Enjoy our first BolderTalks featuring Isable von Rittberg and Ascendance.

BolderTalks is a free series that brings you insights from exceptional people from those fueled by inspiration.

Imagine: you’re on a climbing wall, extending through arm, wrist, and hands to reach that next hold. Now, imagine that you are also dancing.

Isabel von Rittberg is the Founder and Artistic director of AscenDance project, a performing company based in Boulder, CO that fuses rock climbing with dance.

Isabel grew up a country pumpkin in Wuppertal- Beyenburg, Germany. “That’s what I call myself but I know it’s bumpkin. I got in wrong once and so now I’m just like, ‘country pumpkin.’ Anyway, so I’m a country pumpkin, and I grew up riding little ponies without saddles, and milking cows, and watching chickens get their head cut off. And we had a bakery across the street…” Isabel also grew up with a deep love for music and dance. “Ballet didn’t keep my attention, even though my mom and my teacher and everybody was trying to push me in that direction. But it just wasn’t me. Dance stayed in my life, though not professionally.”

And then, she discovered rock-climbing. “I think I refound for myself the aesthetics of movement. In a different way, but wanting me, asking me, to create something. Moving, and showing a beauty, and sharing that with the world, which I guess is any dancer’s dream. To connect with people through your emotions, which evoke movement, and are emphasized by music. And you know, it makes people cry, it makes you cry. It’s just that moment of honesty where the truth comes through and there’s no hesitation.”

Come hear more from Isabel herself: on her journey in fusing two passions, on working with fear, on taking leaps, on honesty, and on the knowledge that body contains. Get an idea of the work that AscenDance project does at this free performance and talk! Doors open at 6:30pm at the AscenDance Studio, 5721 Arapahoe # C. Event starts at 7:00pm.

BolderTalks is a new BolderLife project, inspired by TEDTalks: a concept that collects and shares the insights of exceptional people and an opportunity that allows people to share their ideas with the community. These ideas are the ways in which we can create an ongoing dialogue between those who share a passion for life, education, and change. The format allows us to start a conversation with all of the unused what-ifs, how-sos, and what-abouts that you’ve been hoarding in your brain.

For out-of-towners, this talk will also be available on our website as part of BolderLife’s developing online educational, artivist programming.