BANDALOOP

In the early 90s, when Mark Melvin was attracting investors for an ambitious plan to open climbing gyms, he asked Amelia Rudolph, the founder of BANDALOOP, to come and rehearse her new form of dance-climbing in a big empty warehouse in the Mission that later became Mission Cliffs, the first Bay Area Touchstone gym. Many famous climbers including Ron Kauk, Hans Florine, Steve Schneider, Bird Lew and Peter Mayfield performed with BANDALOOP in its early years indoors and in Yosemite, and Amelia became a climber who competed on the national circuit, loved Yosemite granite and sought out obscure backcountry routes. Flash forward thirty years – now Touchstone’s reach extends across all of California and BANDALOOP tours the world and teaches hundreds of learners the art of Vertical Dance. BANDALOOP celebrates the human spirit, nature, and communities through dance utilizing climbing technology to expand and challenge what is possible. The company has stretched the field of dance through its trailblazing work, developing and refining the art of Vertical Dance over thirty years while growing its local, national, and international impact. The innovative work disrupts traditional ideas of performance space and the body’s relationship to gravity and deploys a collaborative creative process, increasingly with a greater focus on social and environmental justice. BANDALOOP creates new vertical work on its Uptown