Aerial Fit For Life Retreat
(formerly known as Circus Fit Intensive)
Learn the tools for a life-long aerial practice.
Drills, Injury Prevention, Cross Training, Conditioning, Pilates, Flexibility
with Master Teacher Kerri Kresinski
Casa Chango Mexico, Puerto Escondido
Nov 29-Dec 5, 2025
BIPOC Scholarship Available. Apply here by Aug 1.
Learn how to train effectively for progress & longevity & to integrate your aerial practice into your life.
Aerial Fit For Life Retreat (formerly CIRCUS Fit Intensive) is perfect for aerial students who want to find autonomy, sustainability and longevity in their practice. It will help you:
- focus and organize your practice (aerial and floor) towards making steady progress.
- use technique, strength, body awareness, and active mobility to execute skills and tricks more efficiently and beautifully.
- create muscle memory bringing your practice into your body and out of your head.
- use cross-training on the floor and apparatuses to improve your aerial skills.
- create a sustainable, life-long aerial practice that serves your personal health, fitness and creative goals.
- find and understand your core strength & stability, and how to use it in your aerial practice.
- up your game as an instructor.
Classes
Mornings begin with a short applied anatomy lesson helping students understand body mechanics and injury prevention. This is followed by a warm up leading into floor and aerial drills on various apparatuses. The focus is using intermediate foundational exercises to make progress for strength, technique & longevity working towards more advanced skills and creating a balanced aerial practice. Our master teacher, Kerri, will give tools for organizing and planning a home practice that will support each student’s aerial goals, desires, and dreams. A strong emphasis is put on setting ourselves up for success in a realistic, progressive, and satisfying way for each student. The overall goal is to deepen our connection to ourselves in relation to our movement and aerial practices.
Afternoon classes explore flexibility, cross training on the floor, and injury prevention. These skills directly compliment your aerial work and will fundamentally change your aerial practice. There will be one day focused on creative work on your apparatus of choice. There will be time every day dedicated to informal apparatus work where we can integrate the information while playing in a creative and curious perspective.
Open gym is available outside of class times. There will be plenty of time to swim, relax, and adventure!
Who should come?
Aerial Students
This retreat focuses on solidifying and refining foundational techniques of aerial training to enhance your skills and your practice. Aerial students from the range of intermediate through advanced level will benefit from this retreat. This retreat is not appropriate for total beginners in aerial arts. If you are a beginner, we recommend the Beginner Aerial Retreat
Aerial Teachers
Aerial Teachers and aspiring teachers can up their game at this retreat. Kerri will give you new approaches to teaching, smarter progressions, more efficient techniques, and new perspectives on a well rounded practice. Your students (and future students) will be grateful that you came!
BIPOC Scholarship Available.
Daily Schedule Sample:
Everything is optional.
- 7:30-9:30 am: Coffee, Tea and Breakfast
- 9:40-10am: Applied Anatomy
- 10am-12:30pm: Warm up, Floor & Aerial Drills
- 1pm: Lunch
- 2-5pm: Pool-time, siesta, relaxing
- 3:30pm: Afternoon Treats & Ice Coffee
- 4:30-6pm: Flexibility, Cross Training & Injury Prevention
- 6-7pm: Sunset Aerial Play
- 7pm Dinner
- 8-10pm Evening activities
We will take you to our favorite local beaches, our local night market, and to release baby turtles into the sea. There are evening adventures to a bioluminescent lagoon and local night market.
Prerequisites
You should have an understanding of and be able to execute the following skills. You do not have to do these skills perfectly. It can be ugly and messy. If you only have experience with the skills on one apparatus, that is ok.
- Bent arm hold 5 seconds (without touching the floor)
- Climb up using feet and arms
- Straddle invert (in the air, no jump)
- Hip key on silks/rope
- Any foot wrap on silks/rope
- Knee hang on trapeze or hoop
- Some experience with front & back balance on sling, trapeze, or hoop
Your coach: 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
Classes/ Activities include:
Aerial Technique & Drills
Aerial Conditioning
Pilates for Aerialists
Cross Training
Flexibility
Functional Anatomy
Injury Prevention
How to Create a Home Practice that Supports your Aerial Training
What’s included:
- Ground transportation to/from the Puerto Escondido Airport (PXM) to our accommodations*
- Nov 29-Dec 6, 2025 – Arrive on Nov 29. Depart on Dec 5.
- Feb 21-28, 2026 – Arrive on Feb 21. Depart on Feb 28.
- Accommodations for the duration of the retreat
- Daily meals – breakfast, lunch, dinner, & desserts and treats!
- 2 daily classes
- Applied anatomy workshops
- Aerial photoshoot (with up to 15 photos)
- Trips to a local beaches and markets
- Baby turtle release excursion
- Trip to our local night market
- 24 hour use of swimming pool and community space
- Evening Jacuzzi soaks
- Starlink Wifi Internet
Retreat Pricing in USD
| Room | Early Bird Price | Full Price |
| Shared Dorm (up to 4 people) | $2000 | $2300 |
| Shared room w shared bathroom (1 king size or 2 individual beds) booking with a friend | $2200 | $2500 |
| Shared room w private bathroom (1 king size or 2 individual beds) booking with a friend | $2300 | $2600 |
| Private room with shared bathroom | $2500 | $2800 |
| Private room w private bathroom | $2800 | $3100 |
| Private room w private bathroom & air conditioning | $3100 | $3400 |
$500 Deposit is required to secure your spot.
Early bird price ends August 15.
Full tuition is due by one month before the first day of the retreat.
Rates refer to cost of one person’s tuition.
Couples must sign up together.
Significant others and friends who are not taking classes are welcome at a special price.
Dorms are mixed gender.
Click here for room descriptions.
Need a payment plan? Email us at SweetRetreatsMexico@gmail.com and we will set that up for you.
Deals and Discounts
- Book and pay early and save $300!
- Refer a friend to any of our retreats and save $100 with our referral discount.*
- Sweet Retreats Alumni discount $200.
BIPOC scholarship available.
Links for more information:
- Accommodations
- Meals and Food
- Getting Here – Travel Advice
- Weather in Puerto Escondido
- Testimonials
- Excursions
- Registration FAQ’s
Email SweetRetreatsMexico@gmail.com with any questions.
Student Testimonials
This retreat is a holistic journey towards personal growth. Not only you learn the best drills to get stronger, more flexible and improve your lines, you also learn how the main joints and muscles involved in the basics aerial skills intertwine and work together to create stability in the air while preventing injuries, and how to develop self awareness on the part of your body engaged in every movement. I feel much more confident in being able to set up my own practice in order to reach my aerial goals.
Kerri and Lily always encourage you to listen to your body, be gentle to yourself, put in the work and trust the science of movement, you’ll get there! “Start Where you are and set yourself up for success” It’s the first sentence I heard Kerri say and I’ll never ever forget it!
The best part of all the retreat? The empowering energy that spreads across the gym, like a spell, where all of us, for a few hours, are able to let go of the outer world and live exactly the moment: train hard if we have to, have fun with creative and liberating dance warm ups, listen and open up to others during practice of opening and closing circles.
I totally recommend it to everyone interested in bringing their practice to the next level, learning an effective and fun way of teaching aerial skills and to whoever just wants to live an extremely fun and valuable experience!
Barbara Ferretti – 2025
I used to take group classes as my primary source of training, but the circus fit intensive gave me the tools to direct my own growth and own my practice. It’s a wonderful program and the shift in mindset is huge. It felt like growing up.
Ezra
“The Circus Fit Intensive was incredible. Kerri has such a deep understanding of the body; she could instantly spot what I needed to engage to make a skill click. Sometimes it was just the smallest tweak, but it made a huge difference! By the end of the intensive, I felt real gains in my inverts, middle splits, and beats. I left with a better understanding of how to work with my body and a plan to keep the progress going. Kerri and Lily are such thoughtful, clear teachers, and I made huge progress with my beats, inverts, and body awareness. So much love to Kerri and Lily for all their hard work supporting my aerial growth. I am so freaking grateful to all the work they put in—it’s absolutely seen in every class.”
Samantha Wangberg
I was absolutely blown away by the insane amount of love, care and expertise I experienced at Casa Chango!
Trish Lamanna Oct 2023
I signed up for the 1 week lyra intensive and it not only improved the integrity of my movements, strength and confidence, it also immersed me in a group of the best humans I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting and learning with.
Kerri and Dakota are completely inspiring with the amount of care, expertise and embodied insight they share based off of decades of movement art experience. Eli, Marcel, Stu and the rest of the Casa Chango staff are incredible humans that put so much love into what they do. Also, the food is amazing!!! I’m very grateful I was able to experience this retreat with everyone involved, I miss everyone already and highly recommend it to anyone considering a retreat experience. You will not regret it!!
“Kerri’s teaching is accessible, creative, and empowering. This retreat was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. I can’t wait to go back. Taking what I’ve learned here and applying it in my home studio has inspired me to level up my aerial game; advancing my technique, my understanding of theory, and my creativity and intentionality. I cannot say enough good things about how enriching and powerful this experience in Mexico is, including the people I met along the way.’
Kieran Stilson, 2022
“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
“Not only did I learn how to manage Ariel math and exploration, but I learned about what muscles to use and how to engage them. We also spent a significant amount of time learning how to use our bodies artistically through dance and the importance of proper strength and flexibility. Kerri is an incredible teacher. I plan on attending regular retreats.”
Elizabeth Rillera, 2022
“Kerri’s enthusiasm is infectious; she is a master teacher who generously shares all her wisdom accumulated from years of practicing her art and craft.”
Linda Huang – San Francisco, Ca 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– including my journey with aerials. Kerri is skilled and optimistic, is genuinely there for you, and 100% rooting for you to “get that thing” and if you’re not there yet, can show you what needs to be done to get you to progress. 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 at Sweet Retreats was a workshop on many levels, and not just in the air.
Elizabeth Ferretti, April 2019
An unbelievable experience for those who are seeking to level up. Taught by two of the most experienced aerialists and very well managed by an amazing crew. I really enjoyed my stay, learned a ton and made some great friends!
Soroush, Oct 2023
I had such a great time during my 1 week intensive retreat, and I highly recommend it to everyone! The education and training I received from Kerri and Dakota were already worth the investment. They are experts in their field and even better at teaching. Casa chango felt like a 2nd home. I loved the food, staff, people, rooms, and the views!
Maleia Rose, Oct 2023
Circus Fit Intensive was life changing for my practice. I used to not like going to the gym because I didn’t know how to use it to help me with circus stuff, but the retreat gave me the tools to train. I also learned to be more kind to myself about training which helped me come at it with a different strategy. Hearing about your process and how you got to where you are was a huge inspiration for me to honor my own process.”
Morgan Tarling, San Francisco, CA 2016
I just completed Kerri’s Sweet Retreats Circus Fit Intensive Retreat and I just can’t wait to do another one. It was an amazing and life changing experience. This was an all levels week long retreat in Puerto Escondido Mexico. I was a little nervous coming in as a beginner but Kerri and Dakota made me feel so welcome and confident. I learned so much and feel so much stronger. I have come away with so many tools to improve my practice. The whole week was planned so meticulously and Kerri is so organized. Everything ran smoothly. Kerri and her husband Stu (who is the incredible chef/photographer there) are loving professionals who are so much fun and they also really care about their community in Mexico. They support local businesses and are so respectful. Great vibes, great training and great people!! Thank you Kerri xoxo
Lily Achatz – August 2021
ECO RETREAT CENTER
Casa Chango is an Eco Retreat Center. We do our best to live in harmony with the natural world. We are off grid, and use 100% solar power. We have dry composting toilets and use the humanure and food waste to create soil to feed the amazing plants and trees all around the property. We ask all of our staff and guests to come with the mindset of learning about and respecting nature. The gray water from our sinks and showers filter out to water the plants. Therefore we ask you to bring natural shampoos, conditioners, and toothpaste to your retreat. All of our buildings were designed and built to be cool and comfortable, and we hope you enjoy your stay with us.
Casa Chango is an animal friendly place. There are several friendly animals on site including dogs and cats. They will not enter your rooms, but they will be on property and in common areas during your retreat. Animal lovers will be in their happy place.
Native insects live in this area of Mexico. We fumigate regularly to keep insects away and out of your rooms. We also acknowledge that the insects are an important part of keeping nature in balance. Most of the community spaces at Casa Chango, including the gym, dining area, pool, lounge are open air which means there are no walls. You can expect to see a variety of native insects, birds, and lizards during your visit. We hope you enjoy the experience of living more connected to nature.
August
*Food service begins with lunch on arrival day and ends with breakfast on departure day. All meals, snacks, and desserts are provided. The food is amazing!
*Your taxi to/from the PXM airport is included if you arrive/depart on designated days. Click here for info about getting to Puerto Escondido.
*Referrals must be first time retreaters and not already have had communication or a relationship with Sweet Retreats.
Cancellation Policy:
- No Refunds.
- Deposits are non-refundable and non-transferrable.
- Cancel more than 60 days before 1st day of retreat: 50% of your tuition paid can transfer toward a future Sweet Retreat within 18 months of cancellation.
- Cancel 30-60 days before the 1st day of retreat: 25% of your tuition paid can transfer toward a future Sweet Retreat within 18 months of cancellation.
- Cancellations up to 30 days before the 1st day of the retreat will not be credited or refunded for any reason.
- At the time of payment for your retreat, we strongly advise purchasing a travel insurance policy. Make sure your policy covers the full cost of the retreat fee, as well as unexpected cancellation, trip delay, losses and other risks. Also, consider protection for canceled or delayed flights, lost luggage, medical needs while traveling. Please bring the policy with you in case of emergency. Click here for IM Global Insurance. Click here for WanderWell Insurance.
- See complete list of terms and conditions here.