We’ve got our next session schedule up and some brand new classes and classtimes for you. We’ve got some new weekend classes for those of you who have a tough time making it out during the week, as well as a cardio class to help us build some endurance for those intense routines. Also, we’re super duper excited to introduce our first non-aerial series: Hand Balancing 1 with Kelsey Strauch. Hand balancing is a great compliment to any aerial practice, as well as a pretty sweet circus skill unto itself!

Here’s just a taste of some of the great new things we have coming up. Check out our full calendar here.

Mixed Aerials 1 with Celeste
Sundays at 3pm
(starts February 19th)
After many requests to add additional open level aerial classes on the weekends, we’ve decided to add our popular Mixed Aerials 1 class to our Sunday schedule. This drop-in aerials class combines beginner moves in trapeze, silks, lyra, rope, cloud swing, and hammock. Celeste will teach new moves on a variety of apparatuses. As a drop in class, the class curriculum will focus on the students needs. If you are interested in working on specific moves, this a great class to drop into.

30 Minute Cardio with Brynn
Mondays at 5:30pm
(starts February 27th)
Get your heart racing and your cardiovascular system working! 30 Minute Cardio, much like our popular 15 Minute Abs class is an intense, fast workout that will get you sweating in no time! Combining easy-to-learn go-go dance moves, classic aerobic techniques, and fast moving core workouts, this class is fun and challenging. A solid cardio workout will help you increase endurance and build stamina for those long routines and workouts you have ahead of you. Just $10 as a one-off class or included as part of your unlimited pass!

Beginner Aerial Bootcamp with Andy
Saturdays at 11am
(starts March 3rd)
The words “Andy” and “bootcamp” in the same class name should tell the whole story. An intense workout for aerial beginners that will be sure to kick your booty into shape! There is no minimum strength requirement to take this class, so folks of all levels – even aerial novices are welcome. Just $10 as a one-off class or included as part of your unlimited pass!

Advanced Aerial Bootcamp with Andy
Saturdays at 11:30am
(starts March 3rd)
The words “Andy” and “bootcamp” in the same class name should tell the whole story. An intense workout for advanced aerial students that will be sure to kick your booty into shape! Just $10 as a one-off class or included as part of your unlimited pass!

NEW SERIES: Hand Balancing 1 with Kelsey Strauch
Tuesdays at 8pm
(starts March 6th)
Learn the fundamentals of balancing on your hands! In this six week series, Sky Candy’s newest teacher, Kelsey Strauch will combine handstand training with partner acrobatics for one and a half hours of circus awesomeness. Each class will begin with a warmup focused on shoulder stretching for injury prevention, continue with lots of time in a variety of handstands, and conclude with partner balancing skills ranging from airplane to standing on shoulders. Come to class ready to work hard and have fun!

This is a new age; circus has evolved and been deconstructed into a new art form. There is no simple image of circus any more. Cirque du Soiliel has flooded the market with a new and spectacular type of entertainment.  In turn, we have seen circus taking on new shapes and disguises. With works like the Red Shoes and our new show The Time Machine, directed by Joanna Wright, which will be premiering in April, we are creating original unconventional presentations of traditional circus art forms. A little wordy, I know, but to put it simply we like to push the conventional. And through our classes and hopefully through this blog we hope to bring new light to aerials and the immense possibilities it posseses. I will be posting monthly tricks and excercises to expand your mind, and your aerials vocabulary.

This week I chose to explore the Cross-Back Straddle, I’m starting from the beginning y’all. The Cross-Back Straddle may be your untouchable, frustrating enemy, or it may be a long forgotten best friend. Despite what type of relationship you two have take another go at it. Explore the new and different entries. Deconstruct it! Change it! Evolve it! I hope that even if these videos don’t bring you cross-back straddle enlightenment, that it’ll at least start to show you this move in a new light!  Each trick is so much more than a trick. It is a final product with many approaches that have still not been discovered. So with that said check these out!

Manual Cross-Back Straddle

• From a double foot lock come to standing. Bring left shoulder in-front of left silk. Grab right silk above head thumb down.
• Bring right arm in-front of right silk. Drawing a large circle with your right arm twist body and grab high on the opposite silk (in this case the silks that is locked to your left foot).
• While pushing hips forward and arching back bring your elbows and shoulders through the opening in the silks.
• You are now in the cross back straddle and can straddle back.

Georgia Twist and Split Roll Through

Georgia Twist

• From a slight middle split bring the right silks behind your back
• Slightly hinging at the waist twist your body to the right
• Your bottom right arm can let go of silk and grab opposite silk (in this case the silks locked to your left leg)
• From here you have your cross-back and can straddle back

Split Roll Through Cross Back

• Split and face your right foot
• Swing right leg to the right and through space in-between the two silks and over your body back to original split.
• Bring body to right side of front silk so the silk is behind your back. Right arm down, left hand extended up.
• You will then bring that right front leg towards your left hand (opposite direction on the first roll through). The leg will once again come through the two silks and across your body.
• Once your leg is through you can release lower, right arm and grab silk that is locked to your left foot, finalizing the cross.
• You can then straddle over.

Arabesque

• In a split facing your left leg, you can lean your torso to the left and bring your left leg to meet your right leg and twist up to standing.
• Your bottom right arm can then grab the pole to your right.
• leading with your left arm bring your torso through the cross of the two silks.
• Once your torso is through you can bend your right leg and twist your torso toward your bent knee and arch up to the sky.
• You can then grab the two poles and you are in your cross-back.

Seated Roll Through

• Split right leg in front
• Bring right leg to left leg, twist up one and a half times to sitting
• Left arm flamenco’s around left pole
• Right arm comes through left fabric and left arm
• Do a half twist out of sitting and grab right fabric to complete cross-back

Other exciting news: Agent Red is teaching a Performance Technique Workshop this weekend at Sky Candy.

Im sure we’ve all heard “life is a performance.” You may say, this sounds like a typical cliche, yet in many ways it’s true. Everything from the clothes we present ourselves in too the way we speak is a spectacle of how we want others to see us. Our performances are often unintentional and subconscious, just the everyday moments of life. But one must ask; how does an actor convey that natural persona? How does one bring the subconscious to the conscious mind? Through performance one can transcend through the skin of the audience and implant a feeling. A feeling that sparks emotions, a feeling that creates questions and answers all at the same time. People study their entire lives to master the art of performance. One can be gifted in talents yet when they perform there is a missing connection. This weekend we are offering a workshop to help you create that performer-audience “mind tango,” or simply that connection that makes your stage presence un-forgetable. We are happy to host Agent Red and her Performance Technique workshop, also known as Crash Alchemy. Coming from an extensive performance background, Agent Red has created a workshop focusing on:

• presence, movement
• connecting with the audience and other performers
• improvisation and timing
• experiments in the weird, the awkward, and letting go

Whether you are an aerialist or even an aspiring performer we highly recommend this workshop. It is not often you are able to fully let go of all inhibitions and embrace the stage. More often than not in doing this one often finds a better understanding of themselves. And that’s sometimes the most important thing in life!

The workshop will held  4-7 on Saturday January 21st at Sky Candy’s lovely new space at 507 Calles st. Austin TX 78702

For reservations or questions please contact Chelsea Laumen at chelsea@skycandyaustin.com

Hope to see you all there!

Tuesday, October 11
5:30pm – 9:30pm
618 C Tillery Street Austin, TX 78702

Take advantage of this opportunity to learn from aerial dynamo Laura Stokes, of Ricochet. Learn Contortion (5:30-7:30) and Aerial Silks (7:30-9:30) $60 or $120 for both workshops. Lessons are holistic in the sense that it can pertain to any level of skill.

Participants in silks class must be able to do a basic climb and invert to straddle by themselves.

Join us on a journey to the depths of sin with Sky Candy’s first full length production, returning this summer to the ND! We’re bringing you a cirque noir-style adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, THE RED SHOES, back for ONE WEEKEND ONLY. Our first run sold out every single show and we’re expecting the same for the reprise!

If you saw the show the first time around, never fear! We have refined choreography and scene transitions, as well as added some new performers and apparatuses to the show. We hope that even if you came to see us the first time around that you loved it enough to join us again and see what fresh elements we’ve added to the reprise. Some of our new performers this time around include Chad David (from Australia!), Winnie Hsia (the show’s producer & a Sky Candy founder), Anderson Mills and Micah Angelina! In addition, we’re running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a better lighting budget, so not only is there more show, but it will be even prettier to watch.

You can buy tickets in two ways:

(1) Directly via our ticket page. Remember, we sold out every show of our first run, so we recommend getting tickets early so you’re not stuck with standing room only!

OR

(2) Donate to our Kickstarter campaign. For just $50, you can get a limited edition, signed DVD of the first run of the show and two (2) tickets to any performance in our August run. This is also the only way you can get VIP tickets (to get assigned seats anywhere you want) and Uber-VIP seats (on the stage with perfect sightlines and no obstructions plus a bottle of red wine to enjoy while you watch the show). Some of our reward levels also include original masks from the first run of the show and group classes at our studio.

Note, you’ve still gotta meet the Requirements in order to take a class, so be sure to check those out on each class page. We did the math and as a Beginner, taking all Beginner and Intro classes, you could take up to 10 classes/week and have 2 hours of open studio ($215/week if you paid regular price for every class). As an Intermediate student, you have 5 classes/week and 2 hours of open studio ($115/week if you paid regular price for everything). For just $180, you can come as often as you’d like for a whole month. We think that’s a pretty sweet deal!

You can buy one online now.

This weekend workshop is designed for Advanced Beginner to Intermediate students. We are only allowing students to attend if they can climb 15 feet on silks/rope, hold their own weight for at least 10 seconds and invert in the air. If you do not meet these requirements, it’ll be tough for you to enjoy this workshop, so please take that into consideration.

Saturday 10am- 12pm: Silks and Flexibility
This workshop will be great for those of us who cannot quite touch our toes or for those of us who want to dip deeper into the twisted possibilities of our bodies. Saturday will also be a good day for all those silks students out there.

Sunday 10am-12pm: Partnering Workshop
Sunday’s Workshop will be geared to working with a partner. You will learn how to work and communicate with your partner while on the equipment. This is a great workshop to come to with your partner, a friend, or even by yourself (We are happy to pair people up). You will learn a great deal about yourself and the other person you are working with, as well as some awesome partner tricks!

Prices:
$30 for one day or $50 for both days

We can accept cash and check in person or in advance. Contact us at skycandyaustin@gmail.com with any questions!

Thank you and we love you too!

• Vote on the Intuit website
• Vote using the Facebook app
• Text skycandy to 244326

We’ve added TWO new times for Intro to Aerial Skills (one on Saturday at noon and one on Sunday at 1:30pm just for kids 8-14 years old), brought back our Aerial Conditioning (to replace Yoga & Pilates, which had low attendance) and have extended our Open Studio hours on Friday.  Most of our scheduling changes affect Sunday classes – so please check out our calendar to make sure you know when our classes are!

To schedule your Living Social deal class, please contact us:

skycandyaustin@gmail.com
(512) 537-7592 (Google Voice – we check voicemails daily!)

Note: You MUST make an appointment in advance.  Class sizes are limited at 8 people to ensure the best experience for our students and teachers.  If you walk in, we may have to turn you away and we really really don’t want to do that!

Conceived and directed by Sky Candy co-founder Chelsea, THE RED SHOES follows the story of a young girl seduced by a pair of red shoes fit for a princess as she descends through the ranks of hell. Aerial acrobats, dancers and puppeteers interpret the classic story through a blend of traditional circus acts like trapeze and aerial silks, dozens of shadow puppets and a single giant marionette.

For tickets, please visit http://theredshoes.eventbrite.com.

High resolution images of the show poster and promotional photos can be downloaded here.
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