Tamarah Jones is floating off the ground. A makeup artist and stylist in her mid-30s, her legs tremble a little and her face wears a look of intense concentration. When the trembling settles, she kicks one leg back and points her toes at the floor. She extends her arms out from her body and transforms into a mighty woman in flight. The room erupts in cheers, and her face breaks into a big, joyful smile.
» 5 places to take aerial fitness classes in Atlanta
It’s Jones’ very first Aerial Fitness class at the D’AIR Project, an aerial dance studio founded in 2007 to teach, as the name suggests, daring feats performed in the air. And though her focus suggests she could levitate at will, she’s actually standing with one foot on a knot in some aerial silks. A doubled-over length of fabric hangs down from the 25-foot ceilings of the desanctified Grant Park church that D’AIR calls home.
You’ve probably seen aerial silks at Cirque du Soleil or other circus acts. Colorful lengths of fabric hang from above as daring aerialists climb up them, wind and weave themselves into them, perform death-defying drops, and dance between floor and ceiling.
But learning the aerial arts is not limited to those born into circus families. D’AIR’s Aerial Fitness class welcomes all levels of students, from complete beginners like Jones to seasoned aerialists looking to build their strength, stability, flexibility, endurance and skills. (Full disclosure: I’m a student as well.)
Students learn and practice many ways to climb, descend, invert and otherwise lift, move and control their bodies while suspended in the air from multiple apparatuses, including static trapezes and aerial silks. D’AIR also offers technique classes in aerial dance, which provide great exercise but emphasize aerialist skills, proper form and grace.
The instructor this morning is Fareedah Aleem, a member of D’AIR’s professional aerial dance performance company. Aleem, a dancer/singer with the Atlanta hip-hop band Arrested Development, cuts a striking figure. Even from a distance you can see the strength in not only her musculature, but in how she holds her body and moves through the world. She’s a joyful pro at getting people to push past their limits.
“You all are gonna go upside down,” Aleem announces, introducing a new exercise.
“Oh no,” says Roslyn Johnson, another first-timer. A mother of eight in her mid-40s, she came at the urging of her daughter Kyler, 16. Kyler is a member of D’AIR’s youth and teen programs, which teach young people life skills through training in aerial arts.
Johnson homeschools her children, but today Kyler helps to school her mom while Aleem convinces Johnson she can flip upside down. The two strands of the silks are again tied together, this time at about the height of Johnson’s upper back.
“Put on your backpack,” says Aleem. Johnson threads her arms between the silks as though they were the shoulder straps of a backpack, hooking them under her shoulders and around her back. Johnson’s eyes are wide as she lifts her knees and hovers in the air, and she struggles to invert.
“Tipping over requires you to allow yourself to tip over,” Aleem tells her. The theme recurs in her teaching: We get in our own way by thinking we have limits that aren’t really there. Often, all it takes to push past a limit is to just let it happen.
Johnson tries again. She lifts her knees, hovers, then pushes her hands against the silks and begins to tilt her body back. Kyler cheers her on, and then, just like that, Johnson is hanging upside down in what looks like that classic Spiderman pose: knees bent and wide, feet together, upside down with her head near the safety mats, dangling from a silken thread.
She comes down from the pose, then, completely unbidden, decides to do it again. Returning to earth the second time, she gasps a little and walks unsteadily on her feet.
“Alrighty,” she says, “I think my coffee is in my throat, but …”
She breaks off in laughter. “It’s like getting off a Six Flags ride.”
She says she feels like she just took an aerobics class and a weightlifting class, too, but she didn’t notice the workout.
“It’s a different form of exercise that feels more like play,” says Nicole Mermans, founder and executive director of D’AIR. “You transform yourself back to being a kid playing on the jungle gym.”
As class winds down, Jones says that, yes, some of what she did today was scary, but that Aleem helped her feel comfortable taking those risks. “Then once you do it, it’s not so bad,” says Jones, who loved the class and says she’ll be back.
“A lot of people say, ‘I want to try this, but I’m afraid of heights,’” Mermans says. “Well I am too!” Learning to hold her own weight in the air has given her the confidence to confront those fears, she says.
“Learning to uplift yourself,” she adds, “can transform you in other areas of your life.”
D’AIR Project. 575 Boulevard Ave. 404-622-DAIR. dairproject.org
Insider tip
You don’t have to already be strong or fit to take aerial training, as the class will build that strength and fitness. D’AIR instructors adapt to students’ current fitness level.
Wear stretchy, form-fitting clothing that won’t inhibit your movement or get tangled in the silks: Think tights, fitted sweats or yoga pants, and long- or short-sleeved fitted T-shirts. To prevent some uncomfortable friction burns, never wear shorts and avoid tank tops when you’re starting out. No other special equipment is needed.
Swing time
Other Atlanta-area aerial dance studios offering classes:
The Space. 4620-A S. Atlanta Road. 678-310-2338.thespaceatl.com
Circus Arts Institute. 206 Rogers St., 214. 404-549-3000. circusartsinstitute.com
Inspire Aerial Arts. 549-5 Amsterdam Ave. 404-465-4139. inspireaerialarts.com
Sky Gym. 6780 Roswell Road., D100. 404-309-9696. aerialsilksatlanta.com
