Aerial & Acrobatic Arts

Aerial Arts

Come fly with us – you can get airborne in all manner of ways. Warning: aerial arts are highly addictive!

Everyone can learn a trick or two in the first lesson of most classes and don’t worry, safety lines and harnesses are used where appropriate! We run regular Scratch Nights for budding performers who want to show their works in progress to family and friends.

Our instructors are trained to develop your skills no matter what your age or ability may be, from pro performer to absolute beginner. Do it whatever way feels comfortable – book one class at a time, try a pick & mix approach, or heck, why not sign up for a custom programme?! If you’re into it, you can purchase an Aerial Pack which you use when you choose to book into whatever you fancy – it comes at a reduced price.

These classes are for adults and students aged 13+ who wish to specialise in a specific discipline.

• Flying trapeze: one of the highest thrill-per-second activities in circus. From taking off the platform to letting go of the trapeze bar to performing your trick then finding the catcher in the air, it’s a white-knuckle ride. And the best thing is that it’s actually not that hard from the get-go. Most people can perform a trick and be caught in the first lesson – using safety lines and harnesses, of course! Read More
• Static trapeze: the classic circus art is just about you, the trapeze bar and your dreams. Well, and your teacher too! On the trapeze which is stable in the sense that you don’t swing across the room on it like you would in fly, you can learn one trick at a time, build that up to a series and turn it into a performance if you want.
• Doubles trapeze: one trapeze, where two people become one by gripping hand-to-hand, hand-to-feet and even feet-to-feet as your moves flow over and under the bar, and on the ropes.
• Bungee trapeze: static trapeze on bungee ropes, what’s not to love? Use the bounce to drive momentum and spin just for the heck of it, or to radically increase your trick repertoire.
• Dance trapeze: instead of the bar hanging from two horizontal ropes, it’s hung from a single point so the ropes form an inverted V-shape. Rather than being about impressive acrobatic tricks, the emphasis is on artistically choreographed movements.
• Hoop: performing tricks inside, outside, on top of and below a big hoop suspended from the ceiling is both similar and different to trapeze. There’s a whole range of ways to use the hoop for stunning effects.
• Silks: who doesn’t enjoy the sensational sight of acrobats spinning, twisting and tumbling from great heights on these long loops of fabric? First you learn to climb, then you learn tricks close to the ground, then you become an expert in tying yourself in spectacular knots!
• Rope: many of the tricks on silks can be transplanted on to a rope, and more can be created uniquely for this art. It all depends how you want to express yourself.
• Spanish web: a different take on rope! Here, an assistant on the ground provides rotational push so that you are performing tricks while moving through the air in a circular motion.
• Cradle: similar tricks to doubles trapeze, but with bigger, stronger and different moves. You have a base who is hanging from a strong steel structure (the cradle) five metres high, and a flyer who performs tricks by gripping the base’s hands and swinging back and forth to build momentum for the tricks, or by leaping off the cradle while the base keeps a grip.
• Aerial harness: often this is the skill that makes movie and theatre stunts look exciting.
• Fly pole: Chinese pole that flies, a rubber coated pole for acrobatics.

Acrobatic Arts

Circus disciplines where your feet stay on the ground at least some of the time are fantastic for building confidence and proprioception as well as strength and flexibility. Learning to perform balances with groups of people is a superb way to develop collaborative and communication skills at the same time as doing cool stuff.

You can usually learn a trick or two in the first lesson and acrobats love to perform in our regular Scratch Nights to show friends and families what they’re up to.

Like aerial classes, you can book one at a time to enjoy a smorgasbord of circus across different disciplines in your own sweet time if you don’t feel ready to commit to an Acro Pack, although before long, the reduced price will probably seduce you. And of course there are our programmes to consider.

If you’re aged 7-18, you’ll enjoy aerial, acro and other arts in our Youth Circus, which is bookable term by term. It’s designed to give you a strong foundation and develop all our skills while letting you see if you’d like to specialise in something in particular. Students 13+ are eligible to attend adult classes if they wish to specialise in a specific discipline.

• Acrobalance: two or more people work together to create awesome balances, lifts and shapes.
• Handstands: we’ve lost count of the number of absolute beginners who always fancied mastering this skill and were delighted to achieve their goal thanks to our step-by-step style of teaching. Once you can hold a handstand, it’s incredible how you can develop the skill to create more amazing shapes.
• Acrobatics: take handstands, cartwheels and flips and turn them into sequences on our tumble track. You’ll be surprised how your ability develops.
• Acrobatic dance: a mesmerising mixture of spins, dance moves and balances.
• Chinese pole: the stable vertical rubberised or powder-coated (not shiny steel) pole is used for climbs, holds and balances.
• Trampolining: as well as classic bouncy tricks and challenges, you can learn the very cool variation – trampoline wall running.
• Parkour: with its origins of moving quickly and lightly across urban landscapes, circus parkour incorporates the obstacles we create in the space.
• Teeterboard: the exhilarating see-saw discipline can be performed in two ways. Two people use it to send each other into the air in turns, or one person stands on one end while two people take a running jump on to the other end, pinging them high in the sky (in safety lines!) Either way, the goal is to perform tricks while you’re airborne.

• Date: January 2023