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Isabel Jessica von Rittberg grew up in Wuppertal-Beyenburg, Germany, a small historical village in Western Germany. Her mother, who was born in Montana and lived in India, brought her up bilingually. As a child, she danced ballet, played the piano and spent more time on horseback than on foot. Her summers in the Rocky Mountains instilled in her a love of nature. Isabel graduated with a BA in Latin American/Iberian Studies and a French minor from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In preparation for her senior thesis, she spent a year in Santiago de Chile where she performed with a Chilean African-Brazilian dance group and further developed her rock climbing skills. The grace and fluidity of a climber executing technical movement captured Isabel's attention. During the summer of 2005, Isabel studied what French refer to as "danse escalade" (dance-climb fusion) under Antoine Le Menstrel, a world-class climber and dancer. The urge to convey the magnificence, grace and fluidity of a climber's delicate and strong movement led her to start the AscenDance Project: a genre that unites climbing, dance and music.

Ryan Gaunt, aka "Skippy", originally from North Carolina, has been dedicated to climbing as a sport for over ten years. However, Ryan has always had a passion for outdoor adventures. Although a tree climber in youth, his college years taught him to obsess over rock climbing. After graduating from Brevard College in May 2001, he has been completely and unequivocally a climber. Summer and fall seasonal work as a climbing instructor in North Carolina allowed for travels to warmer drier winter climates. Aside from Thailand and Mexico, these travels were mostly to the deserts of the Southwest. For two consecutive seasons Ryan worked in Tuolumne, for Yosemite NP Search and Rescue. Having a strong passion for climbing and love for music, Ryan has been extremely devoted to participating in the development of dance-climb fusion. Ryan has developed an extremely dynamic dance style on the wall as well as on the bar structure.

With an overabundance of energy, Steven spent most of his time as a child either flipping around in gymnastics or playing the piano. After moving from sunny Southern California to the Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley, he observed that the strength, flexibility and coordination acquired from gymnastics translated well to the modern dance technique courses he took and loved. In 2005, Steven graduated with double degrees in music and architecture and continued refining his technique at the Oberlin Dance Commons. Sensing that the movement involved in rock climbing is analogous to dancing on a vertical plane, he quickly picked up and became enamored with the sport. As a member of the AscenDance Project, Steven is thrilled to meld and further explore his passions: music, climbing and dance.

When Martha was asked to decide between ballet or gymnastics, she decided that her 10-year-old toes flipped better than they crammed into her toe-shoes. Fast-forward a decade to competing on the Iowa State Gymnastics team and a pivotal discovery of a neighboring barn with a rock wall inside. With a mouthwatering taste of climbing and a fierce desire to get out from under a 14-year roof of gymnastics, she headed to Northern Minnesota to lead back-country trips. Summers were spent at a camp in Pennsylvania coaching, working a ropes course, belaying new climbers, and painting skateboard ramps, not to mention affirming her passion for sport again. Eventually, she and her husband made their way out west and found a state that matched their spirit of adventure; California. Since arriving, Martha has been climbing, running, biking, swimming, and venturing epic hikes with her husband and friends. Two years ago, nursing school happened, and she went back indoors. She took a break from studying one day to explore the city with family, and happened upon a friend's group performing at Union Square. Martha was deeply inspired by what she saw; a group fusing all the elements her heart has ever loved: gymnastics, dance, rock climbing, and music... and all outdoors. When AscenDance put out a call for auditions, she felt a beautiful fate cross her path. Now working as an RN, AscenDance has given Martha the gift to balance her passions, and go back in time to cram those toes into a new set of shoes.

Andy loves to fly, spin, dance, improvise and discover flow on all sorts of apparatus including trapeze, ropes, fabrics, hoops, walls, floors and bars, and is endlessly facinated by the technical balance puzzles, mental focus and raw strength demanded by rock-climbing. The dance-climb fusion brings two of his great physical passions together into one. His movement ranges from meditative simplicity to unexpected transitions and physical humor, and draws inspiration from Laban/Bartenieff theory. He received a BA in Mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2002, and is currently a research programmer at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, Department of Music, UC Berkeley. His favorite fruit is the avocado, and his favorite programming language is Mathematica. His heroes are Spiderman and Marvin the Depressed Android.

As a child Elena went to see the Cirque de Soleil when they still traveled in their small tent to Oakland every year. So began her dreams of joining the circus and her pursuit of movement of all kinds. Starting with Ballet and Gymnastics, and dabbling in African and Jazz dance in her early youth, she continued on to receive her formal dance education at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance in New York City. There she studied Martha Graham and Horton modern dance techniques, as well as Ballet, West African, Tap, Hip Hop and Jazz. She performed with the Alvin Ailey Student Ensemble during 2005-2006 and worked with contemporary choreographers such as Francesca Harper and Nathan Trice. It was during this time she also discovered her fascination in the human body, health, fitness and rehabilitation. Needing a break from New York, she returned to the Bay Area in 2007. Her return to west has provided her with opportunities to find inspiration that comes from creating a relationship to nature and the outdoors. From the moment Elena met Isabel in the end of 2007 she knew that she wanted to be a part of this cutting edge work. Elena caught the climbing bug immediately. She loves that climbing requires the entire body in movement and immediately felt the strong relationship it has to dance. She is excited to combine her long time passion of dance with her newest obsession of climbing. After all this time this is the closest she's come to running away with the circus! You can also find Elena teaching Pilates, privately as well as group classes, all over the East Bay as well as San Francisco. You can email her for more information at ec.pilates@gmail.com

Susan grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, NY. Her parents introduced her to the outdoors at a very young age. She was also immersed in dance classes and gymnastics for much of her youth. Over the years she pursued many activities, including soccer, running, cycling, surfing, and finally rock climbing. Despite growing up in suburbia, Susan developed a passion for the natural world. After finishing graduate school with a Masters degree in Health Science from Quinnipiac University in Hamden Connecticut, Susan packed her car and drove west. She was drawn to the vast open space of California and the availability of multiple outdoor pursuits including rock climbing. A deep passion for movement and love of the outdoors made rock climbing a natural step in Susan's pursuit of physical activity. She and her husband frequently travel to Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra for climbing trips. For the last several years she has studied and practiced Ashtanga vinyasa yoga and climbed as much as possible. Enveloped in the tight climbing community in Berkeley, California, Susan met Isabel who also shared her passion for movement. She was drawn to the AscenDance Project and inspired by the idea of combining creative movements of dance with the eloquence of climbing set to a background of music. The AscenDance Project has opened up a creative outlet that encompasses her passion for both movement and music.