Acroyoga was created around the mid 2000s by several different groups, and while I’m not 100% on the history of all the groups, I personally come from the tree of practitioners who were first taught by Jason Nemer and Jenny Sauer-Klien.
On their website:
Jenny’s background in Circus Yoga and Contact Yoga, combined with Jason’s expertise as a world-champion in Sports Acrobatics, formed a vast base of experience and an exciting realm of potential for their creativity to unfold.
From my personal experience, acroyoga is really a much calmer and thoughful way to do partner acrobatics. Instead of looking at a skill with a vision of perfection, the act of doing the skill is looked at as practice. This allows for a calmer way to go through the execution of difficult poses and transitions.
Okay, so that is the super technical definition of Acroyoga, but what if i don’t know what Sports Acrobatics, Circus Yoga, or Contact Yoga is?
This is acroyoga:
This is one of the first poses we learn when doing acroyoga. It’s like Airplane a lot of us have done with our families growing up. We use principles like bone-stacking to reduce the amount of muscle and work we need to do, so Rudy can actually fly me in this pose too.
Rules of Acroyoga
I’ll go into this in another individual post, but these are important enough that I believe it is worth mentioning here:
- The magic word in acroyoga is DOWN. Whenever we hear down, we bring the flyer safely and quickly to the ground (in that order). Even if you think you can hold it, respecting the down is very important. It is always safer to talk about things when everyone is on the ground.
- Everything we do is consent based. If there is something you do want to do in acroyoga, don’t do it. It doesn’t matter the reason. “No” is a full sentence and you are free to challenge anyone who challenges you on a No.
- Acroyoga should not hurt. While there are some nerves that will loosen up over time and allow you to do things like sidestars, in general, Acroyoga should not hurt. If something hurts, use the magic word “down”, and ask someone to help find a way to prevent the pain. Ignoring pain in hamstrings, for example, can lead to much greater pain in the future.
