Robert Davidson

Robert "Bob" Davidson was born on 20 July 1946 in rural Minnesota and grew up immersed in music and culture. His early interests in international choir touring and ethnomusicology led him to complete an advanced degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, establishing a multidisciplinary foundation that would shape his entire artistic life.

Davidson became deeply involved with Joan Skinner's developing Skinner Releasing Technique, a somatic practice grounded in imagery and efficient movement. He was certified to teach the technique in 1969, served as Skinner's principal assistant at the University of Washington through the 1970s, directed the Skinner Releasing School from 1974, and danced in Skinner's companies. His work during these decades helped shape both the technique itself and the teachers he would later certify.

In 1986, Davidson began exploring aerial dance on a triangular low-flying trapeze, having studied with San Francisco aerial pioneer Terry Sendgraff. In 1988 he established his own aerial-dance company. Rather than treating suspension as spectacle, Davidson fused Skinner Releasing's principles—its emphasis on imagery, economy of effort, and expressive freedom—with low-flying trapeze work. The result was a distinctive approach to aerial dance that allowed dancers to move fluidly between grounded and suspended states.

Davidson created an ambitious repertory including *Airborne: Meister Eckhart* and *Rapture: Rumi*, both of which toured in the United States and abroad. Beginning in 1991, O-T-O Dance in Tucson repeatedly commissioned Davidson, preserving works including *Ave Maria*, *Cambbian Dances*, and *Nine Waltzes* alongside his evening-length projects. In 1997 he joined the Denver Center's National Theatre Conservatory as Head of Movement, a position he held through the program's 2012 closure. There he made trapeze a required component of the three-year actor-training curriculum—an unusual integration of aerial practice into graduate theatre education. He also choreographed Denver Center productions and trained Skinner Releasing teachers internationally, collaborating with Nancy Smith's Frequent Flyers in 1998 and joining Fly-by-Night Dance Theater as a guest artist in 2013.

Davidson died at home on 22 December 2016, aged 70. In 2018, Fly-by-Night Dance Theater organized *Airborne: Honoring the Legacy of Robert Davidson*, bringing together aerial choreographers he had influenced and excerpts from his work. The event made visible a legacy already carried by teachers, companies and actors across several generations.