Jo Celso aka JoannaAnimal

I was not a born performer. In fact, I was a heroically unathletic child with almost no formal dance training and two very busy working-class immigrant parents.

The upshot of this is that I both know what it is like to start learning something physical from scratch as an adult. I know what it’s like to try climbing a set of silks for the first time and think “I’ll never be able to do that,” or have trouble touching my toes, and I definitely know what it’s like to be the least coordinated person in a dance class. I can connect with my students over that struggle because I remember that very same struggle 5 years ago when I decided to take a leap and learn to dance.

At the time, I was finishing my final year of college. I’d spent most of my 20s as a sponsored athlete racing fixed gear bicycles in the US and Europe (something I also picked up from scratch as an adult who could barely ride without training wheels and certainly didn’t know how to change a tire, but that’s a whole separate story) before breaking my pelvis, which ended my cycling career. Bored, I convinced my partner to sign up for a beginner swing dance class and found that, when I decided to go in with no expectations and try my hardest, I actually really LIKED learning new things and surprised myself with how much of a difference patience and practice made over time. This led me to sign up for a beginner burlesque workshop (full disclosure, I am NOT naturally sexy, so this was more of a challenge than I anticipated.) Then, at one of my first shows, I saw a performer do an aerial hoop act and BAM— I decided I just had to try getting off the ground.

The summer after graduating college, I started hunting for jobs in Biology (my major), but had become so dedicated to aerial silks and hoop that a local gym offered to let me teach a class a week. I had so much fun and increasingly positive feedback from my students that I wound up picking up more classes until I abandoned biology job-hunting all together in favor of my passion: learning to defy gravity and sharing the experience with others.

Fast forward to now, where I now teach full time and perform across the Bay Area and beyond. I’ve been featured in commercials and even a music video, and continue to both impress and gross out my friends by putting my toes on my head. At some point on my journey, I started embracing my frantic energy and the unusual shapes my body makes (I refer to it as “embracing my inner gremlin”) and have developed a unique, dynamic and gooey aerial style. I enjoy encouraging my students to experiment and, above all, appreciate and express their own unique bodies.

You can find Jo on Instagram @joannaanimal.

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.