Amy Ell finds her aerial roots dated back to elementary school via tree climbing and roof traversing. Later she was a fearless gymnast on the uneven parallel bars and trampoline (father wanted a competitive platform diver). Amy’s first performance in the air was in May 1989, bungee off the docks of Diverseworks. Since then she has studied with aerial dance and circus professionals in the US and abroad focusing on fabric, trapeze (static and dance), lyra, cloud swing, bungee, and vertical dance. In 2007 she opened VauLt, an aerial training facility here in Houston. In the ten years she ran this business, she grew her business, eventually having 19 teachers providing aerial instruction to 100s of Houstonians. Previously, Amy taught at Les Rencontres internationales de Danse Aerienne in the south of France. Currently she teaches annually at the Irish Aerial Dance Festival in Letterkenny, Ireland. The summer of 2024 will be her 12th year teaching at this incredible festival.
In the performance arena, Amy, a High School for the Performing and Visual Arts dance graduate, toured with the Texas Women’s University dance theater. Once back in Houston she danced with the physical theater company Novomama Dance and HopeStone dance company before forming VauLt, same name as her aerial studio. VauLt has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Ecuador (arts ambassadors via the US state department). In 2015 Amy started performing internationally on construction cranes with the dance company Fidget Feet, an Irish aerial dance company. In 2018, she went on to create a New Year’s Eve performance in Queenstown, New Zealand utilizing a construction crane over lake Wakatipu. Currently, with her daughter as co-conspirator, she is forming a land and air dance company, Dü, a dual city dance company.
In 2008 Amy created an aerial teacher training curriculum that is now being taught in Iceland; Germany; Seoul, Korea, and throughout the US and Mexico. She is excited to bring her program to The Houstonian.