Developed in 2022 during Fidget Feet's "Creation Intensive" and presented at the Irish Aerial Creation Center, Archipelago is an aerial dance performance that explore Ring Trapeze as a metaphor for the importance of reaching for and using support. The deconstructing/reconstructing that this apparatus provides drives home the balance between effort and being held in the battle for mental health.

Ring Trapeze, at its foundational set up, it is 6 rings hung symmetrically, side by side by lengths of cable-core rope. Each set of rings can be connected by a trapeze bar that was designed to be both inserted and removed from the rings while the apparatus is in use. The visual of this configuration has been described as both an “artistic Salmon Ladder” (a la Ninja Warrior) and as a ship anchoring on various islands (hence, Archipelago) 

Choreography and apparatus design by Emily Stratton

Filming by Jym Daly

Lighting by Finton Sweeney

Mentorship by Chantal McCormick, Kat Cooley, Carolina Cabanas and Emma Poole

Apparatus fabrication by Cade Holmseth

Location provided by The Irish Aerial Creation Center