Today, we’d like to introduce you to Crux Collective.
Hello, Crux Collective; we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
All four of us (Beth Del Nero, Emma Johnson, Hilary Riall, and Kat Saxon) have been collaborating within the walls of our home studio, Challenge Aerial, for a few years now. As time passed, we recognized a void that needed filling within ourselves.
We were helping create acts for other artists and students, we were teaching these aerial arts classes week to week that were all very focused on attaining skills, and all the while, we were discussing these ideas for what kind of art we wanted to see out in the world. In the Atlanta arts scene, in particular, we noticed that aerialists were not being utilized as much as they should be. We knew of cities like San Francisco and Chicago creating full-on productions that collaborated with not just aerial artists but contortionists, stunt performers, and dancers. And we would say to each other, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if we did something like that?”
With that question in mind, we put out feelers to find spaces in the Atlanta area that could host something as grandiose as what we were envisioning, and we landed at Windmill Arts, who we will be happily hosted by again this year as artists in residency. After a year of an insane amount of determination, endless crowdfunding, and collaboration with so many different community members, we put on a weekend’s worth of shows that sold out all three nights.
Selling out those shows only showed us that by filling the voids that we all individually carried, we contributed so much growth and inspiration to our community at large last year and created something that our community desperately wanted to see and experience with us. We are so thankful for everyone who has helped Crux grow into what it is becoming, slowly but surely.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly, we were going out on a limb almost every step of the way. We all have a wide range of experiences when it comes to choreographing acts, collaborating with other artists, and putting on shows within our studios. But the show last year was a full-on theater production, which is something none of us had done before. The set, the lighting, transitions between acts, all of those factors were fairly new to us. We had never had so much collective control over the outcome of a production. It’s a lot to juggle!
And then, of course, a tale as old as time, aerialists trying to find somewhere to hang their freaky bodies from so they can train and rehearse regularly. This is always a big hassle for aerialists because not every space has the capability to hang equipment and humans from their ceilings! This is especially difficult when you are working with large, heavy metal apparatuses that are difficult to transport to and from rehearsal spaces…But we did it, in spite of everything!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe you can tell us more about your work next?
Crux Collective creates multidisciplinary performances motivated by the desire to collaborate with the Atlanta arts community. We want to showcase the work of artists who often feel lost in the shuffle and who desire to have their work brought to life on stage. We are incredibly proud of our first-ever production, Catalyst, which showcased local aerialists as well as dance and floor acrobatics.
Catalyst was a story about the trials of navigating our relationships within our communities, those who were closest to us, and, ultimately, ourselves. We wanted to go into the depths of ourselves to show something to Atlanta that it hadn’t seen in a long time, if at all. And we felt affirmed by the outpouring of love that we received from our audience. Basically, to summarize, we specialize in storytelling, in high-level skills, and in being badasses with soft hearts and powerful bodies.
What do you think about happiness?
What makes Crux Collective happy is expressing our art to audiences who show us so much love in return. We are also elated to announce that we will be returning to Windmill Arts this Fall for our next production! We are deep in preparation now, and we are so excited to develop a new story to tell the world. Mark your calendars! You have three opportunities to see us Friday October 11th, Saturday October 12th and Sunday October 13th. We would love to see you there.
Contact Info:
- Website: cruxatl.com
- Instagram: @cruxcollectiveatl
- Other: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-crux-collective
Image Credits
Courtney Ray (www.courtneyrayphoto.com) and Andrea Wedig (www.andreawedig.com)
