There are so many changes coming in September 2022 that we thought we would write a blog post about it so all the info is out there in one place! Please do check it out, even though it is going to be a long and boring one, as there is important information in there!

We came here to do that and realised we haven't wrote a single blog post since July 2020! Well once this one is out of the way we are sure we will have some much more exciting and interesting updates and subjects to blog about... 

Our timetable has had a bit of a makeover so not only does it look different on the new system, it also is quite different! We won’t list it all here but here are some of the main changes that are important: 

• Saturday youth hoop will still be running at 13:30-14:30 term time only, although do check on booking as there may be some Saturdays where this course does NOT run due to instructor availability.

 

• Saturday afternoons will no longer be a regular class, but instead we will offer one off workshops and practice sessions. These will be a variety of different equipment, styles and age ranges. The practice sessions give you 90 minutes to practice on your chosen equipment, and cost £10 (or one membership use). While the workshops are £15 and 90 minutes specialised lessons. This is great value and means it may only be a couple of Saturday afternoon sessions that you want to attend so it doesn’t take up every weekend. :D 

 

• Generally all pole and aerial classes will now be split up in three categories:
  1) Beginners (these are usually courses and are for brand new beginners or those who aren’t ready for mixed ability classes yet)
  2) ​Mixed ability - all levels welcome, beginners recommended to attend a beginners course first - this gives everyone greater flexibility on which class they choose.
  3) Advanced - for those who are a higher level and are after more advanced moves/transitions. 
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• As requested we now have a pole flow, heels & dance session on the regular timetable on Tuesday nights at 20:15. This will not necessarily be exotic pole every week and will not be a long routine, it will be more transition elements, pretty moves and poses, some freestyle work, floorwork and mini combos and routines.

 

• Youth hoop during the week will involve a couple of time changes to reflect other room bookings and instructor availability. Monday’s class will be 15:45-16:45 (however we will allow arrivals up to 15:55 as we know the school run can be tight). Thursday class will be 16:45-17:45. 

 

• All classes have a minimum number although the exact number does vary, so please make sure you don’t always leave booking until the last minute if possible as that may result in classes being cancelled. 

Please check out our Policies, Terms & Conditions and Code of Conduct here. Specific membership and class terms and conditions can be found on their booking pages. 

All of the instructors are still finding their feet and getting used to using the new system so please be patient if there is an issue! If you need any help please email us on info@solentfaa.co.uk. 

If you got this far, thanks for reading!

The pole and aerial industry falls into a gap between regulated sports such as gymnastics and artistic/creative expressions such as theatre/circus. It might shock you all to know that there is no legal requirement for certain qualifications to teach in the industry, and currently no real way for students to check pole schools for qualifications. This is why we shout about it! All of our instructors have had the most comprehensive training available to the pole and aerial community - We have all qualified with Spin City or Xpert (in most cases, both!) and we all continue to grow our knowledge through various additional courses, workshops and learning materials, not just in pole and aerial… Our team has done workshops up and down the country in things like injury prevention, safeguarding, safety in rigging, physiology and anatomy. All of our instructors are insured, always, for the things that they are teaching, our equipment is checked regularly and our policies and procedures (as well as those of the studio) are regularly checked and updated accordingly. 

I give you this back story so that you know that when we say we have done everything we can, you know that we mean it. The minimum requirements for the industry is not where we stop and rest! 

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Zorena & I are now part way through our second week of intensive aerial goodness! We have learned so many things, we can't wait to share all the fun with you guys when we are back! The end of week 1 showed us further progressions in the classes that we were taking, and we even had some guest appearances for the weekend Cyr workshop! Read on for more!  

So as you may be able to tell from the picture above, 3 of our lovely students had the amazing opportunity to give Cyr wheel a try! Zorena has been training Cyr wheel for the last 2 years at the EADF and this year we joined her! Gemma, Max and Aimee are all regular students at SFAA (or SASS, where Zorena teaches the university students). 

"Cyr wheel was such a brilliant workshop, I can’t believe how much we were able to learn in just 3 hours! Would definitely go again." - Gemma

I have also enjoyed a week of Cyr wheeling and had a wonderful time learning new skills! It's a completely different discipline to any of the usual stuff that we do, but I found it so rewarding! The instructors have been amazing, even when it takes a little longer to understand the way that I'm meant to push the damn thing! I think it definitely helps if you aren't scared of it! 

It's not all Cyr though, the EADF is also home to loads of incredible aerialists, from last weeks trapeze fun to this weeks spinning hoop craziness we have had lots of adventures! Something that has surprised me (Emily) is just how DIZZY I get when spinning full pelt on the hoop! It feels to me like doing a jigsaw puzzle on a waltzer - I know where the pieces are meant to go but I'm so dizzy and confused! 
Zorena meanwhile is smashing the spin, currently bashing out nearly 4 hours of hoop a day! (That's a lot!) 

Look forward to seeing you all back in class from this weekend onwards! This holiday is flying by! xxx

Greetings to you all from the European Aerial Dance Festival 2019! 
Zorena & Emily are once again attending the annual aerial festival, held in Eastleigh but attracting an audience from across Europe. Read on to find out how we are getting along! 

So, we are coming to you initially from Day 3 of the 10 day festival. Our bodies are pretty broken and our brains are already full (well, Emily's brain is full... Zorena's brain is LIMITLESS) 
In our first week, between the 2 of us we are attending 9 workshops per day, totalling 15 hours of Cyr Wheel, 15 hours of trapeze,10 hours of flexibility, 7.5 hours of silks, 7.5 hours of Acro and 7.5 hours of hoop! Safe to say we are going to be EXHAUSTED by the time the weekend comes! Although classes at the studio are not running for these two weeks that doesn't mean that your instructors aren't learning all kinds of new and interesting torture methods/conditioning techniques. 

Something that sets the EADF apart is the dance/circus atmosphere. Coming from the pole industry, which is very different, can sometimes mean that I feel like a hard, unimaginative trick-monkey when compared with the other attendees. Everyone here likes to flow and touch and express themselves in floaty new ways, and then here's Emily! Intermediate hoopers watch out, I'm taking notes and I may invite you to express your feelings through movement over the next term! 
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EADF
Our most recent and longest running road trip can’t really be classed as a road trip... Since it was literally round the corner at The Point in Eastleigh. The EADF is an annual aerial dance festival run by Gravity & Levity that we are ridiculously lucky to have so near to home. Zorena attended last year solo, but this year she had to put up with my company!

The EADF isn’t like anything I have ever done before. As well as learning amazing new aerial apparatus we were also coached on how to breathe, where to look, how to create an atmosphere, entering and exiting the stage as well as some intense massage techniques. There was a lot more physical contact than I was expecting! Anyone who has ever tried to hug me knows how rigid and awkward I am… Imagine my surprise on the first day to be full-body-massaged by several strangers! Honestly though, by day 5 I was just going with it!  We had heaps of fun and adventures, met some lovely new friends and connected with lots of people in the aerial community.

Zorena, Eleanor (one of Zorena’s regular university attendees and all round aerial enthusiast) and myself were signed up for dance trapeze, cocoon & massage, with the boss doing cyr wheel on top of all that too! The week flew by, as is always the case when you are enjoying yourself. We worked hard, played hard, made eye contact with lots of people, danced, rolled, dropped and generally caused the usual havoc! The instructors and teaching assistants were all incredible, engaging and adorable.

At the weekend, as a final farewell to our week at the EADF, Zorena and I took part in a couple of one-off workshops. We were joined in counterbalance fabric by Sharon, our lovely pole instructor that heads up the Eastleigh side of SFAA, and by Lexi, one of our most advanced hoop and pole students for double cloud swing with the amazing Saar Rombout (again, check out her Instagram for some amazing aerial).

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Our instructor introductions wouldn't be complete without Zorena! As chief instructor, studio manager and general all-round boss of everything she makes up the majority of the workforce here at SFAA! Let's find out more about our supreme overlord by reading on below! 

I had always wanted to do pole... As a child in the late 90's we drove past a lap dancing and pole club in town, I asked what went on there and my Dad carefully explained. I asked if the girls there made good money - he must have said yes because I decided there and then that that is what I wanted to do!! My parents didn't discourage it too much, as it was never going to happen - at the time my little sister dreamed of farming pigs! Years later, going through the school system had convinced me to aim for a career as a doctor or a teacher, and my earlier aspirations were forgotten. I was always active though, as a competitive gymnast and gymnastics coach, a swimmer, lifeguard and dancer.

In 2009 I started my degree in Modern Languages at Southampton University. It was around that time that I discovered that Julie was teaching pole, so I started lessons with her regularly in 2010. I had the best part of a year off while I was living in Majorca training to be an English teacher, and then Italy as part of my degree. I started teaching a couple of pole classes a week when I returned in September 2012. This is also when I started hoop! The following year I started teaching hoop too, 

I teach classes in pole, aerial hoop, youth hoop, youth pole, stretch and flex, body sculpt and kettlebells at the studio as well as private lessons. I am also the official instructor at both Solent and Southampton Universities. I am a PDC Level 4 approved instructor. I am the head instructor at SFAA and as a sole trader, I am the business owner - which some of you may not know! A lot of people think I work for Julie, that's not actually true - she runs lessons for SFAA - although I hire the studio from her... I do most of the behind-the-scenes admin, advertising, newsletters, website editing, finance and answering emails/teamup queries! (Although I must admit I've had a LOT of help from Emily with all this in the last year!) 

I've done a fair amount of competing, both as a solo and doubles act, and some guest performing and judging too. Plus I've been organising the Solent Pole & Aerial Hoop Competition with Julie for the last few years, and the youth aerial hoop competition, as well as our summer showcases too.

A couple of years ago I suddenly got into the gym and decided to train for and compete in some fitness modelling competitions. I won my first one in 2015, then competed in the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion show in London.  In 2016 I went to Miami Pro and placed 2nd in both the Muscle and Figure Model categories, gaining my Pro card, I also placed 5th in the Fitness Model category!

I have done my level 3 Personal Training and Sports Massage courses and these are other services I've been offering and will offer again soon now I'm back off maternity leave. I had my son in April 2017, I continued training at the gym and studio, and teaching lessons until a couple of weeks beforehand and returned to teaching a few weeks after! I even competed in the elite category of a pole competition when he was just 13 weeks old!

In case you were wondering - I did graduate with my degree, I've not really used it since but I am glad I have it! And my sister is NOT a pig farmer (although I'm sure she still would be if she had the chance!) Running SFAA is mentally and physically draining, and teaching pole & hoop is not the money spinner people seem to think it is, but I do really love it and wouldn't have it any other way. (In general!) 

Another newbie to the SFAA team, Angela is a great teacher and has made a real impression on all of her regular students from a Thursday night! She is known for her innovative combos and beautiful flow. She's a little powerhouse and a fantastic instructor! Read on below to find out more about her! ​