my progress in aerial silks over the years
I was sitting on the link light rail in Seattle in 2018, headed to a meeting at the preschool I worked at, specifically the location that was in Beacon Hill.
I saw the big warehouse as we stopped at the SoDo stop. There was a huge mural on the side of a building with people swinging on trapeze. I thought to myself, “Huh, what is that?”
I looked it up on the internet, and saw it was a circus school, and I thought through it in my head. “Well, maybe I could try it? Would that be plausible? Could I stay late after work and take the train to class? Will I feel up to it? Would I suck at it?”
I followed my impulses, and I booked an introductory class as I was on the train that day. I was so excited and showed up to my first class, successfully able to tie my ankle in a knot as the instructor told me.
2018
My first instructor was E and we had so much fun in that class with him. He was a short flamboyant ball of energy telling us all to point our fucking toes and constantly making us laugh as we did our intense aerial conditioning. Over the course of all my pictures of videos, I was only able to find one picture of him in the background, but often think that if I hadn’t enjoyed class with him so much in the beginning, that I really would have quit this impossible art right at the beginning. Because I was not good.
(e appreciation, he’s there standing in the back)
Though I started in silks classes, I was more intrigued with aerial in general at the beginning, and primarily showed up to the introduction to aerial classes, playing around on the trapeze with friends I had met there, B & L. I wasn’t sure that silks was the aerial art I wanted to keep trying.
Let me just say that committing to circus is no simple task. You find it and you think, “Hey! That’s fun!” But then if you don’t go every week, you don’t have the strength to stay on the apparatus. If you don’t exercise your mind in learning new combos every week, you don’t get comfortable with mind and body awareness. Aerial arts is more than just a physical skill, it’s very much a mind workout as well. You have to be able to look at your instructor as they show the skill, understand what they’re doing in the air, and then translate it to your own body as you’re up in the air, which takes a lot of fucking work.
You’re more likely to succeed at it if you already have the strength. That’s one less thing you have to worry about - staying on the apparatus - so it frees up your mind to play and move around in the air. If you’re working on both, it takes a lot of patience and time, realizing you’re not gonna get it the first, the second, or maybe even the third time you try it. It might be after 4 or 5 classes where you’re practicing that specific skill that you finally get it because you finally have the strength, or it finally clicks in your brain.
Yeah, I was not good in the beginning. I attribute that to many things, but mainly that I was so out of touch with my body. It flopped around because I was not used to staying in it, and I was a flailing fish. That, and I was so not consistent with building on what I already knew. Covid also really fucked with things. YOU try an intense work out in the air while needing to wear a mask. It was hell, and it made me not want to go. So my progress was stagnant for a while.
(OMG at this, the first and worst star drop I’ve ever done hahahaha)
Before Covid though, my aerial training & conditioning did get more serious when IV came into the picture. She was a professional aerialist doubling as my instructor and there were so many things she said that really stuck for me when I was trying to master basic skills. I couldn’t get egg beater locks in the air for the longest time, but I finally did when she explained how to move my legs to get them just right. I also couldn’t get a hip key for the longest time, but the way she explained it, it just clicked for me. That was when I really started noticing progress. I don’t have videos of those things she taught but this drop was from around that time.
I took a couple years off after Covid, because I moved to Arizona, and then to New York, and I dabbled around in circus studios in those places, but when I came back to Utah I knew I wanted to get serious about my aerial training again. I found a small little studio in the valley owned by a professional aerialist and her husband and decided I was going to recommit to my aerial silks practice and grow my strength and knowledge. J and K really grew my skills and confidence so much this past year, and it’s evident.
So grateful for my progress in this and the fact that I’ve stuck with it. It makes me feel stronger and confident and aware in my own body, while also being so much fucking fun. I will say so much of it is impossible and I don’t know if I’ll ever get the hang of dynamic advanced tricks but I do hope I get to do it for the rest of my life, because I really do love it.
Now in about a month I get to go back to my home gym in that warehouse in Seattle and continue training with IV. I hope she notices how much I’ve improved. I hope I grow even more in this art.
Who knows, maybe one day I will get to finally perform. Now that would be a level up, for sure.
