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Fall Spotlight on:

RAIN ANYA 

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Paper Doll Militia was born, years ago, over a cup of coffee and a book of poetry by Tim Burton.  PDM was a child of 4 Santa Fe Artists". Rain Anya, Sarah BeBe Holmes- BIO,Colleen McKeown and Westin McDowell.  Paper Doll Militia has a purpose of enriching the cultural life of the community through dynamic movement, storytelling and education. Rain completed the professional training aerial program at NECCA in 2007 and in 2008, Sarah and Rain moved to San Francisco to continue their vision and development of PDM. They sought to create a total visual and emotional experience in the creation process and their educational programs focus on aerial skill building and theatricality. The programs are designed to instill a sense of discipline, creativity and empowerment.

 

It appears Rain has always had a heart for promoting social change starting with her initial exposure to aerial through the "WiseFool New Mexico.  The first production of PDM, titled, "Ra Ra Avis-" (The "rare bird" in Latin), is the story of tragically flawed children, and it continued this theme through to the dark and vivid productions Paper Doll Militia creates today.  Isn't that one of the greatest returns of theatre performance, to bring circumstantial awareness to our audiences with efforts to inspire and promote change?

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Although Rain and Sarah now navigate and develop PDM from separate countries, Sarah in Scotland and Rain in the U.S., they continue to develop touring shows and reaching out to their communities with workshops, trainings and intensives.  Rain and Sarah just finished touring their production of "Loops End", throughout Scotland and London and are now beginning development for their next production titled, "Warped".  Most recently, Rain and Sarah can be found organizing their aerial retreat in Antalya, Turkey at the beautiful Tadah retreat center and artist habitat! The retreat is broken into two weeks, May 1-6, 2017, Skills week, and Vertical theatre week is May 11-16, 2017.

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Rain travels heavily orchestrating workshops and teacher trainings for PDM, (you may have seen Rain in her collaboration with Rebekah Leach's rope instructionals on www.AerialDancing.com). PDM is partnered with Born to Fly teacher trainings, which means a PDM teacher training would apply toward a Born to Fly certification as well. Here is a bit more information on Rain's semi-private intensive aerial weekends in L.A.

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With great appreciation for theatricality and the avant- garde, AerialDownloads.com was excited to catch the expressive and creative Rain Anya Willson, for our Fall AD podcast interview. Our recording takes place prior to the Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, CO. where Rain will be teaching classes such as Vertical Theatre, The Expressive Aerialist & Fabric Brain.  Rain Anya catches our attention, earning the spotlight for her work with Sarah BeBe Holmes, bringing the theatre so vividly to our aerial world, in efforts to promote social change. ...and for bringing the Aerial ABC's so generously to our site! The ABC's was a contribution to the aerial community, to promote safe and technically correct fundamentals.

Grab a cup of coffee and put your feet up for a few moments to catch a bit of our pod cast with Rain Anya. We talk about a little bit of everything from her love of working with, Aerial chains, to her recent wedding to Sarah's brother Paul, to her take on the addition of the theatrical and creative element now added to aerial competitions!

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Click HERE to go to the vast PDM online photo gallery and if you'd like to learn more about supporting PDM in their original aerial theatre performances, check out their Patreon campaign!

Here are a few pictures from PDM...

Here is the "Skyfall" Video we referred too.

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