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In addition to our regular session and drop-in classes, we also often offer workshops, either by guest instructors or our own staff. Workshops offer the opportunity to delve deeply into a specific concept, or to work with a new instructor who may not often be available to you. Watch this space for upcoming workshops!
Friday, January 17, 2025 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm in the New Moon Movement Arts studio space • Cost: $700
Aerial Teacher Training
Have you wondered how to start? What’s the first step?
Our Aerial Teacher Training Intensive is a great first step along your path to teaching!
This training will cover teaching basics using the beginning curriculum developed by Lauren Kehl and Beverly Sobelman for Versatile Arts. Students will learn basic skill instruction, warm ups, and cueing as well as basic injury prevention, basic rigging, and functional anatomy through a lecture by The Circus Doc, Emily Scherb.
The curriculum addressed in this training helped to establish Versatile Arts as one of the premiere recreational aerial schools in the Pacific Northwest, and we are excited to share these tried and true teaching methods with current and aspiring aerial coaches! This is your opportunity to learn from the coaches that have created the curriculum and developed the teaching methods that have helped countless students of all abilities find success in aerial arts.
If you are already teaching, this workshop will help you dial in your cueing and spotting. If you are starting your journey as a teacher, this workshop will give you a solid foundation for you to continue your training as an instructor. If you’re a current New Moon student who’s interested in becoming a TA, this is how you start!
Our teacher training intensive is a combination of lecture and hands-on learning based on our established curriculum progressions and spotting protocols, practical anatomy education, and teacher assessment tools that will better prepare instructors to work with the recreational adult population. This 4-day workshop involves over 20 hours of classroom time.
Friday, January 17: 6:00pm – 9:00 pm
Saturday, January 18: 12:00pm – 6:30 pm
Sunday, January 19: 9:00am – 3:30 pm
Monday, January 20: 10:00am – 4:30 pm
Topics include:
After completing the course, participants will be ready to return to existing teaching with a more thorough understanding of the principles of aerial instruction, or to begin assisting or apprenticing under a more experienced instructor.
Prerequisites: at least 2 years of aerial experience including rope/tissu, and trapeze.
Tuition:
Early bird (register before January 1st) – $700
Standard (register January 1st or later) – $770
A $100 deposit holds your spot; tuition must be paid in full 1 week prior to the start of the workshop.
Scholarship opportunity:
The VA BIPOC Scholarship Fund is able to support two participants in this training. If you identify as BIPOC, please pay the deposit to save your space and then email beverly@versatilearts.net to apply for a teacher training scholarship. Please include your age, racial and/or ethnic identity, a brief description of your aerial background, goals for taking this training, and whether you would be able to afford the training without support. Your deposit will be refunded if you do not receive a scholarship and can’t afford the training without it.
Friday, January 24, 2025 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm in the Back room and Front Room • Cost: $75
“At a given moment I think a plant is about to be born in some corner of me… I can only watch and wait… All I have is the feeling or hope that it will grow leaves of poetry or of something that could become poetry when seen by certain eyes… it will be on guard against the mind contemplating it when that mind suggests too many grand meanings or intentions. If the plant is true to itself, it will give out a natural poetry it is unaware of.”
–Felisberto Hernandez
Butoh is an art focused on the body speaking for itself. Using elements from butoh, we will focus on finding empty space and stillness within our bodies and our movement, letting go of conscious choices to allow outside forces to act upon us, and explore elements of absurd, grotesque, and impulsive movement. This workshop will start on the ground before incorporating the rope.
Pre-reqs: Curiosity, an aerial practice, and a willingness to occupy vulnerable spaces.
About the Instructor: Cody Hayman found the circus in Olympia, WA in 2009, where he was a founding member of Airbound Underground and an instructor at SANCA. Though he started as a rope artist, Cody has picked up many other circus disciplines in the years since, including trapeze, hair hanging, and clowning. He has always had a passion for community-based circus performance, producing countless shows in Olympia and New Orleans, as well as performing and teaching all over the country for events like Sh’Bang, Atlanta Aerial Arts Festival, InFringe Fest New Orleans, and others. He has hosted NECCA’s rope meeting since 2023, and is the head rope and fabric coach for NECCA’s ProTrack program.
Cody’s approach to teaching mirrors his approach to performing: always with a sense of curiosity, enthusiasm, and a dash of flamboyance.
Saturday, January 25, 2025 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm in the Upstairs • Cost: $75
Learn how to defy gravity (on vertical apparatuses) with c-shape and dynamic techniques. Roll-ups, gooey poses, floaty beats, and drops that don’t clunk but just curl back into themselves like fern fronds unfurling in reverse.
Pre-reqs: Some familiarity with c-shaping and beats on rope or silks
About the Instructor: Cody Hayman found the circus in Olympia, WA in 2009, where he was a founding member of Airbound Underground and an instructor at SANCA. Though he started as a rope artist, Cody has picked up many other circus disciplines in the years since, including trapeze, hair hanging, and clowning. He has always had a passion for community-based circus performance, producing countless shows in Olympia and New Orleans, as well as performing and teaching all over the country for events like Sh’Bang, Atlanta Aerial Arts Festival, InFringe Fest New Orleans, and others. He has hosted NECCA’s rope meeting since 2023, and is the head rope and fabric coach for NECCA’s ProTrack program.
Cody’s approach to teaching mirrors his approach to performing: always with a sense of curiosity, enthusiasm, and a dash of flamboyance.
Saturday, January 25, 2025 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm in the Back and Front room • Cost: $75
Come find new pathways to slither around the hoop. This workshop is all about interesting transitions: squirrel into and out of single hip hangs, discuss lyra theory to fine tune your technique, breakdown the ever-illusive beauty roll, so it is smooth as butter. This workshop is great for those wanting to challenge their movement patterns on lyra. We will leave time to improv and play!
Pre-reqs: Strong lyra knowledge and ability to invert.
Things to bring: Sleeves
About the Instructor: Eliza is a captivating circus performer whose dream is to tell stories through circus that inspire, provoke, and entertain. They have a passion for sharing their love of circus whether that is through performing or teaching. Recently Eliza completed a contract on MSC’s Meraviglia where they dazzled audiences with breathtaking displays on lyra, rope, and trapeze. Now they have returned to New England Center for Circus Arts to coach students both recreational and professional. Eliza aims to push students to reach their goals by providing excellent coaching, a caring rapport, and a fun atmosphere.
Sunday, January 26, 2025 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am in the Upstairs North • Cost: $75
What does every audience want when they see a lyra on stage but fast spins and splits! Come learn dazzlingly split-y shapes and work on your flares in this workshop. We will learn different twisty transitions to new spilt shapes. While this workshop will contain spin practice and theory, you do not need to be a spinner to take this class. All levels of spin tolerance welcome! A flat spilt is not necessary for class.
Pre-reqs: Comfortable in a pike stretch, strong lyra knowledge and ability to invert.
Things to bring: Sleeves and Ginger
About the Instructor: Eliza is a captivating circus performer whose dream is to tell stories through circus that inspire, provoke, and entertain. They have a passion for sharing their love of circus whether that is through performing or teaching. Recently Eliza completed a contract on MSC’s Meraviglia where they dazzled audiences with breathtaking displays on lyra, rope, and trapeze. Now they have returned to New England Center for Circus Arts to coach students both recreational and professional. Eliza aims to push students to reach their goals by providing excellent coaching, a caring rapport, and a fun atmosphere.