One Extraordinary Day 2012
On Sunday July 15 2012 London witnessed a series of daredevil events created by US ‘extreme action’ choreographer Elizabeth Streb.One Extraordinary Day was a series of awe-inspiring displays of acrobatics, beginning at 7.30am at Millennium Bridge and culminating at 10.30pm with 32 dancers taking the London Eye to new heights as a performance space, pitting their bodies against the extraordinary height and the disorientation of constant rotation.
Four of the events were created especially for the Day, and key to these was the support provided by Unusual Rigging, tasked with the welfare and safety of the dancers and proving once again that never has a company been more aptly named!
Robin Elias worked with STREB and Sapsis Rigging, STREB’s preferred contractor in the US, prior to the event to ensure that everything went without a hitch and earning himself the tag of ‘Hardware Whisperer’ from Elizabeth Streb in the process.
- Waterfall at Millennium Bridge required a system that allowed STREB to use their own harnesses and bungees (supplied by Sapsis) in a new and foreign environment.
- Sky Walk at City Hall saw Elizabeth Streb and two other performers walked forwards down the side of the glass building.
- Speed Angels, an anti-gravitational ballet performed by three STREB dancers, required a 30m truss ‘goal post’ fitted with three Revolution winches.
- The finale, Human Eye, saw one dancer on each of the 32 riverside spokes of the London Eye. A bespoke system, designed by Unusual, enabled the performers to travel hands free along the full 50m of the spoke, yet have the ability to perform while either stationery or moving at a fixed, safe speed.
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