Aerial Silks
Since coming to Costa Rica I have been blessed with ready access to aerial silks. Right outside my door one hangs from the beautiful geo-dome. For anyone who does not know, an aerial silk is special fabric hung at heights. One or more acrobats will climb the silk and perform drops by wrapping the silk in various ways. A passion fruit vine has slowly grown to cover the structure that supports the silk. I like to think of it as a training partner that grows with my silk practice.
Before coming I had been working the basics for a bit over a month. Now I can work drops and develop endurance for multiple tricks in one go. Working at height is a wonderful time of clarity paired with decisive movement. I was wonderfully surprise how aerial work has paired with my yoga practice. More so than the physical benefits, there is a mental link that draws you in to the breath and deeper into the practice. As a very active person I am drawn to the physicality of aerials, because it is only in the most demanding moments that I can really ask my mind for peace and focus. That peace is so important before preparing for a drop or trusting a wrap, to know that your actions and motions were correct and your knot will hold.
I have found this sense of peace in yoga, in aerial silks, and in rock-climbing. It is only in the combination of working all three that I have begun to find my center, and through this come to realize just how important that journey is.
– Joy N. Taylor
