Reviews

AscenDance Project was recently featured on www.gore-ljudje.net and www.bergleben.de.

(Google's translations are available here: www.gore-ljudje.net [originally in Slovenian], and www.bergleben.net [originally in German].)

Isabel vonn Rittberg is quite a young lady. She has created a dance group that combines Music/Rock Climbing/Dancing and all performed on a stage with real/artificial walls of rocks in Berkeley at Ashby Stage.... I attended the final performance last month March and it was sold out on a Sunday afternooon and standing ovation at the end...

--Jim Tobin, BayAreaDanceWatch

... The Ascendance Project is a group of seven dancers who challenge their choreography on vertical walls without the use of ropes! ... Talk about taking dance to a whole new level.

You know you've got talent when you can dance on vertical walls, have in-sync coordination and hold horizontal body positions off the wall. At one time I was reminded of lizards crawling sideways under the hot desert rocks.

The graceful acts even had dancers performing upside down in positions I'd never thought possible. The lighting effects created dancing shadows which at times accentuated the dancers in the act. It was beyond any dance performance I've seen...

--Moua L. on Yelp.com

Climbing integrates technical prowess and physical conditioning. An arcing wall is the playground in which climbers chose to perform their medium upon. Isabel Von Rittberg (a dancer & climber by heart) envisioned a new use for the climbing medium that involved an arcing wall, but this one was constructed by a climber for a new form of self-expression, dance.

Vision:
Isabel envisioned her latest project that is currently enveloping her life and channeling her psyche as she left the Virgin River Gorge. From the windows of her van she mournfully eyed the walls from the rear view as the tape deck filled the cab with music it was at that moment that her vision solidified itself. She would combine two elements she believed touched everyone (climbing & music).

Season:
Upon her return to the Bay Area she found a small loft and began to construct a wall. With the help of the Bay Area community she hauled all the needed supplies to her loft and constructed her first "dance floor". After the wall was constructed a well placed ad at local gyms sparked the interest in several climbers who would begin their training with Isabel. They would be climbing with an entirely new emphasis, not to top out, but to sustain movement that would excite and inspire.

Training:
Climbing and dancing share numerous similarities, all of Isabel's dancers are in actuality real climbers. Every choreographed move is based on an actual climbing move, but with Isabel's embellishment, the moves allow the crowd to visually enjoy the display of power and grace. An extended drop-knee, an overly arcing bat-hang, and even the most simple of moves are produced with passion, design with intent.

Redpoint Burn:
After months of preparation which included building a wall, finding a talented and dedicated group of climbers/dancers Isabel began to exhibit dozens of shows, the first in 2006 at the Red Rock Rendezvous. Isabel debuted a small sampling, which was followed up by shows at Touchstone Climbing Gyms, and then her groups largest show premiered in San Francisco's Union Square as a piece for the San Francisco Arts Festival. From there the group toured relentlessly throughout the Bay Area all the way to Boulder, Colorado to showcase their piece at the Aerial Dance Festival.

Media Following:
Isabel's vision and showcases has earned her rave reviews. She has successfully combined two distinct forms of physical expression into a single, fluid formation that amplifies the beauty of climbing and extends the possibilities of the sport to a new level.

--The Vision of Ascendance, Deadpoint Magazine

Von Rittberg has already taken this performance modality well beyond "gimmick." Instead she is in the midst of defining an art form, and all the vocabulary therein. She has, in fact, created a choreographer's dream. Who could not watch this performance and not imagine what can be done with that wall and what she has invented? (Read more...)
--Donald K. Atwood, World Dance Reviews

...Music pours from loudspeakers. A tall, lithe, muscular blonde woman flows over the top of the wall onto its studded surface, and rotates across it from one end to the other in a series of breathtakingly graceful moves. This is Isabel von Rittberg, Artistic Director of the Ascendance Project of Berkeley, California. For the next two hours four rock wall dancers perform a continuous ballet as magnificently defiant of gravity as that of any great trampoline or trapeze act. The dancers' bodies, composed and rhythmically recomposed into anatomically improbable postures--now still, now swinging or spinning, now clinging upside down like Spiderman--are a series of living sculptures, each worthy, for its exquisite muscular detail, of Michaelangelo or Rodin. In the late afternoon heat the sensuality of these lithe, graceful, powerful male and female bodies is electromagnetic. I am following the action in my viewfinder, shooting a continuous stream of still photos as the body sculptures form and reform kaleidoscopic ally. My flash batteries have long since gone dead. I'm shooting in natural light well below the range of the camera's power to resolve motion. It's not photography any more. The lens is a mind tunnel to those sinewy bodies. I move forward, zooming gently into the symphony of muscles rippling across Isabel Rittberg's back. The AscenDance Project of Berkeley, California, has accomplished something that the wealthiest of O.R. Show exhibitors can only dream of. They have wound together sport, dance, music, apparel design, feng shui and body sculpture into an exotic new brand with a patent on sex appeal.
--Ray Wheeler, Outdoor Retailer, Salt Lake City

Thank you so much for the wonderful and amazing performances that you shared with us all at the festival. My husband and I have been attending (as audience) the festival for 5 years and always find it fascinating and unbelievable. Not since we first saw Fred Deb perform on the 'tissue' have we been so impressed with the ability and smooth, rhythmic performance that you gave.
--Ann and Dennis

A great show today!!! I truly enjoyed it - the dancing, the choreography, the music, your simple costumes and the spirit of your very well skilled group. Thanks.
--Terry Sendgraff, Aerial Dance Pioneer

This week you can catch AscenDance Project, a group of dancers/mountaineers out to prove that climbing can be as thrilling to watch as it is to practice, apparently as much for reasons of sheer imperilment as aesthetic appeal--no ropes on this set.
--Bonner Odel, SF Weekly, 5/21/2008

There was no shortage of nearly anything for the festivities, including entertainment, capped by performances from the AscenDance Project out of San Francisco. The group put on three shows on both days, showcasing their unique blend of climbing and dancing on mobile climbing walls..."It had people mesmerized," Solberg said.
--Alex Strickland, Bigfork Eagle, 8/1/2008

Thank you and to all of your company! The performance was really great, a highlight of my years working at Union Square, and an exemplary public performance. All of the hard work that both of us do is to have events exactly like that, exposing the public to art in San Francisco.
--Marcelo Lucero Avilés, Programming Assistant, Union Square Park

Congratulations on putting together such a sweet batch of work for that show!! You guys all looked really clean, technical and powerful. I am so proud of you...
--Sonya Smith, Aerial Dancer

Isabel von Rittberg's choreography flowed beautifully, and was executed perfectly ... The dancers were as poignant and graceful as they were strong and steady. The vignettes provide commentary on the rhythms which dictate our lives. Each piece communicates different emotions, feelings, and situations, from a love story to individuals scaling the same high cliff face. ... I highly recommend that you take advantage of ANY opportunity to see this group. An incredible and moving performance!
--Zachary S. on Yelp.com

Hundreds of fair-goers watched the amazing beauty and strength of the dancers on the rock wall. A local perfectly described it as 'poetry in motion'.
--Lakeshore Country Journal, August 14th, 2008.

I just wanted to tell you all how much I enjoyed Isabel's (et al) performance on Sunday. It so obviously came from "body, mind and soul" and where else do we find the best of who we are? What a touching and spiritual gift to Betty, and to us all. You are going to soar, Isabel! Thank you.
--Rainy

I found the performance very redeeming; I felt a real positiveness, and new hope. I loved the way your movements of praise and harmony offered a kind of rarefied vision. I thought it was just grand.
--Patrick Jones

On behalf of the ROADSHO team I'd like to thank you and the other members of AscenDance Project for being part of our events. Your pieces were truly breathtaking and added an extra element of surprise to the evening events. Thanks for working so diligently with us to make sure it was a stellar production.
--Brynne Cortez, Roadsho Productions