Best Dance Company Berkeley Near Me

4worldlovers: AXIS Dance Company invites disabled, non-disabled and neurodiverse dancers from around the world to engage, share …

It takes a village to redefine dance and disability! Learn more about our close-knit team of fantastic dancers, staff and leadership: Meet AXIS Team

AXIS Dance Company pledges to work towards full accessibility for all disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent people in all of our programs and services.

In our in-person and online performances, classes and events, our goal is to always center access from the ground up – as opposed to adding accommodations as an afterthought. This goal is something we will always be working towards; there is no ‘perfect’ way to provide access for all and we always have more to learn.

From ALT Text in images to ASL Interpretation and Audio Description, we strive to make our website and virtual events as accessible as possible.

In addition to mandatory wheelchair accessibility in all venues, we also include live ASL Interpretation, Audio Description, relaxed performance options, chemical sensitivity requests and live Touch Tour experiences whenever possible for in-person programming.

4worldlovers: After carefully weighing direct community feedback, industry best practices, and consideration for our teachers, UpSwing Aerial Dance Company will stop our current requirement that all students continue to wear masks starting June 1, 2023. As of June 1, 2023, masks will no longer be mandatory but students may voluntarily continue to wear masks as their choice. We will continue to offer hand sanitizer for all who enter the studio.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to assess and adapt to the situation at hand. Navigating these uncertainties has been challenging, but, as a result of these adaptations, we’ve been able to offer classes for girls, teens and adults.


"Best Way to Learn How to Fly" SF Weekly's 'Best of the Bay of 2006'

Upswing Aerial Classes on of the "Top 5 exclusive classes to take This Summer 2015" - TheCultureTrip.com

UpSwing classes are featured in “Your 2019 Workout Horoscope: The Best New Exercises to Try in the Bay Area.”


Listed in 2019 Oct issue of Diablo Magazine as one of five events not to miss.

Since 2005, UpSwing Aerial Dance Company has been a Berkeley destination for dancers and aerialists to lift their artistry and skills to new heights. Director Cherie Carson uses her unique style to blend movement and encourage improvisation and collaboration among her dancers and students. We specialize in merging dance with rope and harness, low flying trapeze (Motivity Trapeze), aerial slings, bungees, tissu, and other flying apparatuses. We currently have 6 performing dancers/aerialists in the Company.

UpSwing Aerial Dance Company classes and workshops offer a rare blend of creativity, aerial technique, improvisation, time, and space to motivate the artist within. Our mission is to inspire and share our love of original, aerial dance, and show that the idea of aerial dance can be extended to reveal human imagination, our relationships with one another, and one’s inner self. Creative expression and safety are the two core values in our classes and performances.

UpSwing is a contemporary aerial dance company that features the repertory of Artistic Director Cherie Carson. The Company has been presented nationally in Atlanta, New York, Seattle & Houston and San Francisco.


UpSwing offers opportunities for students to take classes from the Company as well as nationally recognized choreographers and teachers. We also teach workshops across the US when traveling. Cities where we have taught include Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Seattle and Santa Barbara.

ALL classes, workshops and most performances are held at Studio 12 in Berkeley California under the direction of Cherie Carson and UpSwing Aerial Dance Company.

Created in 2021, “Pressure” first premiered in Open Air Aerial Festival on Vashon Island, WA. It is a duet on rope and harness suspended from a single point. Performed to David Bowie and Queens “Under Pressure” accapella arrangement written and performed by David Worm.


Created in 2021, is a fun solo on a hammock to the hauntingly beautiful music of Texas artist Carolyn Wonderland.

Created in 2020, this dance is a solo performed on 2 corde lisse ropes to the poetry of Carmen Giménez Smith. It is a frank, honest and vulnerable look at relationships.

Created in 2019 this is an aerial dance for 3 dancers on 3 trapezes and bungee combination. The dance is inspired by my trip to Alaska to view the northern lights.

Created in 2017, this is a duet on one rope, using a pulley to balance and counter balance the relationship between the dancers. A nerve once believed to sustain the heart, heart string is a place of connection. A thread that is plucked and pulled, stretches and binds, touched it opens the heart.

Created in 2017 for 4 dancers on rope and harness performing on a wall. It is a dance that explores the relationships between stars, the notion that consciousness extends across the universe.

Created in 2016, this work is a 45 minute aerial dance piece for 6 dancers. "The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears or the sea." - Isak Dinesen

Created in 2015 as a 30 minute work on and off the floor. Includes 10 dancers, 2 musicians and 1 vocalist.

Sina (Moon Goddess), solo on Lyra. Sina resides within the moon itself, and is the protector of those who might travel at night. She paddled her magical canoe to the moon and was struck by the moon's tranquil beauty and decided to stay.

Created in 2015 as a duet on 2 tissu to Lauren Carley singing "Wie Lange Noch" song by Kurt Weill

Created in 2013 for 3 dancers, “Outpost moves through the personal longings of each dancer. Created for aerial tissu and floor dancing

4worldlovers: The mission of Luna Dance Institute is to bring creativity, equity and community to every child’s life through the art of dance.

Established in 1992, Luna Dance Institute is a nationally recognized dance education organization, providing services to children and the adults who impact their lives – parents, teachers, social service providers, dancers, and artists. As we bring all children to dance, we develop future leaders, choreographers, and visionaries.

When children are dancing, they are home. You can bring the transformative power in dance education to all children!

“These Practitioner Exchanges have been an encouraging flame for me this school year. Thank you! I sometimes forget the importance of stopping…thinking… and reflecting. This dance dialogue has been a fresh spark during this strange time in history.”

“Dance has become my escape… When I dance, I feel everything but human. I almost feel god-like. When I dance, I feel like I matter.”

“The confidence that I have in deciding to incorporate movement into my distance teaching comes from my summer with Luna. When I get my students moving and grooving and smiling for 15 minutes, using tissues instead of scarves, and taking the laptop into the bathroom so they don’t distract their siblings, I know it is the right thing to do! They will remember these classes, these twenty minutes of breath and freedom and imagination and it will be light in their pandemic memory.”

“It’s super important to feel comfortable with yourself, with your body and dancing really makes awareness in young children. Class like yours is so essential.”

“We have dance class? This is the best day of my life!”

“I hope that this connection to herself and ability to take feedback/prompts without triggering that deep wound can continue to flourish and provide another way for her to navigate being a learner.”

“I love to move so much that when everybody has to sit down when we discuss things it is really hard for me to stop moving.”

4worldlovers: This is the founding principle of Tutu School. We believe that motor skill development is infinitely enhanced by Tchaikovsky and Bach, that young imaginations benefit immensely from exploring the enchanted worlds of swans and sugar plums, and that twirling should be a fundamental part of any childhood.

Membership could not be easier and more convenient, and registration is always ongoing!We also offer free trial classes if your child would like to experience our school before enrolling full time.