Is Zero-Gravity the Next Frontier for Choreography?

We’ve all seen site-specific work in some weird places. Pools, the sides of buildings, various public places—been there, done that. But I doubt you’ve seen dance in the sky. In a moving airplane. In zero-gravity.

This time, it’s not a modern dance company that’s pushing the limits of choreography. It’s the quirky pop band OK Go, which has been known for making creative, movement-heavy videos ever since their treadmill dance took off. For their newest video, “Upside Down & Inside Out,” the band performs an intricately-choreographed dance, using the fact that they are literally weightless to try unthinkable physical feats:

The minds behind the video are OK Go’s frontman, Damian Kulash, and his sister, Trish Sie. She has collaborated on several of their videos, including the iconic “Here It Goes Again” treadmill phenomenon. From their description, it was a complicated process—and one not for the faint of stomach. They guess that there were around 58 vomit incidents during the 20 flights they took throughout the process. The final product, however, was all one continuous shot, which they describe as a logistical calculus problem involving the “parabolas” of flight. Don’t ask me.

So will more choreographers be taking to the skies? Probably not, unfortunately. As you can imagine, it’s a costly venture (a Russian airline sponsored OK Go’s project), and we know dance companies aren’t exactly rolling in dough. But if four untrained guys (no offense, OK Go) can make a video this cool, imagine what trained dancers could do in zero-gravity.

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