Aerial Chains Retreat
Chains, Halloween, & Day of the Dead
Casa Chango in Puerto Escondido, Mexico
Instructor: Alec Stoddard
October 26-Nov 2, 2024
BIPOC Scholarship Available. Apply here by July 1, 2024.
Spend a week in paradise with new friends, the beach, delicious food, & Aerial CHAINS!
Experience Halloween & Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) in Mexico!
This Aerial Chains Retreat will allow students to indulge in the luxury of more consecutive time on chains to build their knowledge of and tolerance to the bruise noodles! Concepts will start low and slow, moving focus throughout the week from body part to body part while progressively building grip conditioning and choreography concepts.
When you aren’t training, you’ll be eating amazing, healthy food, lounging at the pool, swimming in the ocean, reading in hammocks, and enjoying being in nature. Optional extras include nature excursions and a night time epic photo shoot. Get ready to move, play, breathe, feel, stretch, and express. At Casa Chango you are invited to shine and be yourself!
This retreat will have 2 daily classes –
In the morning technique sessions, we’ll explore:
- Chain-specific grip and weight sharing
- Foundational skills like separating the loops
- Multiple types of spins and how to tame wobbles and speed on the heavy beasties
- Standing and balance skills
- Working with higher height: drop options and under the chains choreography
- Adding more sensitive body parts safely: wrists, elbows, and neck
- Student-directed choreography ideas
Afternoon classes will focus on:
- Ongoing desensitization care like chain-proofing clothing, bruise tending, and nervous system hygiene
- Recovery and supplementary physio
- Off-apparatus choreography building like music mapping and movement mining
- Armography! Exploring carriage of the upper body as an aerialist using their upper body for support
- Ground improv drills! Prepare to get weird and wiggle!
Skill Level & Prerequisites
Participants should be comfortable inverting and pulling up repeatedly, as well as have some spin tolerance already developed. This is not because the course is that demanding, but rather, the chains themselves can be! Knowing your baseline aerial conditioning is solid will help you focus on new chain-specific sensations and repetition!
Daily Schedule Sample: Everything is optional!
- 8-9:30 am: Coffee, Tea and Breakfast
- 11am-1pm: Aerial Chains Skills & Technique (some days this will be in the afternoon)
- 1pm: Lunch
- 1-3:30pm: Pool-time, siesta, relaxing
- 3:30pm: Afternoon ice coffee & sweet treats
- 5-6:30pm: Creativity, Recovery, & Nervous System Hygiene (some days this will be in the morning or after dinner)
- 7pm Dinner
- 8-10pm Evening activities
We’ll take you to our favorite beach for swimming, surfing, snorkeling, and releasing baby turtles into the sea.
Suggested equipment to bring to the retreat:
- -Layers for hips, thighs, ankles, shins, elbows
- Trapeze boots or gaiters if you own some!
- Plain rock rosin
- Ginger or Sea Bands for dizziness
- Arnica gel for bruising
Space is limited, so sign up now!
Your Teacher: Alec Stoddard
Alec Stoddard is a performance artist exploring themes of identity construction, body sovereignty, and kinesthetic strategies of queer survivance through the spectacular body. The sensation-based partnership he employs with looped chains approaches circus as a physical thinking exercise and the acrobatic body as a contemplation for euphoria-led guidance. With a diverse onstage background ranging from concert bassoonist to fetish artist to finally aerialist in 2013, their work has consistently straddled the worlds of low-brow underground and contemporary fine art.
Alec’s aerial understanding has expanded through student, teacher, and performer lenses. Originally from Orlando, Florida, USA, he was a hammock soloist and ensemble member of the performance troupe Suspended Artistry and a coach at Orlando Aerial Arts before moving to Los Angeles, California to further develop their work on aerial chains. Since living in LA, Alec has been the resident chain goblin at The Aerial House and has also been spreading the bruise noodle news to festivals like the Irish Aerial Dance Fest and the Summer Circus Festival. Their teaching style has evolved to mirror his own sensation-based research, rather than strictly syllabus-based learning, and they encourage chains students to use their own unique aerial and movement backgrounds to approach the immense possibilities of the heavy beasties.
You can find Alec’s website alecstoddard.com & their Instagram @alecwiththechains
Epic Nighttime Photo Shoots
Retreat Pricing (in USD):
| Room | Early Bird Price until June 1, 2024 | Full Price |
| Shared Dorm (gender mixed) | $2000 | $2300 |
| Shared Private Room (2 friends sharing a room) 1 king size bed or 2 individual beds | $2200 | $2500 |
| Private Room with Shared Bathroom | $2500 | $2800 |
| Private Room with Private Bathroom | $2800 | $3100 |
| Private Room with Private Bathroom and Air Conditioning | $3100 | $3400 |
Full tuition is due by Sept 15, 2024.
Rates refer to cost of one person’s tuition.
Couples must sign up together.
Rates refer to cost of one person’s tuition.
Couples/SO’s are welcome at an additional price.
What’s included:
- Ground transportation to/from the Puerto Escondido Airport (PXM) to our accommodations*
- Arrive on Oct 26. Depart on Nov 2.
- Accommodations for the duration of the retreat
- Daily meals – breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert & snacks
- 2 Daily classes (4-6 hours total/day)
- Aerial photoshoot
- Evening activities
- Trips to local beaches, baby turtle release, and night market
- 24 hour use of Swimming Pool, Jacuzzi, and Community Spaces
- High Speed Starlink Wifi Internet
- Evening Jacuzzi soaks
What People Are Saying:
For years I fantasied about leaving my daily reality to go train circus all day while living in community, being in the sunshine and not have to worry about food. I had that all with Sweet Retreats. I just completed a month of high class training, incredible food, sisterhood, dance, nature adventures & so much more that cannot be put into words.
The coaches are the real deal and trust me when I say you will be taken with the utmost care not just physically and in regards to your circus goals, but emotionally and even spiritually if you desire. It’s a circus experience for you that can truly be transformative, healing or intensely physical. The experience is crafted by you, held by an array of extremely qualified and caring professionals who are passionate about self expression, play & community.
If you are thinking about attending one or are on the fence trust me when I say you should absolutely invest in yourself. I cannot recommend Sweet Retreats enough. You’ll grow as a circus artist and person in ways that you can’t imagine.
Luna Mammon 2024
I truly don’t have enough words to describe how positive this experience was for me. I came to Sweet Retreats hoping to gain strength and endurance on the silks as well as improve my flow and sequencing in the air. I ended up leaving with so much more than that! Not only did I make substantial progress toward my goals, but I left feeling intrinsically connected to the art of aerial, dance, expression, and creation. Kerri creates such a special environment that nurtures growth and liberation, and that truly allows you to come into your own as an artist. I discovered that through being immersed in this incredible community, the aerial classes, the silliness, the improvisation and creative exercises, I unmasked a confidence to explore my art and express myself in a way that felt healing and inspiring. This was a invaluable gift from this experience that I will hold on to forever.
I could not recommend this special place enough for anyone who wants to feel the magic of circus and community.
Kristine Westergard
Sweet Retreats was so much more than I expected! I knew it was going to be an amazing experience, full of friends, circus arts and nature, but where they also really went above and beyond was the retreat center and the food and hospitality! Such a comfortable space for relaxing and enjoying the views. We had options for Eco-adventure excursions throughout the week! This place is a must see because they hit all aspects of a retreat and learning experience at a top tier!
Tailor Pollak
Questions? Email us at SweetRetreatsMexico@gmail.com.
Links for more information:
- Accommodations – room descriptions
- Meals and Food*
- How to get here. Info and advice on booking your travel to Puerto Escondido.**
- Weather in Puerto Escondido
- Testimonials
- Excursions
Discounts
- Sign up early to get the Early Bird Discount
- Refer a friend to any of our upcoming programs and get a $100 referral discount. You get $100 discount for each person you refer. Referrals must be for first timers at Sweet Retreats.
- Sign up on our mailing list to find out about more discounts.
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