I spent my weekend in an acro yoga workshop being lifted, spun around and turned upside down. Y2 Yoga, the studio where I practice and teach, hosted Scott Cooper this weekend.
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What is acro yoga? The AcroYoga website describes it as “a blend of the wisdom of yoga, the dynamic power of acrobatics and the loving kindness of healing arts. These three lineages form the foundation of a practice that cultivates trust, playfulness, and community.”
There isn’t much yoga in acro yoga. To me it feels a lot more like partner acrobatics but given my tumbling, cheerleading and stunting history, I think it’s so much fun. I actually had my first experience with acro yoga last fall and can’t say I loved it but this workshop with Scott totally changed my opinion.
One thing I loved about the workshop was that Scott brought two assistants. Clearly, Scott was the base for most of the lifts. Amanda Nash was there to demonstrate the flying aspect of acro and Kelly Leeuwen showed how to accurately and safely act as a spotter. They were all incredibly helpful and made an effort to work their way around the room and help. Scott, Amanda and Kelly’s instructions were extremely clear and they did an amazing job of walking us through the roles of the base, flyer and spotter before sending us to work on our own.
Friday night’s class was focused on mastering basic lifts that would provide a solid foundation to work from. We spent most of Saturday building on what we learned Friday and started to linking things together and smoothing out transitions.
One thing that surprised me was how much I enjoyed the partner aspect of acro yoga given that in my previous experience I was pretty freaked out and couldn’t get into it. I found that I was totally able to trust whoever was basing me and communicate with them in the air to successfully pull off whatever we were working on. I think that part of this was thanks to only working with one or two partners so you really could get in a rhythm with the other person versus shuffling around. It also helped that everyone in our group was a great spotter!
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I was able to breathe, relax, surrender and even laugh a little. That’s pretty big for me! 😉
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I can’t wait to practice all of the things that Scott, Amanda and Kelly taught us this weekend and to start getting more playful and creative with it and build sequences.
Here’s a short clip of Scott and Amanda demonstrating an acro yoga flow. This is just a small taste of what they demoed for us. They were amazing together!
Have you ever tried acro yoga? Is it something you would be interested in trying?
I would love to learn acro yoga, it seems like a lot of fun! It reminds me of my days as a competitive dancer where we had to do crazy partner stunts. Trust is defiantly a big aspect to anything like that!
Ah – I was on the fence on attending this workshop, and honestly it seemed really intimidating – so I did not attend. Now, hearing about it and seeing the pictures I am so mad at myself for not giving it a try! It looks amazing. Ugh! Hope there is a next time!
oh you should have! it was so much fun and not intimidating. scott, amanda and kelly were so chill as was everyone in our group! let me know next time you’re thinking of doing any workshop!
That’s a great photo of you smiling! It’s so hard to surrender and let go of control. I would definitely have a hard time with this. It doesn’t really appeal to me, but the photos are pretty awesome! Glad you were able to let go a little this weekend…
This looks awesome. I was a cheerleader and stunting was always my favorite part ( whether I was a base or a flyer). I’ll have to keep my eye out for something like this in Asheville!
me too! it reminded me of those days!
Beautiful photos! I hate to be presumptuous about what you may like …but there is a band called Rising Appalachia and they have some beautiful songs and acro yoga videos on YouTube. They are a sister duo and one of them, leah song, also performs solo!!
i love any and all music suggestions! thank you so much for the recommendation. i’ll check them out!
Great photos – looks like A LOT of trust is involved too between partners. Glad you had a great weekend with Acro yoga – I am extremely balance challenged so not sure this appeals to me…but still enjoyed the pictures and learning about it
I was wondering where you find your workshops to attend. I am a trainer and am having trouble finding continuing education and workshops! Hope you can help!
this one was hosted by my yoga studio. we have a ton of yoga workshops here in charlotte because we have such an active yoga community and then asheville is so close and they offer a ton as well. i find out mainly through social media, email blasts, etc.
as far as PT workshops, i struggle with finding good ones too.
Beautiful pictures ::) And Scott is such a great guy to work with…
I love everything about this post!!! Partner yoga is so fun to me… so much trust and core strength involved!! Looks like you had a blast!
This looks way too fun! If only I could convince my better half to take up something like this lol!
Not sure that I could pull acro-yoga off but it looks great when you all do it…that picture of you laughing is so great 🙂
It sure looks like you’re having fun! 🙂 I don’t think I’d be very good at this, but it still sounds like a good time.
reminds me so much of stunting! i would probably like it but definitely would be a nervous nellie!
This looks so fun! I used to take your yoga classes in Charlotte and am in NY now. WIsh you would come up here and teach a class :-).
aww! i’m looking to start traveling soon so maybe i can!
Wow, that looks amazingly fun!