New York:
Taking New York by storm Aerial Dance is the unique new art form that has become the talk of the town.
Inside a building that looks more like a dilapidated warehouse than dance studio, in an industrial end of Brooklyn, is an artist's collective called 'House of Yes'
Its creators teach a different form of dance, one in which the performance takes place above the stage, not on it.
"I try not to think about how high I am in the air. Instead, I try to think about where the rope is on my body," says Meredith Shank, an Aerial Dance student and performer, before taking on the stage that night.
Later, during her number, she spins like a top whose string has been pulled, propelled by gravity and controlled by the rope wound tight around her legs and torso. The crowd cheers.
"It's so beautiful and so intense, kind of all at the same time that in order to do this art you have to really be fully present in what you are doing," explains Aerial Dance instructor Jordann Baker.
Aerial Dance is a fairly new art form.
It is best known in large commercial performances with touring companies such as Cirque du Soleil.
Performers at House of Yes are mostly amateurs in their 20's and 30's with nine to five jobs.
Some of them do have professional dance background but one is not required.
"I think the thing that I like about aerial is that it brings that element of grace and the beauty that people find in dance and adds an element of brute strength to it that you can't really fake," explains Shank.
"Tricks" as aerialists refer to their complex moves, can involve wrapping a rope or a long bolt of silk around their bodies, then using the slack to tumble in a controlled fall.
Baker demonstrates one for the class.
She wraps herself up, creates a seat from a bundle of the cloth beneath her, when she has found her balance, she pivots and drops.
Only when her legs catch in a loop does she stop falling, her head only a few feet above a thick pad.
The move is called a "no handed knee catch drop."
Accomplished dancers once a month show off their skills in front of a live audience.
An hour or so before performances dancers come in to get ready.
Many will have last minute costume modifications to make or they will put on long fake eyelashes, sequined costumes - bustiers abound, the more colourful the outfit the better.
Aerialists' performance at House of Yes are an equal mix of spectacle, splash and glitz.
They perform at up to 40 feet above an unpadded stage with no net.
The group dressing room pre-performance is quiet, as many run through their routines one last time in front of the mirror.
Kae Burke, an aerial dancer herself, started the House of Yes as a place for dancers and other artists to mingle.
Burke explains what she believes the number one take away of an aerial dance performance should be, "people learning how to perform, people learning what applause sounds like when it is for them."