Aerial Mentorship Program
Reach your professional goals.
Become a Professional Aerial Artist or Teacher.
Mentorship Programs happen simultaneously with Circus Residency.
Upcoming Circus Residency Programs
June 1-July 29, 2023
Are you ready to make the leap from a recreational aerial student to a professional aerial artist or teacher?
Aerial Mentorship will transform your relationship with yourself and your aerial practice.
Dive in as a student, and emerge as a professional.
Whether you want to pursue a career as a professional aerial performer or teacher (or both), your path will demand a tremendous amount of study, discipline, motivation, perseverance, passion, and guidance. You must dedicate a portion of your life towards mastery and mystery. You must believe in yourself and know 100% that this is what you want to do. You must have self-discipline, self-awareness, and a lot of energy to put toward your goals.
What is the difference between a recreational aerial student and a professional aerial artist and/or teacher? In a nutshell, it is redirecting the focus of your training from pure enjoyment and self-exploration to the pursuit of mastery and attention to detail so that you can make a living teaching and/or performing aerial arts. You must have a deep respect for your craft and your body, and a deep curiosity to both ask questions, and seek the answers. Your focus will shift and so will your relationship to aerial.
To be a professional aerial teacher, you must:
- know what you know and know what you don’t know.
- have desire and drive to learn what you don’t already know.
- be curious and think outside the box.
- be truly passionate about teaching and helping people.
- have a self-reflection practice.
- be dedicated to your continued study of the body and your craft for as long as you are a teacher.
The end goal is to teach with respect and have a desire to keep growing and learning.
To be a professional aerial artist, you must be willing to:
- stay focused and train hard.
- focus on your weak spots and lean into your strengths.
- train the not fun stuff even when you don’t feel like it
- confidently sell your act.
- endure setbacks, rejections, and critique.
- allow your failures to ignite perseverance.
- invest a lot of time, energy, and money into the business side.
- be an entrepreneur and hustle to get work.
The end goal is to have an act worth selling, and to sell it!
If this is you, read on.
Sweet Retreats’ Aerial Mentorship is an in-person mentor style coaching that runs during our residency programs. Mentees live at Casa Chango during our Circus Residency Programs. It is important that the mentor/mentee relationship is a great fit and they both feel that their goals can be achieved together. As a prerequisite to the mentorship program, students must first participate in our Residency Course Program and/or have already established a working relationship with their mentor studying aerial technique, artistry, flexibility, acrobatics, handstands and dance. After graduating from our course program, students can then apply for the mentorship program.
During the mentorship, mentees will approach their training with a serious and dedicated focus. There will be classes, workshops, and checkins with their coaches and mentor throughout the program to keep them on track with their professional goals.
Who should apply?
Aerial students who know 100% that they want to pursue a career as an aerial artist/performer or teacher should apply. They must already have an understanding of foundational skills of their chosen apparatus, and are looking for guidance to take their skills to a professional level. Aerial artist mentees will focus on building and refining a professional act. Aerial teacher mentees will focus on building one or many aerial classes that they will teach with confidence.
It is important for the mentor/mentee relationship to be a strong and easy working relationship. Therefore they must have experience working together. Anyone interested in the Mentorship Program must first complete at least one Residency Course Program (and/or have already established a working relationship with their mentor) to solidify their training and understanding of theory, anatomy, safety, and technique before applying for the Mentorship Program. On some occasions, students may be invited to apply for the Mentorship Program without completing a Residency Program by submitting an audition video and video interview.
What is the commitment?
The pursuit of mastering aerial arts should be viewed as a life-long research project. Your commitment depends on your desire to be the best you can be. We encourage serious students to apply. Weekly training and study commitment is between 15-20 hours per week of residency course program group classes, 2-5 hours per week of mentorship small group and private classes, and about 5 hours per week of self-study, drills, practice, and research. Did we mention that this program is for serious students only?
Upon completion of the Circus Residency portion of the Mentorship, Mentees will be required to do follow up work to take the next steps towards their career.
What is the mentor/mentee relationship and culture?
We are committed to a respectful, inclusive, kind, direct and supportive learning and living environment. Shaming for any reason is unacceptable. Coaches/mentors are invested in the well being of their students and are dedicated to satisfying outcomes on both sides. We choose the path of an aerialist because it is our heart’s passionate desire. Therefore we must approach our training and study with respect and reverence for ourselves, our bodies, the craft, and each other. We must find a way to make the process of learning and growing satisfying, sustainable, and as much as often, fun! That is why we do it.
Teacher Training Mentorship
The first step of being a teacher is to have a full and comprehensive understanding of the craft you wish to teach. Then you must be dedicated to deepening that understanding and reaching towards mastery. Once you have knowledge that you would like to share with others, your next step is to learn how to teach it. You must be willing to practice and learn from your failures.
This well rounded program allows students to completely immerse themselves in aerial arts to understand technique, theory, safety, creativity, skills progressions, and how to joyfully and confidently approach teaching. Not only will your technical skills improve, but you will understand how to guide your students and yourself to continue to make progress.
Learning to be a teacher takes time and practice.
One Aerial Teacher Training Course is just the beginning of the journey to be an aerial teacher. An aerial teacher’s commitment and dedication to understanding aerial arts, anatomy, technique, and problem solving will be your key to their path as an aerial teacher.
Our Mentorship Program will provide mentees with both one on one instruction, problem solving skills, and the opportunity to practice teaching with their mentor’s support and guidance. They will have a comprehensive start to teaching as well as the understanding of how to take ownership of their teaching skills and teach with confidence.
Mentees will leave the program with the confidence created from practice and honest, constructive, and kind feedback from other students and coaches. They will leave the program ready to teach the classes they created and more.
Weekly classes include:
-2-3 hours of teaching practicum, workshopping, and lecture
-1-2 hours of anatomy, inversion technique, aerial conditioning
-You will teach or assist 1-3 public community classes per week (w feedback and support from mentor)
Required Reading:
Applied Anatomy of Aerial Arts by Emily Scherb
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Required Listening:
Mastery vs. Success: a conversation between Brené Brown and Dr. Sarah Lewis
Suggested Reading:
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
Taking Route to Fly by Irene Dowd
The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery by Sarah Lewis
Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron
Aerial Artist Mentorship
Performing an aerial act is one of the most exhilarating experiences and has the power to change lives. Making a living as a professional aerial artist is not an easy task. The industry is competitive, and artists have to be on top of their game. A professional aerialist must dedicate their life to taking care of their body, refining their work, staying motivated and inspired, cross training for injury prevention. On top of that they must be willing to hustle for gigs, confidently talk about and show their work and its value. It is a full time job and requires a dedicated, strong, and confident person to achieve.
A professional aerial artist must be serious and focused on their goal.
This program helps transform a serious recreational aerialist into a professional artist with a sellable aerial act. The technical focus of the mentorship program will be filling in the gaps including strength, flexibility, lines, injury prevention, and skills. The creative focus will be on exploring and refining personal style, musicality, choosing a song, and building a bad ass act. Workshops focusing on make up, costuming, and choosing music for aerial will be included as well.
Mentees will be supported and held accountable on the business end of their professional endeavors including making a professional video, professional photos, press kit, and website.
Mentees will leave the program with a professional aerial act that they feel confident and ready to sell as well as a professional video and studio photos. They will have a business trajectory and plan for focusing their marketing and schmoozing the industry with respect and confidence. This will only be achieved if they do the work.
Mentorship includes:
(in addition to all Residency Course Program Classes)
-weekly artistic check in with mentor
-weekly private or small group technical class
-make-up workshop
-promotional & marketing strategies
-professional video of your act
-professional photos
Required Reading:
Applied Anatomy of Aerial Arts by Emily Scherb
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Required Listening:
Mastery vs. Success: a conversation between Brené Brown and Dr. Sarah Lewis
Suggested Reading:
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
Taking Route to Fly by Irene Dowd
The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery by Sarah Lewis
Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron
I recently completed the Aerial Silks Teacher Training with Coach Kerri this past July. Kerri always offers greater insight and understanding into technique and pathways in all of her classes, but the ATT really helped me break down and practice the fundamentals of teaching and gain deeper knowledge of aerial arts. Sweet Retreats’ ATT program not only helped me level up my personal practice, it gave me the confidence to immediately put what I learned to use and am now teaching teaching aerial basics and fitness in a class setting.
Erin Bratkovich August 2022
Space is limited
About your mentor
Kerri is the best aerial teacher I have ever had!
Julia Glünkin, 2022
Kerri Kresinski
Kerri is an aerialist, dancer, choreographer, and coach. She has been performing and teaching acrobatics, dance, and aerial arts for over 20 years. Her life’s work, as an artist and teacher, has been to develop and deepen her study of the body—physically, emotionally and spiritually. She has learned that anything is possible with patience, discipline and a positive attitude. She is truly a unique performer, engaging, thrilling, and moving audiences with her skills, style, and heart.
Kerri has always been the most passionate about movement. She started my dance lessons when she was 3 years old and over the next 25 years studied theater, acting, music, circus acrobatics and aerial arts. Her professional career as a multi-disciplinary performer brought her to shows and festivals all over the world. She feels that the body is the gateway to the higher powers for healing, transformation and expression.
Technique and physical strength didn’t come naturally to Kerri’s body, but her insatiable appetite for understanding the body helped her to figure it out. She has developed techniques using active flexibility, strength, and physics to work with physical movement and goals.
Kerri’s technical expertise comes from working with students of all ages, shapes, sizes, and challenges. She loves to figure out the best route for each individual, celebrating successes big and small. She has learned that anything is possible with patience, discipline, self-awareness, and a positive attitude.. Kerri’s knowledge of anatomy, physics, injury prevention, creative problem solving, and realistic goal setting makes her one of the most masterful coaches of her time.
Kerri teaches her students how to own their practice. Focusing on fundamental elements of technique, anatomy, and the physics of movement, her students learn how to train. Kerri goes beyond teaching skills and sequences. She teaches how to identify, alter, and create your own skills and sequences, and best of all how to fully embody the movement of each skill in the most satisfying way for the doer and the viewer. Technique, balance, stability, mobility, movement pathways, creativity, 360 degree movement, musicality, originality, intentional movement, elements of surprise and awe, and a deep connection to humanity is what you will get if you work with Kerri. She is truly one of a kind.
It is Kerri’s life’s purpose to support people in finding joy in their lives and make choices that serve them physically, emotionally, mentally, and energetically, to reduce stress and allow space to wake up all that is possible in this life. When we climb into our bodies with curiosity and joy, we cultivate self awareness that can open us up to creating a life that is better than we could have ever imagined.
You can find Kerri’s performance videos here and Circus Fit free online tutorial videos here. Find Kerri on Instagram @SweetCircusKerri.
Kerri is hands-down the best aerials instructor I’ve ever had. In our retreat, we had some students with 3 months of experience and some 7 years, and somehow she gave us all personalized attention and narrowed in immediately in each of our needs. She has an unparalleled knowledge of the human body and how to create a safe, sustainable aerials practice. Whether you are just getting started, or having been practicing for years, Kerri helps take your practice to the next level and teaches wrap theory in a way that makes learning new moves at any studio more feasible. All her classes are energetic and fun, often featuring easy cardio dance routines that double as specific muscle warmups. After working with Kerri in one residency, I was so hooked I came back for a second. She is a one-in-a-million teacher, who really lives eats and breathes her craft, and it shows!
Sophie Sandweiss, 2022
“Kerri imbues her classes with a really sweet combination of focused work, zany playfulness, and an earthy and body-positive sensuality. I walked away from my time as Kerri’s student more capable, skilled, and excited not just about aerial, but about the journey to reaching my goals. I typically have given myself a hard time about a number of things in life. Kerri is skilled and optimistic, is genuinely there for you, and 100% rooting for you. She knows the value of the hard or ugly work, but she knows how to do it in a way that is fun and full of compassion for yourself and your journey. I truly appreciate this woman and friend, and I now know that my time was a workshop on many levels.”
Elizabeth Ferretti – 2019
Tuition for Aerial Mentorship Program
Students must audition/interview for a spot in the Mentorship Program. Space is extremely limited.
The following rates refer to the cost of one person’s mentorship tuition. This fee will be added to the tuition of the Residency Course Program. Students must commit to at least one residency program.
$500 deposit is required to secure a spot. Listed in USD.
| Mentorship Program | cost |
| Aerial Teacher Training Mentorship | $3000 |
| Professional Aerial Performer Mentorship | $3000 |
Read more about the Circus Residency Program here.
Kerri Kresinski is such a wonderful person and teacher. Her passion and joy for aerial arts is contagious. Her depth of knowledge is deep and thoughtful. Her respect and reverence for the work is commendable and such a good example for ALL levels of aerial explorers, from beginner to professional.
Melissa Allen – August 2021
Upcoming Circus Residency Programs
June 1-July 29, 2023
Mentorship Programs happen simultaneously with Circus Residency.
Ready to apply?
If you have already completed at least one Circus Residency Program (or the equivalent) or are already working professionally as a performer and/or teacher, you are ready to apply.
Click the button below to fill out the application.
You must also apply for the Circus Residency Program for the dates that you wish to attend. Mentorship Programs happen simultaneously to Circus Residency Programs.
The only thing more satisfying than performing aerial arts is teaching aerial arts!
Every aerial teacher
Kerri genuinely loves to teach. You can learn so much just by taking her class and observing how she positions herself, how she talks, how she demonstrates and how she represents her art. I would highly recommend taking her classes and doing the teacher training with her to get a new understanding of your art.
Sonya Dessureault – August 2021
Links for more information:
- Aerial Residency Course Program
- Accommodations
- Meals and Food
- Travel info – our advice on booking your travel
- covid Policy
- Testimonials
- Excursions