Camps have begun, and the community is coming together in so many ways! This is our fourth summer in Ashland, and there is so much connecting happening at last! There is lots in this message, so I will let you enjoy...with my thanks for being a part of this journey!
Happy flying!
Sonya and the A3 team
Stilting for Juneteenth
Our stilt walkers participated in the Juneteenth Say Their Names Celebration picnic, adding another touch of magic to that day. I was able to articulate briefly my thoughts on teaching stilting with an anti-racist consciousness. Stilting has a very strong and sacred tradition within the African Diaspora, and as white-bodied teachers, honoring and educating about that tradition that is so inspiring is one small action I can take. The public art piece Ancestors Future: Crystallizing Our Call, will create a permanent installation celebrating Black voices and a commitment to dialogue and inclusivity in the Rogue Valley. Please please please if you are able to financially support the project learn more and donate on the BASE website.
Then Zaccho Youth Company came up for the weekend to share skills, see a play, and explore new things together - wall dancing at ScienceWorks, steel windows in the studio. It is powerful to retain these connections from my time dancing in the Bay, as Joanna Haigood was one of my earliest aerial teachers and choreographers...in the early 2000's!!
June's Gig Lab and Stilt Camp participants were fabulously received in Ashland's Fourth of July Parade and celebration. Stiltwalkers did the marathon of waiting and then walking a mile, with a few dance breaks. It was so fabulous! The the Gig Lab crew performed their newly created solos on the rig in Lithia in between free mini-classes that gave the community the chance to swing! A sunny and delightful day all around.
The parent and community involvement (delivering performers to locations, answering questions at the table, hauling equipment and stilts around town, walking alongside new stilt walkers for moral, and physical support) makes my heart so happy! You all are amazing, and let's have more fun!
Fall class sign up is underway!
Classes are filling up already...which is amazing and gratifying. We will start back on September 11, 2023.
We love what we do and Maia, Sam and I all recently finished a teacher training and are so excited to put it all into action this fall. So, the new addition - flying tiny people, is going to be awesome. Please spread the news to folks with littles from 1-5 years - we have Parent Child Play time, Fledgling Flyers and Chickadees back on the schedule with Maia, to get the wiggles out and let those strong little bodies fly safely.
The School Year 2023-24 tab has it all!
