Workshops
Jump to Performances and Sampler Events
We offer workshops on many topics for both students and teachers! Choreography, modifications, plus-size only classes, teacher training, rigging basics, and so much more! Workshops are offered online, at your studio, or come to one of ours (options in both Madison, WI and Chicago, IL!)
Want more information or ready to book?
Larger Than Lithe - Supporting All Bodies in Aerial Arts
A workshop for teachers and/or students. Learn how to support all bodies in your classes by changing assumptions, behaviors, culture and teaching practices. Excellent in combination with Modification Madness!
Modification Madness
The workshop that made Mackenzie aerial-famous! Developed over years of trial and error with amazing students, this workshop focuses on troubleshooting tools and creating modifications for different body sizes specifically in aerial fabrics (but some content for bar apparatus is possible as well). Learn how to offer supportive props, different pathways, micro-progressions and more to support every student!
Rigging, Risk, and Rescue Basics
This workshop is aimed toward intermediate aerialists who are ready to start training more independently. We cover forces aerial arts creates and how to understand equipment ratings, how to use and inspect various rigging kit, how to spot rigging to avoid, how to choose freestanding rigs, how to safely use ladders, how to safely use pulley systems, when and how to rescue other aerialists, how to inspect and care for various apparatus, how to choose appropriate mats, and how to assess the risks of moves and how to mitigate those risks.
The Choreography Process
Creating your own act or a group act can be a truly daunting prospect! Let us help! Breaking down choreography into a series of decisions with tools and tips to help you, you’ll be putting together breathtaking new acts in no time!
Love Your Lines/Banish The Bumble
This workshop helps students at any level look their best in the air! Love Your Lines covers exercises both physical and mental to help students gain proprioceptive awareness over how they are holding themselves. Banish The Bumble goes over strategies to make movement look less awkward and fumbly and more intentional, opening up whole new levels of performance skills and grace!
Aerial Silks/Sling for Plus-Size Bodies
This workshop for students creates a safe space for people in larger bodies to try aerial arts in a atmosphere where everybody gets it! All skills offered have many modifications and do not ask students to climb or hang full bodyweight from their hands. Infinitely adaptable, this workshop can be introductory or continuing beginner level.
Aerial Silks or Sling Theory 101
Mackenzie and William’s shared specialty is fabric theory - Sarah Bebe Holmes of Paper Doll Militia once said Mackenzie has the best silks brain she’s ever seen! Understanding theory unlocks so much - the ability to add creative transitions and sequencing surprises, knowing what parts of a move can be modified and what can’t, what limbs can gesture or emote, knowing what skills are related, and how each one holds you up and how to stay safe and get out of tangles! Available as a single four-hour workshop or a workshop series up to 10 hours.
Kinetic Fabrics - Low Flying Aerial Silks
Aerial silks are far more than just a thing to climb! Explore orbiting, spinning, sweeping, swinging, and so much more with this unique to Madison-style aerial movement type! Fun for every level - even people who have never done any aerial work before can join in
Inversion Immersion
This workshop helps students identify weaknesses in their inversion and offers each student targeted drills and supports to level up their upside-down. Available as a one-time analytic workshop or an ongoing class - either way it’s one of the best things you’ll ever do for your aerial self!
Drop Shop
For students who can repeatedly invert, this class can teach drop basics or more complex drop theory. Learn about the different types of drops and pseudo-drops, how to connect and stack drops, and how to stay safe while learning new drops!
Belay All Day
All roads lead to belay! But… also belays are hella confusing. Demystify the elements of this perennial skill favorite and help students and/or teachers find new entries, exits, poses and more. Available at varying levels - students must be able to footlock from a climb but ability to invert isn’t necessary.
Creative Connections - Transitions and Sequences
This 90 minute to 4 hour workshop covers theory plus tools to help put skills together in interesting, expressive ways. Everyone may have seen that skill before, but have they seen it entered or exited this new way? Probably not! Level up your choreography with tools to help use familiar skills in all new ways.
Expressive Movement Fundamentals
This 1 to 2 hour workshop introduces students and/or teachers to Laban Movement Efforts and Bartenieff Fundamentals. These movement skills open up a whole new understanding of how to move intentionally to express emotion, characters, concepts, or connections!
Video Breakin’ 2: Aerial Boogaloo (learning from video)
Learning aerial arts from video isn’t necessarily an intuitive skill, but it’s one that every aerialist will benefit from and many will need to master. This 2 hour workshop covers how to identify a skill’s fundamental base and variations, how to look for hidden details, and how to use a video to troubleshoot if something goes wrong - and when not to learn something from video! Open to students/teacher who have been continuously studying their apparatus for a year or more and have solid basic theory knowledge.
Beyond Technique: Teaching Soft Skills
This 2-4 hour workshop for teachers or teacher trainees covers the types of skills students need beyond technique and tools and class ideas for teaching them! Exact concepts can be selected by the class and can include musicality/counting, expressive movement, performance skills, flow and improv, games and fun, supportive skill classes, and more!
Mini Teacher Trainings
4 to 8 hour workshops for teachers to serve as continuing education - cover any of the topics above and many more! Please email us to discuss your teachers’ needs!
Custom Workshops
Not seeing exactly what you need? Contact us to develop custom workshops!