Nancy Smith

Nancy Smith is the founder and artistic director of Boulder, Colorado, based Frequent Flyers® Productions since its inception in 1988 and the international Aerial Dance Festival since 1999.

Ms. Smith is an alumna of The Colorado College and studied under the master’s program in dance at UCLA before moving to Seattle to work with Joan Skinner, where she trained in Skinner Releasing Technique. Based in Boulder, Colorado since 1985, she has taught aerial dance and SRT around the US. She has created a unique blend of Skinner and aerial dance: A.R. T.: Aerial Release Technique.

While attending UCLA graduate school of Dance, Ms. Smith conducted a scientific experiment in the Kinesiology Dept. on Robert Davidson with Joan Skinner to evaluate the efficacy of imaging movement on a trained and control subject. The results were conclusive that a trained imager can replicate the movement of a body part with only the visualization.

Her choreography with Frequent Flyers has been seen in the Bahamas, Boston, Utah, Louisiana, California, Montreal, Washington DC, and throughout Colorado.  The Company has performed for many corporate clients, including Cirque du Soleil, Patron Spirits, Denver Broncos and more. Her choreography was recently performed at the Kennedy Center in collaboration with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra at the inaugural SHIFT Festival in March, 2017 and received a standing ovation and multiple curtain calls.

Ms. Smith has received numerous awards and honors including the “REAL” award for arts,  “Living Legend of Dance” honor from the Carson Brierly Giffin Library at DU; “Women Who Light the Community” award,  the first “Cutting Edge” Award from the Colorado Dance Alliance, the Boulder County Pacesetters Award for Arts and Entertainment, a Neodata Endowment Fellowship in Dance, and the “Arts Innovation Award” from the Colorado Federation of the Arts.

Frequent Flyers Productions, under the leadership of Ms. Smith, has gained international recognition as a leader in the field of aerial dance. The company launched the highly acclaimed Aerial Dance Festival in 1999. This annual offering has brought prominence to the company for advancing the art form of aerial dance.

Ms. Smith and colleague, Jayne Bernasconi (Baltimore, MD) co-authored the first  (and only) book on aerial dance, Aerial Dance. It was published, June, 2008 by Human Kinetics, and is in use around the world.