AEROS features gold medal-winning gymnasts from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, directed by Daniel Ezralow, David Parsons and Moses Pendleton in collaboration with "Stomp" creators Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, and includes a live score.

TITAS presents AEROS, a soaring evening of entertainment created by Daniel Ezralow, David Parsons, and Moses Pendleton - three of the most influential and innovative men in movement - in collaboration with Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, the creators of "Stomp." Performed by athletes from the Romanian Gymnastics Team, AEROS takes place for 2 performances only, Friday, February 17 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, February 18 at 2 p.m. at McFarlin Auditorium.

Hailed by the Italian press as "A challenge to the law of gravity and to physical dance," and "the synthesis that binds the physical power of a team of ranked athletes with the creative genius of three sacred monsters of contemporary choreography," AEROS is truly a unique show and perhaps the first in its genre.

Originally produced by Antonio Gnecchi of AGR Associati in Milan, AEROS was created in 1998 in Italy. AGR was contacted by a multinational corporation who was looking for a novel event in Italy. Gnecchi took up the challenge with an idea to bring gymnasts into the creative world of the performing arts.

Gnecchi approached Daniel Ezralow, David Parsons, and Moses Pendleton, three choreographers who, over the last 20 years, have set aside dance conventions and moved modern dance in new directions with acrobatic performances that expand the dimensions of dance, with the idea. This idea led to the creation of an exciting new event that would spotlight performers who could offer an encompassing demonstration of muscular strength, equilibrium, and harmony.

The trio went to Bucharest and auditioned athletes from the National Sports and Aerobics Gymnastics Team of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation. They chose 15 members and created a show built on their talents that celebrated athleticism, energy and the body itself. The overwhelming success of this single event ignited the idea to create a permanent group that would perform an exciting new show using a totally new movement vocabulary. In 1999, Gnecci and John Luckacovic of Columbia Artists in New York, one of the producers of Stomp, went together to Bucharest, Romania to meet with Adrian Stoica, General Secretary of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, with a proposal to create AEROS—the world's first performing arts project for a national gymnastics team.

Stoica embraced the concept and Gnecchi and Luckacovic set out to secure the original directors - Ezralow, Parsons, and Pendleton. They would create new work for the production and add new members to the creative team - beginning with Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, the creators of "Stomp," who oversee the creation of a new and original score by TTG Music Lab (Geoff Bennett, Longo Hai, and Ben Johanssen, composers), which will be performed live.Maria Fumea, the national coach of sports aerobics, Romanian Team, is the choreographic associate. The lighting is by Howell Binkley, who lit "The Full Monty," "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "Grease" on Broadway; scenery by Andrew Jackness, who designed "The Scarlet Pimpernel" on Broadway and was production designer for the films Prelude to a Kiss and Big Night, and Michael Curry, who designed sets for Zubin Mehta's "Magic Flute" at this year's Maggio Fiorentino and worked with Julie Taymor on the production of masks and puppets for "The Lion King"; and costumes designed by Tony Award winner Ann Hould-Ward, costume designer of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," "Into the Woods," "Falsettos," and "Sunday in the Park with George." AEROS is produced by Columbia Artists Management Inc., European Theatre Productions, LTD., and DaMoDa LLC.

Creative work began on September 11, 2000 at the University of Florida in Gainesville. AEROS had a short preliminary tour to tryout and explore the material; they return to Gainesville to continue the creative process throughout December, and then come to UCLA's Royce Hall for the world premiere on Thursday, January 11. Michael Blachly, director of the performing arts series at the University of Florida, has long been a supporter of this project for both UCLA and the University of Florida.The athletes who comprise this unusual performance troupe range in age from 19 to 26. Five are World Champions in Artistic, Rhythmic, and Sports Aerobics—Daniela Maranduca, Team Gold in Dortmund in 1994; Isabela Lacatus, Individual Sports Aerobics in 2000; Christin Moldovan, Remus Nicolai and Claudiu Varlam, three times Gold in Trio—while the others are European Champions.

During the performances and tours of AEROS, The Romanian Gymnastics Team will continue to participate in world competitions and the gymnasts who are members of the company will have the unique experience of rehearsals, performances, training and competition that will essentially enhance and bring an added dimension to their work as athletic competitors. Daniel Ezralow is a native of Los Angeles. As a director, choreographer and dancer, he has toured worldwide and has been a member of the dance companies 5x2 Plus, Lar Lubovitch, Paul Taylor, Pilobolus, and was one of the original dancer-choreographers who created Momix and founded the ISO Dance. He has created work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Paris Opera Ballet, Rudolph Nureyev, Batsheva Dance Company of Israel, and London Contemporary Dance Theater.

Ezralow has also worked extensively in film and television, collaborating with directors Ron Howard, Julie Taymor, Lina Wertmuller, Marco Bellocchio, Julien Temple, Kevin Godley, Hiroyuki Nakano and others, and won an Emmy Award for a PBS special, Episodes. Most recently, he choreographed the aerial grand finale for Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" Tour and completed the choreography for Ron Howard's film, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He choreographed Julie Taymor's "The Green Bird" on Broadway and just completed a feature documentary biography titled Mandela, The Journey of a Dancer. He choreographed Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" for Los Angeles and Houston Operas and the Maggiuo Musicale production of "Aida" with Zubin Mehta conducting.

David Parsons, born in Illinois and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, continues to be one of the most prominent and skilled dancers of this generation. From 1978 to 1987, Parsons was a leading dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, where Mr. Taylor created many roles for him in works such as Arden Court, Last Look, and Roses. His guest appearances include with the New York City Ballet, the Berlin Opera and the White Oak Dance Project.

Parsons has created over 50 works on the Parsons Dance Company, having received commissions over the years from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Hancher Auditorium/University of Iowa, among others, and has choreographed original works for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and National Ballet of Canada.In 1997 Parsons was one of only six choreographers in the nation chosen by the American Dance Festival to choreograph a new work for The Millennium Project. Caught, Parsons' signature work was televised nationally on "Alive From Off Center" in 1987. He was a featured dancer of PBS' Dance in America, having performed in three programs with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and one with New York City Ballet. In 1991, Parsons and the Parsons Dance Company made a television production in Denmark that has been broadcast all over the world.

Moses Pendleton co-founded the Pilobolus Dance Theatre, which won worldwide acclaim for its innovative blend of acrobatics and imagination. Mr. Pendleton began to work outside Pilobolus in 1980 when he choreographed the closing ceremonies for the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. He also performed his solo, Momix at the Games, which became the name of the company he founded the following year.

Pendleton has been active as choreographer and performer for numerous other companies including The Joffrey Ballet, Milan's La Scala, the Deutsche Opera, Munich State Opera House, and the Metropolitan Opera. His film works includes Moses Pendleton Presents Moses Pendleton for ABC Arts in 1982, Julian Lennon's Too Late For Goodbyes directed by Sam Peckinpah, and the 1991 film FXII and his work appears in Prince's "Batdance" music video for the film Batman. Through Pilobolus his work has been seen on PBS' Dance in America and Great Performances series.

Cresswell and McNicholas, collaborating directors, are both self-taught musicians who worked together for several years as street musicians and performers across Europe. They began Stomp in 1991. Since then they have directed a series of award-winning commercials internationally and received an Oscar nomination for their short film Brooms. Together they composed the soundtrack to the ShowTime movie, Riot and directed the Emmy-nominated HBO special "Stomp Out Loud." Their latest project is "Pulse," a visual exploration of global rhythm, coming to IMAX movie theatres in 2002. AEROS marks their first involvement in a live project since "Stomp."

TTG operates as a compositional team for film, television, video and multimedia. This diverse group creates soundscapes for a wide range of artistic endeavors by working directly with the source sounds, and recording additional sounds and samples on site. Recent soundtracks for film and television include USA Network's La Femme Nikita; HBO's George and Martha; Nickelodeon's Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and The Beat Suit. TTG has also produced commissioned works including Clicks, Anjite and Coaxis, three pieces for the Japanese team at the 1998 International Ballet Competition in Lucerne, Switzerland and Thunder Drum, a contemporary ballet score commissioned by The Matsuoka Ballet Company of Nagoya, Japan.

AEROS is made possible in part through contributions from The Visionary Sponsor, University of Florida Performing Arts. AEROS is performed at McFarlin Auditorium on Friday, February 17 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, February 18 at 2 p.m. Tickets to see AEROS are available for $12 - $55 at the TITAS Box Office at 3101 N. Fitzhugh Avenue, #301, Dallas, TX, online at www.startickets.com, or by calling the TITAS Box Office at 214-528-5576.