It’s funny to look back at this year and realize a new pattern forming in my life: Each year is prep work for the next year to come. The work for everything that you saw happen this year (i.e. release of Hoop Manual & videos) happened last year (2013). And all the work of 2014 will not be fully seen until 2015. Since you’re a year behind, let me bring you up to speed on the whole story about what’s been going on behind the scenes and what’s to come here at AerialDancing.com.
Finishing the Aerial Hoop Manual Volume 2
Last year – and I’m talking 2013 – we worked super hard on putting together the Aerial Hoop Manual Volume 2, and this year (2014) saw the fruit of all that labor. Julianna Hane helped me put together the book and, athough she left me for the Pro Track Program at NECCA, I still managed to get the hoop book done with her inputs coming from afar. We released the paperback version first. Once video content was finished, we released the download in this summer of 2014. This marked the first time that our manuals were linked via live links to the videos in our video library here on the site. We plan on doing this for all future books, one day circling back to include previously published books as well (but that’ll be a while).
Starting the Aerial Rope Manuals
The major project of this year has been working on the Aerial Rope Manual Series. Rain Anya and I got together for our first brainstorm sessions for the rope books back in the fall of 2013 (when Julianna left me). We were two aerial nerds in a pod – the collaboration has been wonderful! Our brains hurt after each session we hung out together. We made huge leaps and bounds in our “discoveries” of rope theory. We tried to go for large overarching themes that told the story of every wrap, and kept reaching for the ideas that connected everything. We came up with a ton of amazing material. Some will translate well into the book – others will come by absorbing the whole curriculum.
Still Working on the Rope Books ~ Allie Cooper to Join the Mix
The second part of this year has been split between writing the rope books and editing the videos that correspond to the books. It’s good working on both because while I stare at the live video, I think of what to write and then I go write. Allie Cooper is coming out here in 2015 to help us film and write the chapters on dynamic movement and momentum. (Super excited about that part!)
Launch: Prenatal Aerial Yoga Project
Amidst all of this, I got pregnant with number two. This was actually another reason that Rain did so much filming for the rope books. I really wanted to be in more of the pictures, but I was also working on getting my body ready to house a baby i.e. getting fat – preggo style! Rain did an awesome job, so I really don’t feel too bad.
Then, of course, I had to take advantage of the window of opportunity to do some prenatal aerial yoga, so I got side-tracked on that project. It’s now or never – if I’m ever going to create a prenatal anything, I gotta do it now. So, I have been creating sequences for my big bellied body and of course those are going to turn into a book of their own. (Surprise, surprise.) It’s been fun to track and watch the progression of my body through sequences during months 4, 5, and 6 of pregnancy. Change happens so fast.
In the middle of this year, Amy Tynan contacted me about collaborating on some aerial yoga projects, and at first, I was hesitant since I had so many projects going on, but since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve jumped on board. In fact, I asked some other aerial yoga teachers to join in the fun – Clayton and Jordan of Aerial Fit. In 2015, you can expect to see many new aerial yoga classes and sequences come live on the site! Jordan leads some amazing classes that we got to film, and Amy has created some award-winning sequences for the site too. Amy and Jordan together have inspired me to create a ton of my own sequences to add to the mix as well. Expect to see at least one new aerial yoga class or sequence released each month of 2015.
Plans for a Teacher Training Program
As if all of that isn’t enough, Julianna and I have been working on refining how in the world a training program could look so that it’s involved/detailed enough to be high-quality, yet short/concise enough to make it affordable and do-able for the general public at large. We have been launching some beta tests here and there. By putting our brains together, we’ve come up with a working structure that is starting to gain some solid momentum. It started off shaky, but we are getting there.
What this means for this site: The resources that I have been creating have gotten more and more focused on speaking towards teachers. When we create new content, we have teachers in mind more than ever before. We are focusing on creating curriculum, not just moves. Julianna has been working on a Teacher Training Manual that will be out in 2015, along with our new teacher training program. In short, 2015 should bring some great new things from some awesome aerialists. And I’ll let everything all run itself while I go have my baby. 🙂
I leave you with me enjoying my big belly. We are expecting a baby boy March 2015. (For some reason, the video doesn’t always play ~ sorry)