to the overwhelming rhythm of original music.

The choreographies of different styles bear the unmistakable signature of its creators, among the most brilliant of contemporary dance in the world: the sculptural imagination of Daniel Ezralow (founder of ISO), the volcanic vivacity of David Parsons (founder of Parsons Dance) and the surreal imagination by Moses Pendleton (founder of Momix), all three linked since ’78 when they were in the very first Momix and united by a sporting past.

Also embellishing the scene are the costumes specially designed by Luca Missoni, whose vibrant colours capture the speed of the movements and highlight the sensuality and spectacularism of the gymnasts’ virtuosity.