SHAPECRAFT

About this project

Every body is different. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Part of our journey to self-awareness is learning what we excel at either naturally or with training, what feels good, and what we enjoy. To experience success, we compare those things to what other people like to see.

For this project, I used my background in visual art, design, and movement to create a primer for learning how to read, execute and most importantly EXPLORE shapes with the human body through geometric forms and abstract intentions with the use of any aerial apparatus. In this book [or e-book] I examined: the fundamental and classic body shapes for aerial arts through a full taxonomy, how the body acts, the design elements of shape making, and finally, selected aspects of creative process; through descriptions, images, and video links.

In my years of teaching, viewing, and expressing aerial arts, the one thing I have found to be universal among all apparatus and applications is shape.

I mostly stayed away from any discussion of “aerial skills” (for the purpose of this text I don’t differentiate between a back planche and a front balance - they are the same basic shape with a different connection to the apparatus). Instead, I wanted the big take away to be that any of these body shapes translate to a wide range of skills or moments in time: the arabesque shape for example is generally the same on the lyra in a ‘piked back balance’ as it is in the ‘footlock skill’ of the same name on the silks.

I will ship a hardcopy of the book anywhere in the world for $65 USD, or you can request an e-version for $35 USD to be emailed directly to you. Please contact me if you’d like one!

All the best and happy exploring!

- Jenn