Performers Rehearse 31-Story High Dance For Arts Festival

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It was a dance rehearsal - a graceful ballet of humans, concrete and glass.

Performers danced their way down the 31-floor facade of Fifth Avenue Place, as passersby craned their necks. For pre-schoolers, it was an unexpected Downtown delight.

"They love them spinning, and walking on the windows and stuff," said one of their teachers.

Dancing on the side of a building is tough under any conditions, but the winds were really gusting. Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival director Sarah Aziz said the performers are a group from Texas called Blue Lapis Light. She said they will highlight the festival Friday and Saturday nights.

"It'll happen after dark, so there'll be lights and sound, and it'll be like you're at a Dance Council show, only in the street, on the building."

Artistic director Sally Jacques says they're performing a piece called "Stardust."

"Our mission for the company is prayers for the planet. So it's a journey of the human experience into the sort of transcendence of beauty, and love and compassion for the world."

Reactions among spectators were mixed.

"It looks rather frightening," one woman said. "But what an intriguing thing to see today."

The other was more direct. "That's crazy to me. You don't think that's crazy?"

As always, art is in the eye of the beholder.

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