Project Bandaloop On Vertical Hold

Four times during the course of Bumbershoot, Project Bandaloop will ricochet off the Space Needle. The troupe of six, two men and four women, will perform what they term "vertical dancing," a daredevil discipline they invented.

The Project, named for a mythical dance in a Tom Robbins novel, marries the art of dance with the craft of rock-climbing. But it came from neither source, says founder Amelia Rudolph. "I was actually studying comparative Asian religions and I planned my thesis on dance as ritual. On how a body can learn and a body can teach."

Rudolph was attending the University of California at Berkeley (she now works from a San Francisco base). A year before her thesis, at a boyfriend's urging, Rudolph tried rock climbing - and found she loved it. "As a kid, I was a gymnast. Plus, I studied all kinds of dance: ballet, yoga, modern."

For her thesis, Rudolph brought these skills together, training a female team for the experiment. At the same time, City Rock Gym opened nearby - to provide an indoor space for climbers. Once Rudolph started training there, she gained ideas and expertise rapidly. They came from the gym owner, Peter Mayfield speed climbers Hans Florine and Steve Schneider. In 1992, all were working with Rudolph.

Project Bandaloop now has a core of six, although for some shows there are 20 participants.

It was Reenie Duff who coaxed Rudolph to Seattle, where she soon fixated on the Space Needle. Rudolph: "With this work, I see city skylines differently; I now see them as these natural ranges. And, with this one, that is the definite peak. It's so huge, so special! How could I resist?"

The Space Needle Corp. didn't mirror Rudolph's feelings. Says company spokeswomen Lynn Brackpool: "Just off the bat, we did not agree. Because we needed to research it thoroughly. We had to check it all out for ourselves."

She says they had "some parachute experience," and a maintenance man who did stand-up comedy strapped outside the "halo."

But the Bumbershoot project encountered some obstacles.

Duff spent all year pulling it off. "There was the facility supervisor, the physical plant manager, and the compliance supervisors from Labor and Industry. The dancing is unrestricted, but the rigging has to meet code: what kinds of body harness, what tonnage all the ropes hold, what hardware is gonna be used. Things like that."

For Duff, it will be "a very special spectacle, one that's more than worth all the trouble involved." For Brackpool, it makes other points.

"The Space Needle was built with private money. It's a corporation, but a public symbol. So we're trying for greater contact with the city - more things like the New Year's Eve fireworks. We've never been a part of Bumbershoot, yet it happens every year in our back yard. So this is a special opportunity."

Things are still in the planning stage. But the Project promises us a "frontier work." Rudolph: "Climbing, dancing - they are rarely linked. Yet the two skill sets are quite compatible. What blends both is balance and a grace of movement."

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Performances

Project Bandaloop will perform off the Space Needle on Friday and Sunday at 7 p.m.; Saturday and Monday, 3:15 p.m. Also on Sunday, at 2 p.m. in the Bagley Wright Theatre. Dance clinic: Thursday, 6 to 9 p.m. Seattle Vertical World, 755 N. Northlake Way, 632-3031.