Tona Foster Interview, AAU Community Member

Tona Foster on trapeze
Tona Foster on trapeze hanging around the Great Salt Lake

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
Trapeze is my favorite apparatus. Trapeze is great. It helps me face my fears and put trust in the apparatus and my instructors.

How did you get interested in aerial arts?
I like to exercise but I hate going to the gym to do your typical exercises. Running, swimming, and weight training never held my interest and never kept me motivated. I started out with doing pole fitness. Pole fitness quickly turned into fabrics. My dear friend Lindsay Neff introduced me to Aerial Arts of Utah. She trained there and highly encouraged me to check them out. We took classes together and had a wonderful experience with the instructors and the amount of time we got on the apparatuses. We eventually took Trapeze and I immediately fell in love with it. What a great way to get a workout and have fun all at the same time.

What do you love about aerial arts?
I love the instructors at Aerial Arts of Utah. My instructor makes a huge difference in my training. I have a bit of a quirky personality that doesn’t always sit well with some people. I have built a trusting relationship with my instructors that I am forever grateful for. I appreciate their passion and love to teach others. They are great role models and they really inspire me.

What are you currently working on?
Currently, I am working on Lyra. My instructor is so graceful, strong, and motivates me daily to become better at Lyra.

Jenifer Einstein Interview, AAU Community Member

Jenifer Einstein on fabric
RDT’s Ring Around the Rose — with Jenifer Einstein at Rose Wagner Center

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
I love climbing, so my favorites are the vertical apparatus. I’ve mainly focused on Aerial Fabric, but am also actively working on skills for Rope and Aerial Hammock.

How did you get interested in aerial arts?
I found a living social deal for trapeze lessons in Boston, and when I looked up the school, I saw that they had Aerial Silks classes too. I didn’t even know that I could take classes like that, but I’d always loved aerial fabric acts. Once I moved to Utah, I found Aerial Arts of Utah and started taking classes, and have been addicted ever since!

What do you love about aerial arts?
I really enjoy finding new ways to move, stretch and strengthen my body. I don’t like going to the gym too much, but thanks to Aerial I’m the strongest I’ve ever been! It’s really great to be able to combine a form of exercise with a form of creative expression and end up with these incredible combinations of music and movement.

What are you currently working on?
I just performed in a group piece for Flight of Fancy Illusions with the Student Performing Company. Now I’m going to focus on a hammock piece that I’ve been working on for Ring Around the Rose in December. I’m trying to focus on slowing down and expressing the music more fully.

Flight of Fancy – Illusions 2017

Flight of Fancy 2017, Illusions

Flight of Fancy; Illusions opening night! Get ready for night of spectacular aerial performances along with a sprinkle of magic!! Join us!! 7:30pm Fri. Oct 20 & Sat Oct. 21 plus a matinee Sat. Oct 21 2:00pm Tickets: https://artsaltlake.org/production/flight-fancy-illusions/

Meredith Peebles Interview, AAU Community Member

Meredith Peebles on silks
Meredith Peebles on silks at AAoU

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
My favorite apparatus is aerial silks, and have concentrated on that apparatus so far in my aerial training.

How did you get interested in aerial arts?
My sister introduced me to aerial silks a couple of years ago when I went to visit her out of state. I had a private lesson with her and one of her instructors. When I got back to Utah a few days later, I googled studios and Aerial Arts of Utah popped up. I took the Friday class and then registered for intro to aerials and have been taking classes at Aerial Arts of Utah since.

What do you love about aerial arts?
I love aerial arts because it combines strength and artistry in a different way from other dance forms. I trained in studio dance (ballet, modern, jazz, character) throughout my childhood and into college, but hadn’t done any studio dance in years when I started aerials. It was a great way to get back in shape and use my body in a completely different way from dance on the floor. The shapes that can be made in the air range from just easy and amazingly fun to more challenging ones, which require some problem solving to do correctly and then become great fun once solved. I enjoy that there is such a range of skills.

What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on perfecting a solo piece that I choreographed during this summer’s performance lab. I’m also in the student performing company and we are rehearsing a group piece for the upcoming Flight of Fancy show on October 20 and 21!

Cambria DeLee Interview, AAU Community Member

Cambria DeLee on lyra
Cambria DeLee on lyra at AAoU

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
My favorite apparatuses are trapeze and lyra

How did you get interested in aerial arts?
I have always been interested in the circus arts, but was under the impression that you had to be born into it, or be a professional dancer/gymnast who is recruited. When I was living in Kansas City, I saw a performance by the local aerial dance group Quixotic. I told my friend who was at the show with me about how I always wished I could be a circus performer. She informed me that there were classes taking place at the gym she went to. I signed up for classes the next day, and haven’t looked back!

What do you love about aerial arts?
I’ve moved around the country quite a bit. Every time I move to a new place I find the aerial dance studio, and am quickly welcomed into the community. The circus arts/aerial dance community is the most friendly, fun, hard working community I’ve ever come across.

What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on a group piece for the Flight of Fancy show, and a trapeze solo for Ring Around the Rose. And, personally, I’m working on becoming more graceful!

Morgan Sjoblom Interview, AAU Community Member

Aerial Arts of Utah
Flight of Fancy, Illusions 2017 “The Contraption” Photo Credit: Rick Whitson — with Morgan Sjoblom and Tricia Stauffer at Rose Wagner Center.

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
I really love silks, lyra, and trapeze. I know that includes a lot but I really find each one fascinating in their own way, to me each apparatus has it’s own special personality.

What do you love about aerial arts?
I started aerials at a time in my life when I wanted and needed change. What I love most about aerial arts is my relationship with the creative expression and the ability to change it depending on what is happening in my life. I find it very appealing that aerial arts can coexist and relate with everything else that I do day to day. The first photo in this post is from my first aerial performance. This performance really emulated my life and helped me to harness and conquer positives and negatives I was facing. Compare that to the second photo taken last month. I can literally feel the emotions coming through in each photo and feel what I felt at those exact moments. To me aerials is so potent and truthful, it has become a part of who I am and I can’t imagine not having it in my life.

What are you currently working on?
I’m about to start working on specialized strength training to improve aerial performance. I feel I’m at a point where I want to really clean up my movements and go through the air as if gravity didn’t exist. A girl can dream and I’m ready to work for those dreams!

Deborah Eppstein Interview, AAU Community Member

Deborah Eppstein on lyra
With Becky Barra, Deborah Eppstein and Aerial Arts of Utah at Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Flight of Fancy 2016

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
That’s hard to answer! Probably silks, but trapeze is very close behind, as well as lyra.

How did you get interested in aerial arts?
How I became interested was seeing a troupe from NYC perform both silks and lyra at Burning Man in 2008, hanging form a 60 ft dome. I especially was mesmerized by the red silks, there were 5 performers in sync, and I immediately knew that I wanted to do that! This actually led to the beginnings of AAofU, because when Annie and I came back to SLC we took lessons for a year with Julianna Hane at Revolve Aerial Dance, and then agreed to take over the business when she moved away after a year.

What do you love about aerial arts?
Its beautiful, athletic, skillful, creative, liberating and FUN!

https://vimeo.com/195229575

Lila Rockwood Interview, AAU Community Member

Lila Rockwood
Lila Rockwood on trapeze at AAoU
Lila Rockwood
Lila Rockwood on fabric at AAoU

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
Silks

How did you get interested in aerial arts?
In 5th-grade Aerial Arts of Utah came and performed at my school and I thought it looked super cool and fun which is how I learned about it.

What do you love about aerial arts?
What I love about aerial arts is how unique and interesting it is, and how you can learn to move and dance in super creative ways.

Charley Brunvand Interview, AAU Community Member

Charley Brunvand on lyra
Charley Brunvand on lyra at AAoU

What is your favorite apparatus(es)?
My favorite apparatus is trapeze, but I just generally like steels.

What do you love about aerial arts?
The thing I love about aerial arts is all the variety of shapes and moves and how everything is a little different. You can really make any move look as graceful or as edgy as you want. It’s just really dancey and cool.

What are you currently working on?
I just started working on a piece to enter in the Reflections contest which is a national, PTA-run arts competition, the theme this year is “Within Reach”. Also I’m always working on new things with the student performing company.