Leveling Up! Aerial Teacher Symposium

Sym·po·si·um (noun)
– a conference or meeting to discuss a particular subject.
– a party or convivial discussion

Three jam-packed days of hands-on education, inspiration, camaraderie, and the opportunity to join other aerial educators to celebrate our passion!

As aerial coaches, we are asked every day to find new ways to teach our students and bring them new skills to learn. This symposium will bring us together to consider questions and share expertise. Facilitated by Elsie Smith, with guest Sarah Poole plus others, this will be a deep dive into aerial arts education with an up-close-and-personal experience that will inspire you and feed your aerial teacher spirit. Topics can include progressions for release moves, safety line set up and use, spotting for dynamic skills, and hints and tips for moving your students into new, more advanced material for both bar and vertical aerial apparatuses.

Meals will be included so you’ll have lots of time to get to know your peers and chat about topics over food.

The final class schedule and activities will be based on your requests, and will include activities for bar and vertical apparatus coaches. After you register, you will receive a form to fill out with your requests, but here are some pieces to the coaching puzzle folks have already told us they are interested in.

🧩Bar Classics: Toe (instep) hangs, heel hangs, neck hangs.  Let’s look at some fun new spotting techniques and progressions!

🧩 All the Beats: Let’s get on the same page with names, and discuss why there are so many different kinds of beats, and when to use them.  One session will focus on bar apparatus, and the other on vertical.

🧩Ping Pong / Rebounds on Vertical apparatus: Do you struggle to teach back dive in sling, or double back dive on Fabric / Rope into the rebound position? Let’s geek out on how to make the this work!

🧩Movement research: Leading students into new movement pathways is different than teaching choreography.  Let’s get tips and progressions from our legacy coaches.

🧩Managing emotional offloading from students: More and more coaches carry the weight of our students emotional needs. Let’s discuss setting boundaries and protecting yourself while still caring!

🧩Safety in Circus Arts Education: a look into the survey recently launched by the ACYO/ACE Safety Committee