I’ve always thought aerial arts were the coolest things that I would never be able to do.

I remember watching videos online and being awed by the amount of skill, flexibility, and grace of those women. They were confident and moved with practiced ease, twirling silks around their bodies and then making amazing shapes, or spinning on a hoop until they suddenly switched positions and made the move look even cooler. And I thought to myself, “I just don’t have what it takes.”

Well, I was wrong. And thank goodness for that! About a year ago I took my first intro to aerial class, and I was nervous as all get-out. I don’t always like trying new things, and I went alone, so I didn’t even have a friend to lean on. But I also like doing things independently (as contradictory as that sounds, to be scared and thrilled at the same time) and was excited to touch the apparatuses I had only seen in videos before. 

And the joy I found in that first class was more than enough to convince me to really go for this cool activity. I ended up being the only one in the class, which actually bolstered my confidence because there was no one else to see me fail. But here’s the thing: I never was going to fail. The instructor who led my first intro class was the biggest hypewoman, constantly encouraging me and giving me options on different ways to do certain moves, even when I had little knowledge of anything aerial related.

That encouragement has remained consistent throughout every single silks class I took over the next year, and it continues to be one of my favorite things about learning new skills. The culture of positivity in the studio makes everyone comfortable and willing to attempt things we maybe wouldn’t in our normal, day-to-day lives. And now I get to hype up new beginners when they learn how to do a footlock or nail a climb. Getting to not only be the cool person I saw in those videos, but also pass on the enjoyment of doing silks in each and every class, has been an amazing experience. The camaraderie in class is something I rarely find elsewhere, and it makes drilling, practicing, and learning new skills something I look forward to each week. 

So if you’re reading this and wondering, “Is this activity for me?” Or you think that you simply could never do the tricks they can. I’m here to tell you that you can, and aerial is for you!