| I want to buy your DVD! T-Shirts! Postcards! Set me up with Angels swag! |
Great idea! Shop Here.
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| I took pictures of your show. Can I send them to you? |
Yes, please! We always love getting photos. Some of the photos on this site are from people who were kind enough to photograph our show and give us copies.
If you'd like to send pictures, we'll assume it's OK to use them on this website, our Facebook, and our posters and postcards unless you say otherwise, and we'll credit them to you and send you copies of any press that prints them.
We're happy to receive digital files via email, or you can mail them to us on CD - just use the contact form to request our mailing address.
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| Where can I train to learn these skills? |
Check out the circus schools, training centers and gyms listed here.
Aerial Angels offers occasional classes and workshops, and open training at For The Kidz Gym in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Coordinated by Angel Miss Pussykatt (Cassie), this is scheduled workout time in small groups. Cassie will cover basic safety information and how to use the aerial equipment and the gym equipment, and share basic moves in a peer-to-peer format. If you are a beginner, this is a great way to find out if aerial is for you and get some basic moves while building strength and flexibility. For more information and gym times and fees, contact us.
If you are interested in private lessons at any level, we can schedule lessons on a case-by-case basis. The level of coaching available depends completely on which Angels are in town and able to commit the time. For private lessons, tell us your approximate level, any coaching or experience you already have, and what you want to work on.
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| Will your show fit in my space? |
Our unique free-standing rig sets up and drops quickly, allowing us to perform in open spaces, rooms with no rigging points, and historic buildings.
Check out our Technical Specifications page. We can generally adapt to most spaces and venues.
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| Are you insured? |
Yes! We are fully insured with a $5M liability policy, and we provide all events with a Certificate of Named Additional Insured. There will be a place on your contract to enter the names you require on the certificate.
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| What kinds of shows do you do? |
We do short shows and long shows, indoor shows and outdoor shows, family-friendly shows and grown-ups-only shows. We can be a self-contained show or part of your larger performance or event. Single and multiple acts are available, and all of our performers can present more than one skill.
Check out the Shows page for more information!
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| Do you do individual acts? |
Yes, all of our artists are also available as solo and duo acts as well as in teams. We can propose specific acts for your event, or let us know what you're looking for by contacting us; if we don't do it, we can probably refer you to someone who does.
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| Can you rig from our ceiling? |
If there is a load-bearing beam or truss and a ladder, lift or catwalk for access, yes. We may need to speak to a building engineer familiar with the venue, or visit it for a preliminary assessment. Generally, we can rig from anything that can support at least 2500 pounds, and we bring and set up all our own rigging.
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| I loved your show! When are you coming back to my town? Where are you going next? |
Check our schedule or our Facebook page.
We go where we're booked, so please, if you want us back, let your festival organizers/venue managers know!
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| Are you doing workshops in my town? |
Sadly, it's unlikely. We are primarily a performance company, though we do sometimes present workshops at Thespian Festivals and other theatre conventions. Feel free to email us if you're interested in being on our mailing list for workshops and training camps in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We can also arrange private lessons if we are near you. Or, if you know a great venue that wants to host a workshop, tell them about us and maybe we can all put something together.
For workshops and classes by artists in your home state/country, you can also check out the information on our links page.
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| Is this your real job? |
This is our real job and we're happy (and lucky!) to be making a real living! (Remember, buying our swag helps keep it that way).
How about you - is that really your job?
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| How did you get started? |
Every Angel comes from a different background. The one thing we all have in common is that none of us started circus early or came from a traditional circus family. Angels have come from the worlds of theatre, dance, international figure skating, elite trampoline, gymnastics and "the Angels came to my high school and did a workshop and now I'm on the road...how the heck did that happen?" For more information on your favorite Angel, check out our Bios.
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| Are you guys, like, gymnasts? |
Yes. We are also like doctors and firefighters in that if we mess up at our job, somebody dies. Probably us.
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| Are you guys a family? |
Nope! Just good friends lucky to work with each other. And would you all please stop asking if Isabella is the mother? Don't make her turn this website around...
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| How did you all meet? |
Isabella met Spike browsing the cheese plate at a reception for Yo-Yo Ma. Spike and Luna bumped heads over a Corvair hubcup at a salvage yard in St Louis. Flip and Max were liberated from a Chinese sweatshop where they made those finger-trap-toys under evil overseer Star. Mimi and Frank were conjoined twins who kept their flexibility when separated. And Flame met Isabella while they performed with Kevin Bacon.
Seriously, we all met in many different ways. Buy us a beverage after the show and we'll tell you all about it.
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| Is that real fire? |
Yes.
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| Is it hot? |
Yes.
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| Why don't you guys use a net? |
Nets are excellent for flying trapeze acts - they are designed to catch a performer in flight, who has enough time and distance to adjust their body to take the fall correctly.
Nets can be dangerous for falls from too short a distance, with not enough time to change body position, or uncontrolled falls. Even flying trapeze artists who always work with nets experience net-related injuries and deaths. Performers who fall unexpectedly (as opposed to having the air time to think "I missed that catch, better complete the rotation to land correctly") can bounce out of the net and hit the floor at high velocity, or land incorrectly in the net and injure themselves.
Most "static" (nonswinging) aerial acts - chains, silks, straps, rope, lyra - are not appropriate for nets. The performer is not experiencing flight or planned rotation in the air, so they are unlikely to have enough time and distance to judge their fall. They also may be working on equipment that extends from the rigging point to the floor - straps, silk, rope - which could tangle or catch in a net.
If you are not an aerialist or regular circus performer, you may be unaware that even if small nets existed (assuming you aren't thinking of setting up a giant flying trapeze net), they would be unable to be rigged in most spaces. Trapeze nets require poles, tie-downs, ceiling rigging, etc. This would rule out most performers from doing most acts in most spaces. Remember, you've seen nets under flying trapezes, and you've seen them in tents and arenas. As aerialists, we perform in clubs, ballrooms, theme parks and theatres as well as at outdoor festivals and events.
No job is without some level of peril. Bus drivers crash. Convenience store clerks are robbed at gunpoint. With circus and aerial performance, our danger level is more visible and more present. But it is our job to train, to check our equipment, to practice our routines, to know our capabilities. You trust your bus driver, your airplane pilot, your convenience store clerk, to use their judgment to determine how to safely do their job, and we hope you'll trust us, too!
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| How did you get so flexible? |
Practice.
None of us was born flexible. We stretch anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours every day. Luna stretches the most, therefore she's the most flexible. Sometimes people say, "oh, I could never be that flexible!" If you stretched two hours every day, you probably could be. Even 20 minutes a day will release endorphins that make you feel better and make your life easier and more fit!
Mmmmm...endorphins.
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| How long does it take to learn to do these skills? |
How long does it take to write a book? Are you a published author with a sure-fire formula? Do you already speak English? You get my point. Everyone's mileage will vary.
For me (Isabella), I learned aerial silk to the "good enough to show it in public for people who've paid" point in about 2 years. But...I wasn't working steadily, I didn't have a coach, and I had a background in some circus arts beforehand. I think a ball park figure of a year of working three-five times a week, 2-4 hours a time, plus stretching and conditioning for the average not-too-sedentary-but-not-a-hardcore-exerciser person could make them good enough to perform in public as a solo silk artist with a full routine. And you would have to be very, very serious about it.
High-level athletes will learn it faster. Out-of-shape people will learn it slower. Generally, though, expect it to take the time it would take you to learn to do some fairly complex gymnastics, and about the same amount of effort. More effort and more training = less time, and vice versa.
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| I want to be in Cirque du Soleil. |
That's nice. Here's their website: www.cirquedusoleil.com. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.
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| How can I contact a specific Aerial Angel? |
Leave them a message via the Contact page. We love hearing from fans, but because we travel so much, it often takes a few weeks to get a response. If you're a stalker, probably longer. Much longer.
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