Frequently asked questions

Adult beginners who can't decide between silks or trapeze or would like to do both can book onto the Beginners/Improvers classes in Trapeze and Silks at 7.00pm on Wednesdays at The Grove Junior School, Harpenden.

Aerial Hoop for Adult beginners is on Monday at 6.30pm also at the Grove. 

We run separate beginner classes for adults in St Albans in both aerial silks and static trapeze. These take place at the same time, with separate instructors for each class, at 7.45pm on Thursdays in our venue of The Yoga Hall. 

Newcomers can try out their first class for half price using the code FIRST-CLASS

We're not going to lie - having upper-body and core strength definitely helps!

To get the most out your class, we do recommend having a basic level of fitness first - for example, if you’ve been mostly sedentary for a few years, you might want to start with an aerial yoga class before you plunge straight into aerial silks.

However, few things are more efficient at building upper body and core strength than climbing ropes, silks and creating shapes on the trapeze - and it definitely beats doing pull-ups at the gym!

It's also important to realise that aerial skills can be quite demanding at first - it's fairly unusual to be able to climb a rope on your first attempt, and even achieving the basic 'pike' position underneath a trapeze bar can be tricky. However, even if it takes a while to be able to master skills like these, just the act of trying to do them is fantastic strength conditioning. 

Aerial arts means using a piece of equipment that is rigged from the ceiling and hangs in the air that the performer moves on and around to create a series of movements. Equipment typically includes the trapeze, hoop, straps or silks - but can be much more diverse. Aerialists can work solo, with a partner (doubles), or even with multiple people.

Although some of our equipment rotates, and can be swung back and forth, we only do static trapeze - flying trapeze is a different discipline.

Our classes start with a warm-up that combines cardio with dynamic yoga-inspired stretching, and then we move onto practising skills and poses on the aerial silks, aerial sling, aerial hoop or static trapeze.

During the class, students are taught moves or combinations either individually or in small groups, or work by themselves on routine creation. A five to ten minute cool-down with stretches comes at the end. We keep our class sizes relatively small and ensure that everyone gets a good amount of time in the air and tuition.

We offer class packages - 6 for £90, which is £15 a class (120 days to use them all) or 10 for £135 , which is £13.50 a class (140 days to use them all). 

All adult classes are 75 mins long.

A single class pass is £18. You can try your first class for 50% off at just £9 before committing to buying one of our saver packages!

More info in the class packages FAQ below.

Our children's/teens classes (1 hour) can only be bought in half term blocks, so the prices vary depending on the length of term though each class works out to be approximately £14.75 per class. 

Tryout sessions for teens and children (1 hour) are £12. Please email us to be added to the waiting list to be notified about the next ones.

Class packages are only available for adult classes - see our children's classes page for more info booking kids/teens classes.

When you buy a class package, you'll be issued with a code which can then be redeemed against the classes you wish to go to.

Our 6-class package has 120 days to be used and our 10 class package has 140 days to be used.

To book a class, go to our booking page. Click ‘book’ next to the class you want, select the date, the time, and then press ‘select and continue’ (unless you want to book multiple classes in one go, in which case click ‘Select and add another time). Fill in the info and then continue to payment. Enter your card details.

If you have a class package code, this goes in the ‘Package, gift or coupon code field.’

Make sure you sign up to an Acuity (our booking system) account - that way you can easily keep track of what classes you're signed up to. Do this by going to our adult class booking page and clicking 'Sign up' in the top right hand corner of the scheduling widget.

You can check your code balance by going down to the bottom of the page, underneath the class packages, and clicking 'Check code balance'.

Currently you can reschedule your class up to 12 hours before the start time and cancel and receive a full refund up to 24 hours before the start time.

You can do your own cancelling and rescheduling through the confirmation email - simply click ‘Change or cancel class’.

If you cancel within less than this time and we can't fill your space, we won't be able to offer you a refund. While we're sympathetic to everyone's circumstances, we can't offer refunds for reasons including but not limited to, sickness, injury or lack of childcarte

If you do need to cancel at short notice, please either do it yourself via the confirmation email or let us know - please don’t just do nothing! At best we may be able to fill your space and thereby give you a refund, and at worst you’ll be taking a space that someone else could have had while making class planning tricky for the instructors!

St Albans venue:

The Yoga Hall
11 Hatfield Rd
St Albans
AL1 3RR

The Yoga Hall is next to the Peacock pub and where the museum used to be. Parking around this area can be tricky - please leave time for this. Nearest public car parks are Bricket Road.

Harpenden venue

The Grove Junior School
10 Dark Ln
Harpenden
AL5 1QD

To get to The Grove Junior School, drive all the way up Dark Lane (almost up to where it looks like a dead end), and then turn right into the staff car park (the gates will be open). The entrance to the junior school is at the front of the building, and the sports hall is on the right just after you walk in.

Close-fitting clothes are best to protect your skin and avoid snagging on the equipment. We recommend leggings that cover the backs of your knees to protect them and a top that won't ride up when you're upside down. If you want to do a lot of aerial and circus skills, it may be best to buy a leotard/unitard. Wear crop-tops at your peril - many aerial moves involve pressure along the back or waist.

Please see our children’s and teens classes page here for more info on that - but in short, our regular term-time classes aren’t available to book online as we give rebooking priority to existing students.

Our Harpenden Saturday 9am, 10am, 11am and Wednesday 5.45pm kids classes all currently have waiting lists. Our St Albans Tuesday 4.15pm class does have spaces available.

Please email us directly at [email protected] to be added to the waiting list or for a trial session for Tuesday.

In most cases, we advise against setting up aerial equipment at home - especially in the case of children who have had no or few aerial classes.

This is because:

1) Safety. It’s easy to pick up bad habits if you’re teaching yourself from YouTube/TikTok etc, and children who do this often see and want to attempt moves that they’re simply not ready for. For example - many aerial silks and hammock drops may look super fun, but carry with them a risk of whiplash or similar if correct body tension is not maintained throughout. Not all posts on social medias will include/or show clear instruction or wraps, rendering a drop unsafe. Live in person instruction is definitely key to remaining safe in the air.

The reality is that aerial arts is a high risk activity and people can and have been seriously injured (or worse!) practicing aerial.

2) Supervision: children who practice aerial at home absolutely must be supervised at all times. Even experienced/professional aerialists should never attempt new or unfamiliar tricks if there isn’t someone else in the space.

Many aerial moves (on aerial silks in particular) carry the risk of tangling and getting stuck - and if you don’t have the knowledge or strength to free yourself and you’re by yourself, you’re in big trouble.

3) Rigging is a skill in itself - you must know your carabiners from your choke-holds from your daisy chains and have awareness of dynamic loads.

Some aerial companies (Firetoys, XPole) sell aerial rigs. This is more advisable than:

a) Rigging from a beam in your house unless a structural engineer has checked the exact load bearing capacity of a roof - and if not, it’s likely that your house insurance will be invalidated, or

b) Rigging from trees - this should be an absolute no-go. Only trained arborists can tell the health of branches/trees - what looks like a healthy branch could be dead inside and liable to snap.

Most aerial injuries and fatalities as a result of tree rigging comes not from the aerialist falling, but from the branch falling on top of them, as people will pick what appears to them to be the biggest/sturdiest branch.

Cirque du Soleil feels so strongly about this that they do not hire aerialists who have any evidence of tree rigging on their social media.

4) Practicing in unsafe conditions not only is dangerous for you as an individual, but it actually harms the entire field of aerial arts.  More accidents leads to higher liability risk associated with aerial arts and increasingly higher costs for insuring aerial arts.  High risk and high cost prevents people from offering classes and performances. There are plenty of ways to cross train to increase aerial strength and flexibility, such as calisthenics, yoga or climbing.