Aerial Yoga: Enthusiasts find new home in Ramsey

The author, at center, gets a lift at Tribe Body in Ramsey.

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Posted: Wednesday October 5, 2011, 1:55 PM

Aerial Yoga: Enthusiasts find new home in Ramsey

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By MIKE KERWICK of The Record

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My ankles wrapped in purple silk, I dangle upside down, involuntarily swaying back and forth. Hovering inches above a green yoga mat, I smile — also involuntarily. I suspect it's from the blood rushing to my head.

There are seven of us here at Tribe Body, a dance and exercise studio in Ramsey. The class we are taking is aerial yoga — a novelty act here in New Jersey, but an act hoping to shed that label.

The concept of aerial fitness is not exactly new. Heather Hammond, the artistic director of Helium Aerial Dance, has been working with silks in Manhattan and Brooklyn for 12 years. Crunch Fitness offers antigravity classes at its East 58th Street location in Manhattan.

"With Cirque du Soleil being so popular, people are clamoring for classes," Hammond said. "It's especially popular for women 20-35. I get a ton of people in that age range."

Here on the Jersey side, Toni Chianetta — my instructor on this Thursday morning in Ramsey — teaches four adult aerial classes a week at Tribe. Each class can accommodate up to 12 people. She takes walk-ins, but prefers it when people register. These classes draw crowds.

"I think people are just trying to find new ways to make working out pleasurable," Chianetta said. "I think everybody is pretty much sold on the health benefits of working out. But monotony sets in. People are trying to reach out and try for new and different things."

And that is where aerial yoga enters the fray. She rattled off a list of its benefits: flexibility, agility, strength…

"A lot of things that people find hard to do on their own," Chianetta said. "It's not really a self-motivating thing. So you get them in this group atmosphere, and it all of a sudden makes stretching fun."

Six silks drop from the ceiling. They look a little like fancy window dressing, a little like high-end scarves. I sit inside the cradle of one and begin pumping my legs. Chianetta adjusts the height of the silks so that they hang near waist level. And then class starts.

After opening with a traditional Dharma talk, Chianetta turns on some music. We switch back and forth, spending about a minute on the silks, then a minute on the yoga mats. Chianetta puts us in the King Dancer pose, then the Dhanurasana. She tries to structure her class so that the poses we do on the silks mirror the poses we do on the mats.

"It kind of reinforces what you've done," Chianetta said. "It also works different muscles. So there are poses that when you're in the hammock are more difficult. And then when you do the same pose on the mat, it may be easier. And vice versa."

The silk is more forgiving, according to Chianetta. But I learn that "forgiving" is a relative term. I rely on the compassion of two classmates: Annette Adams, the 58-year-old woman on my left, and Kate Kellish, the 23-year-old woman on my right. When I get tangled — and this happens at least three times during the 55-minute class — Adams, Kellish and Chianetta take turns rushing over to help.

"The first couple of times I did it, I felt really uncoordinated, a little spazzy," Kellish said. "When you start coming for a while and you get the hang of it, it's a little bit more smooth. There's a little bit more of a flow to it."

Hammond's classes are not limited to yoga poses. According to her website, her sessions incorporate "the physical disciplines of ballet, modern dance, aerial arts, gymnastics, yoga, traditional gym training, Pilates and spiritual practices."

"One thing we do borrow from yoga: Yoga is really about being present in the moment," Hammond said. "And in aerial you have to be present in the moment. If you're thinking about what happened at work today, you're going to fall [out of the silk]."

I do not fall, but leave the studio feeling the same way Kellish felt her first time attempting this. Really uncoordinated. A little spazzy.

Where to go

Tribe Body, 25 N. Spruce St., Ramsey