Archive for category: Blog

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday!

It has been the LONGEST year ever, but December is finally here! December is a time for family, togetherness, and PRESENTS! So here I present you with the Circus Holiday Wishlist! It’s full of everything your circus stars don’t even know they want yet, but will surely love!

1. AKROSPHERE MERCH! What better than to be dressed in the coolest gear in town, while representing your studio?! Nothing! And I don’t know about you, but it snowed by my house yesterday, and I wished I had a warm Akrosphere hoodie! We also have tees and tanks in our limited edition design, along with Akrosphere logo masks. Our sale ends on December 6th! Grab yours before it’s too late: Akrosphere Holiday Sale
2. The most beautiful CIRCUS PENDANTS I have ever seen! I have been following this Etsy company on Instagram for the whole year, waiting until I could send you guys the info. They have a number of apparatuses, and the designs are so detailed! These are the best aerial pieces I have found. I have been talking with the shop owner, who said that it would take two weeks for the items to be delivered, which is just enough time to get them for the holidays. Check out her shop here: Gymnastics Jewelry  <—- Isn’t this beautiful?!!! 
3. Many of you always ask what you can do at home to get better in the gym. Hands down, the absolute BEST at home equipment for an aerial student to have in their home is the PULL-UP BAR! The stronger you are, the easier circus is! And the pull-up bar is guaranteed to make your upper body strong…as long as you put in the work! If pull-ups are hard, pull-up bands can be a great accessory! I’ve linked both here: Pull-up Bar and Serious Steel Assisted Pull-Up Band
4. A CIRQUE COLORING BOOK! Speaking from experience as a professional monkey who could not sit still as a child, I had to find something entertaining that would occupy me for at least 20 minutes, so that I wouldn’t drive my mom absolutely bonkers! Coloring books did it, and I love them to this day! The cirque coloring book features 40 illustrations of aerialists, contortionists, hand balancers and circus acts from all over the world and you can find it here: Cirque Coloring Book
5. A PRIVATE LESSON! Is there anything better than more circus?! Private lessons are a great way to get one-on-one attention and work on those skills you’ve been dying to get! We offer private lessons on every apparatus that you can take class in, along with a few others, like flexibility and even juggling! Email us to get a lesson scheduled!

Well there you have it! The gifts your circus monkey is absolutely going to love! I leave you all with this: ONLY 5 DAYS LEFT TO BUY YOU AKROSPHERE MERCH (gift idea #1)!

Catch you next time!

Mar

Hello everyone and happy Monday!

To be a great aerialist, you need elegance and strength; with those things come muscles! I am very proud of my muscles, and I honestly have my mother to thank for that. I was very lucky to be raised in a household where I was taught to be proud of who I was and what I had. I know that’s not always the case and that girls think it’s not a great look to be muscular.

Coach Tawni shared this great article that tackles this topic in female aerialists and circus artists. It’s a great read, that’ll hopefully help everyone see that your muscles are tools that help you grow your skills and trophies that develop from all of your hard work! You can read the article here: The Female Aerialist: Androgyny, Femininity, and Muscularity 

Catch you next time!

Mar

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!

Our Fall Session starts next week! That means you will have been out of circus practice for at least a few weeks. We’ve talked before about how muscles can actually start to weaken pretty quickly when you don’t use them. That is why it is so important for everyone to develop healthy Home Habits! 

Home Habits are the things you do at home to keep your body healthy and strong! It’s great to always want your body to be healthy and strong in general, but it’s extremely important for people who are as active as hopeful circus stars like yourselves! Eating healthy is a huge component, but so is keeping up your training at home. I am attaching a link to the full body, no equipment CIRCUS WORKOUT! It’s a cardio/endurance workout that incorporates upper and lower body strength, and some ab/core strength at the end! And the best part is that you’ll actually get to follow along with me!! Here’s the link: CIRCUS WORKOUT – No Equipment/Full Body

I hope you are able to exercise at least once this coming week, to get your body ready for class, but the video will always be there if you ever miss a class and want something to do at home, or if you’re ever just bored and need something to do! Also, be on the lookout for some extra workouts on our Instagram this week!

As always, if you have any questions about the workout or modifications, or anything else, I’m here to help everyone with everything, so do not hesitate to reach out. See you guys soon!

Catch you next time!

Mar

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!

I remember my first Cirque du Soleil show. My parents took my siblings and me to La Nouba at Downtown Disney, now called Disney Springs, for my 16th birthday. I had seen circus shows before but NEVER anything like that! I remember being in such awe! The lights, the music, the costumes, the performers! I left feeling like a new person! Watching a show of that caliber is amazing for anyone, but imagine watching it as an athlete. It opened my eyes to a whole world of possibility that I had never even known existed. I thought to myself “wow, maybe I could one day do this.” It was the first seed that led to my future career. As you all know, I went on to work in a huge show in Las Vegas, and have many Cirque du Soleil friends who are currently still there without work. Imagine how I feel for all of those people who are still there and can no longer live out their dreams! It’s absolutely disheartening that no one knows what the future of cirque will be. 

In an effort to protect its shows and employees, Cirque du Soleil has filed for bankruptcy protection. Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group Chief Executive Officer Daniel Lamarre claims that the company’s survival after bankruptcy is guaranteed. In the following video, he discusses the future for the 36-year-old company after filing for protection from creditors in Canada. You can watch here: Cirque du Soleil Survival After Bankruptcy Is Guaranteed, CEO Says.

So what does this mean for us as a circus community? It means that we keep our chin up, and we continue training, and we remain hopeful that we’ll be able to experience our favorite shows once more. In the mean time, Cirque du Soleil just released a new video as part of their “best of” series, and it’s the BEST OF AERIAL! I’ve been lucky enough to see many of these live, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy the video. You can find it here: BEST OF Aerial | Cirque du Soleil | O, ALEGRIA, KURIOS AND MORE…

Hoping everyone had a great 4th of July with…I would normally say family and friends, but I hope you all stayed socially distant and safe! 

Catch you next time!

Mar

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!

Can you believe that in just one week we start classes again?! While we loved seeing your faces through Zoom, nothing beats the real thing! 

A few weeks ago I talked about how your muscles can get weaker if you don’t use them, so I decided it would be a good idea to create a follow along workout video that you can do whenever you wanted! I present you with the full body, no equipment CIRCUS WORKOUT! It’s a cardio/endurance workout that incorporates upper and lower body strength, and some ab/core strength at the end! 

During our online Zoom curriculum, I was mainly in charge of teaching the “Fun Workout” and the “Core and Stretching.” These workouts were a great way to start and end the week, but they were not the most challenging ones that we had to offer. One day last week, I covered the “Target Strength” workout for Tawni, and I made it extremely challenging. I was sore for the next few days, while the super strong kids who did it with me, were better off than me! I’d like to say it was because they were doing all that great muscle stretching and release we’ve been teaching, but really our students are just that strong! The video is definitely challenging because I wanted for everyone to get a good workout. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make modifications! All of the push up exercises can be done from the knees, and any jumping exercises can be done without the jump (you can step instead of jump, or go up on to your tippy toes). 

Quarantine has been all about keeping ourselves busy by finding new things to do. My husband, Nik, is great at editing. He started the video off by teaching me how to edit, and I was able to complete the edit myself! I’m very excited with the results, but if there are little things here and there, it’s because it was my first video. I worked super hard, so I hope everyone likes it! 

Finally, the video is up on youtube, so you can do it whenever! I hope you are able to exercise at least once this coming week, to get your body ready for class, but the video will also be there if you ever miss a class and want something to do at home, or if you’re ever just bored and need something to do! Without further ado, here’s the link: CIRCUS WORKOUT – No Equipment/Full Body

As always, if you have any questions about the workout or modifications, or anything else, I’m here to help everyone with everything, so do not hesitate to reach out. See you guys soon!

Catch you next time!

Mar