We recently connected with Aly Rose and have shared our conversation below.

Aly, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have ever worked on is one that is still unfolding. Its origin traces back to a moment in 2005, while I was sitting in Central Park. I suddenly envisioned more than a hundred dancers soaring through the air, forming vast architectural shapes that morphed seamlessly in and out of one another. What struck me most was that I could see this event from three perspectives at once: first, through the eyes of an awestruck audience, overwhelmed by joy; second, from a distance, where glowing human forms illuminated the sky; and finally, from within the performer’s own body, moving at high speed with absolute focus, grace, and immense strength.

When I blinked and returned to myself, I understood that I had just witnessed the beginning of a new art form—one I felt compelled to bring into reality. This vision has carried me into boardrooms, into audition rooms in New York and Montreal working with some of the world’s most exceptional aerialists, and into deep collaboration with leading animators to develop the choreography in 3D—building the tools future aerialists will use to train, learn, and eventually bring this vision fully to life. We call it The ONE Show. (www.theoneshow.com)

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you tell our readers about yourself and how you got into your industry?

I am an artist, director, and educator working at the confluence of movement, technology, and human connection. For more than two decades, my work has centered on expanding choreography into new dimensions—pushing it beyond the traditional so that bodies, stories, and collective imagination can take flight.

My path began with a deep fascination for how movement could communicate what words often fail to express. Early in my career, I was drawn to the cultural, spiritual, and communal layers of dance. That curiosity led me around the world—teaching, collaborating, and researching movement traditions in monasteries, villages, studios, and major performance spaces. Each experience widened my understanding of what dance can be and what it can do.

What types of creative work do you provide, and what problems do you solve for your clients or collaborators?

My work spans choreography, immersive performance direction, aerial dance creation, cinematic dance films, and movement-based storytelling rooted in community and intercultural exchange. I blend traditional technique with technology—3D animation, harness-based aerial choreography, music-driven volumetric patterns, and large-scale spatial design.

I help clients and collaborators solve a unique challenge: how to communicate emotion, story, and human connection in ways that transcend the stage and traditional performance boundaries. Whether it’s for film, live performance, cultural events, or site-specific activations, I specialize in creating work that is visually arresting, emotionally resonant, and unforgettable.

I also provide workshops and training in aerial dance, movement innovation, and collaborative creative processes. These offerings help dancers, companies, and institutions introduce entirely new skill sets and performance languages into their repertoire.

What sets you apart from others in your field?

What sets my work apart is the combination of global experience, deep cultural immersion, and the drive to imagine forms of performance that have never existed before.

I am equally comfortable working with monks in a remote monastery as I am directing auditions with world-class aerialists in New York or collaborating with 3D animators. My practice is rooted in empathy, curiosity, and the belief that movement reveals something essential about our shared human experience.

My artistic language is shaped by two decades of international work:

living with monks in China and creating MONK, a dance film about a real monk’s journey;
working with weavers in Zhejiang Province creating The Weaver,
with artisans outside Nanjing on rituals of dyeing cloth in the film Her Hands;
creating aerial works like Beings of Light in Shanghai;
setting up the first movement classes for women in the Al Ain region of the UAE and producing performances throughout the country;
co-choreographing mass projects for the 2008 Beijing Olympics;
contributing works to the Opening of the Bahá’í Temple of Light in Chile;
performing with The Ballet Folklórico de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba;
and even traveling to North Korea to observe the training behind Arirang, the Grand Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Games.

These experiences form the backbone of my work. They have given me a global perspective and a sensitivity to how movement connects people across culture, language, and belief.

What are you most proud of, and what do you want potential clients, followers, and fans to know about you and your brand?

I am most proud of the vision I received in 2005 while sitting in Central Park—a vision of hundreds of dancers soaring through the air in great shifting patterns, seen simultaneously from the audience’s eyes, from afar, and from inside the body of the performer. That moment became the seed of The ONE Show, a large-scale, immersive aerial performance that merges art, technology, music, architecture, and human flight.

What I want people to know is this: everything I create is driven by a belief in unity, possibility, and the limitless potential of human creativity. My brand is rooted in connection—between people, disciplines, cultures, and ideas. Whether it’s a dance film, a workshop, an aerial piece, or a world-first production, my work is meant to uplift, inspire, and remind us that we are capable of extraordinary things when we create together.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Yes—creativity very rarely unfolds in a straight line.

Much of my journey has happened in ways that would look completely illogical from the outside. Opportunities often arrive years before they make sense, people appear in my life long before their role becomes clear, and ideas sometimes surface long before I understand their purpose.

I’ve learned that my path is more circular and intuitive than linear. I might meet someone casually and only discover four years later that they become the producer of a major project. My teacher in China once introduced me to a playwright in Croatia who, three years later, invited me and all my students to the UAE—a trip that transformed my understanding of the body, movement, and freedom. And I once dreamed of a monk without knowing why it mattered; years later, while creating a film about a monk’s inner journey, I realized the dream had already offered me the story.

These moments are like puzzle pieces that only reveal their shape and purpose with time. I’ve learned that if I keep moving, keep creating, and don’t get stuck in what I can’t yet see, the pieces eventually fall into place. Creativity requires trust—trust in timing, in flow, and a quiet belief that everything we encounter is leading us somewhere meaningful.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

meeting and spending time with like minded souls, a sense of belonging when on a project, a real connection to others

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alyrose.org
• Instagram: @theone1show
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/alyrose
• Other: www.theoneshow.com

Image Credits
Aly Rose, Ni Ba, Liang Xiao, Wang Yinqi, Zou Yida, Liu Chuting