Coaches & Staff
Welcome to Our Family
The moment you arrive on your Sweet Retreat, you will be treated like family by our friendly and extremely capable staff. From the food, to the cleaning service, to the organization and management, you are in great hands at Casa Chango.
Casa Chango Staff
Didi (kitchen manager), Hilario (maintenance & gardening), Juana (cleaning), Eli (general manager), Marcel (maintenance and roustabout), Kerri, Stuart, Carlos (kitchen)
These people make it all happen. We love and appreciate all the team effort that goes into giving you the best experience during your visit at Casa Chango. We welcome our guests to interact with our staff as much or little as they desire. We couldn’t do it without everyone’s help and commitment to a job well done.
Stuart & Kerri
Mama & Papa Chango
Stuart and Kerri are Mama & Papa Chango, owners and visionaries for Casa Chango. Stuart is the mind and muscles behind the design, construction, all things culinary, gardens & trees, and off-grid mastery. Stuart was born in Australia, and raised in Tanzania by his parents who are agricultural teachers. As an adult, Stuart spent 20 years working for the film industry where he honed his artistic eye for set and props design, lighting and photography. Now he channels all of that experience into Casa Chango. Together, Stuart and Kerri make a powerhouse team. Read about Kerri (Mama Chango) below.
World Class Instruction
Sweet Retreats is committed to offering world class instruction for our programs. This is where you can come to learn, grow, train, and understand your discipline in a way that is satisfying and sustainable. We curate our programs to give students the best possible training available. This means our teachers know how to set you up for success, how much or little to train to experience progress, and how to work towards YOUR goals with YOUR body. We pride ourselves on giving the best possible instruction that is well rounded, cumulative, and offers options for each person. Each retreat has a different focus. You can see a list of our upcoming retreats and links to each retreat’s description here
Kerri Kresinski
Head Coach & Director
Kerri Kresinski, founder, director, and head coach at Sweet Retreats, is an aerialist, dancer, choreographer, and coach. She has been performing and teaching acrobatics, dance, and aerial arts for over 25 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 is truly a unique performer, coach and mentor and her students’ biggest cheerleader.
Kerri has always been the most passionate about movement. She has dedicated her life (since age 3) to studying movement arts including dance, theater, acting, music, circus acrobatics, flexibility, fitness science, personal training, and of course aerial arts. She has also studied holistic health, herbalism, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, massage, and nutrition. Her professional career as a multi-disciplinary performer has brought her to shows and festivals all over the world.
Technique and physical strength never came naturally to Kerri’s body, but her insatiable appetite for understanding the body helped her to figure it out. She believes this is why she has such a passionate gift for teaching.
Kerri’s technical expertise comes from working with students of all kinds to figure out the best training for each individual. She has learned that anything is possible with patience, discipline, self-awareness, and a positive attitude.. Kerri’s is one of the most masterful coaches of her time.
Kerri teaches her students how to own their practice going beyond teaching skills and sequences. She teaches how to identify, alter, and create skills and sequences, and how to fully embody the movement of each skill in a satisfying way. She is truly one of a kind.
Current, Future, & Past Coaches at Sweet Retreats
Chloe Axelrod
Chloe Marvel Light Axelrod (aerial hoop, flexibility), a born and raised San Franciscian, has over 15 years of circus training, and over 10 of circus teaching. She trained with masters of acrobatics such as Mr Lu Yi, and Xia Ke Min, and of flying trapeze Scott Cameron. She has done every thing from doubles on the flying trapeze to sitting on her head in contortion to basing and flying for three high human towers. Chloe’s specialty is aerial hoop on which she has a solo act and a doubles act. With these acts, she synthesizes years of training, a love for spinning, strong, fierce passion for movement into a whirlwind of virtuosic expertise. Chloe teaches in the professional training program at the San Francisco Circus Center as well as recreational classes. Through teaching and performing she shares the magic of circus all over the world. chloeaxelrod.com (photo credit Stuart Polkinghorne)
Rain Anya
Rain is co-founder and co-artistic director of LA/Glasgow based aerial theatre company, Paper Doll Militia and has been creating, performing, and coaching with the company since its inception in 2006. Her teaching style focuses on gaining solid foundation, technique, and strength as well incorporating the creativity and artistry of this expressive discipline. Rain has taught studio classes and/or specialty workshops at over 50 aerial venues across the US and internationally. Rain is Yoga Alliance certified and has extensive knowledge in various other movement forms that inform her distinct style, including a lifelong background in theatre and dance. Rain has also worked as a trainer and consultant for theatre and film, notable clients include top Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif for her role in Dhoom 3, and sports legend Serena Williams. Currently, Rain teaches private lessons in Los Angeles, is a founder of the Paper Doll Militia Teacher Training Program, and leads aerial retreats in Greece, Mexico, and Panama.
PJ Perry
PJ Perry has been multi-disciplinary aerialist since 2008, specializing in corde lisse since 2013. She was introduced to the rope in 2012 during a varieté theater contract (nothing like learning by performing!). After finishing the contract, she realized she’d found her apparatus. Though PJ is primarily an autodidact, she sought help from multiple coaches along the way and has studied rope with Alex Allan, Emiliano Ron, Gabrielle Tramullas, Ezra Weill, and all of the amazing rope community found at rope meetings. PJ loves the simplicity of this apparatus and thrives on chasing momentum. Her performance work is defined by her love of the narrative, with a strong sense of intuitive pathways stemming from training and creating in isolation.
Holding a masters degree in kinesiology in addition to 20+ years of teaching experience, PJ strives to dive deep in her coaching. Her pedagogical background includes teaching Pilates to both students and teachers, anatomy and kinesiology for healing trades such as massage therapists and acupuncturists, lecturing in kinesiology at Western Washington University, and of course, coaching rope since 2017. She firmly believes that coaching should be comprised of encouraging self-discovery of pathways, learning multiple techniques, and pushing physical limits safely, in equal parts. Her progressions involve seemingly unrelated skills that utilize similar motor pathways but with graduated physical demand. This particular approach has enabled her to assist many students and performing artists to access one of the more complicated skills, rolling while ascending.
PJ currently lives in Bellingham, Washington, and coaches rope and handstands at the Bellingham Circus Guild and online, via her Patreon. She still performs and is always looking for the next fun opportunity to be creative. She has performed with the Acrobatic Conundrum, Circus Monti, Venardos Circus, the Aerialistas, Bellingham Circus Guild, the Dream Science Circus, Western Australian Circus Festival, Moisture Festival, Apogee Aerial Dance Festival, Southern Fried Circus Festival, Vashon Open Air Festival, Denver Aerial Arts Festival, Vancouver Circus Festival and in Stuttgart, Germany, at the Friedrichsbau Variete. Her most recent adventure was in collaboration with Eve Diamond (Girls Gone Rope) and they attended the Circus Princess Festival in Saratov, Russia, in October 2021.
Click here to see PJ on Instagram. Click here to see her website. Click here to see her patreon.
Alex Allen
Alex Allan is a Corde Lisse Artist and Dancer best known for his performative work that blends the boundaries of circus, dance and theatre. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Alex graduated with a Bachelor of Communications – Theatre & Media. Here he began exploring Circus techniques through the lens of Theatre. He then continued his formal Circus training in the Professional Aerial Program at the San Francisco Circus Center.
As an aerial and movement coach, Alex helps his students to develop a powerful yet graceful aesthetic in the air by conveying an understanding of momentum and efficient movement pathways. In his creative practice he is currently most drawn to developing research tools to create movement and choreography that isn’t restricted to the air but that can explore the horizontal space as well as the entire architecture of the ‘stage’.
He has both performed and taught workshops, retreats and teacher trainings across Europe, North America, and Australisia. Alex also currently teaches remotely through online coaching from his current home in Bristol, UK
Brit Crumpton
Brit is a movement artist fostering mental and physical empowerment through formative and inspired aerial coaching. The path she’s chosen in this life has always been about manipulating her body in artistic ways. For 19 years she trained and competed nationally in classical ballet and contemporary dance. In a rebellious turn of events around 2006, she traded her pointe shoes for circus props and gallivanted all over the country slinging fire on the streets for money. Those adventures cannon-balled her into the world of circus, and so began the wild love affair she has with aerial arts today.
She’s currently living in Hawaii where she coaches and mentors students 1-1 across the globe. As a way to connect with a wider range of artists geographically, Brit spends time cooking up virtual intermediate/advanced level aerial hoop workshops and virtual learning opportunities for the hoop community. She continues to fall in love with the process of being a student herself by seeking high level coaches and mentors in the industry to further develop her work. She’s studied extensively in aerial and flexibility with numerous coaches and has completed a plethora of anatomy, aerial movement, dance and coaching specific training programs from industry leading professionals.
Her approach as a coach is largely focused on deep diving into how individual humans execute movement in an effort to increase the scope of possibility for all bodies in the air. In addition to Brit’s infatuation with efficient training and creative development, she is unwavering in her quest for longevity in this art form. She’s passionate about chasing knowledge and uncomfortable situations where personal growth is imminent. Brit’s often looking for ways to share her work with the community on a deeper level and is actively contributing as a coach in The Parish, a virtual space for aerialists of all levels and disciplines—founded by Circus Mobility.
Jenny Tufts
Jenny has been throwing herself artistically at the ground since catching the flying trapeze bug while studying in New York in 2010. Deciding that a job in her academic field of study (politics) sounded exceptionally un-fun, she proceeded to live in 8 different countries across three continents taking jobs as an assistant editor, a live-in nanny, an English teacher, a university administrator, and a full-time dog walker. These occupations allowed her time to pursue a patchwork education in circus across various institutions including Circus Warehouse (NYC), Circus Oz (Melbourne), and Centro Acrobatico Fedriani (Madrid). Jenny specializes in aerial hoop and aerial spiral, as well as her hybrid apparatus ‘the infineight,’ created in collaboration with metal artist Tim Omspach. She also performs aerial harness/vertical dance, is pretty handy with a hula hoop, and might even get on a vertical apparatus if you pay her a lot of money. She is a born 3-high middle who will try anything twice, and an untrained but enthusiastic dancer. Jenny is a US citizen and current resident of Ireland – when not on tour, you can find her snuggling her two giant dogs on the coast of county Sligo. She is proud to be supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, as well as her beloved team over on Patreon. You can find her all over the internet under the name @circlecirque.
Rachel Strickland
Rachel Strickland is a performing artist, award winning choreographer, and development coach to artists and creative entrepreneurs. Classically trained in ballet since the age of three, she began her study of circus arts in 2007, developing a unique style and innovative approach to aerial hoop. Her work brought her international recognition, and she has coached, performed, and choreographed on four continents. She is the director of The Audacity Project, an 8-week guided process to equip artists and creatives with the tools necessary to be working professionals. Over her 14 year career as a coach and mentor, she has guided hundreds of artists through the creative process and into their own journeys towards creating sustainable, fulfilling work in their creative practices. She’s been featured in Authority Magazine and Thrive Global, and presented her stories and pedagogy on stages worldwide. Her passion is for creation- and supporting creatives to pursue their most authentic work. Given to excess and quixotic tendencies, Rachel specializes in aerial hoop choreography and the practice of telling stories. She lives in Charleston, SC with her husband, Shaun. They have no children so don’t ask, but they would like to meet your dog.
Jenn Bruyer
Jenn has been immersed in aerial arts since 2008. She is driven by her focus on fabric (silks) and sling (hammock) but also enjoys exploring cord lisse, cloud swing, trapeze, lyra, net and rope & harness. She has coached, choreographed and performed across the US from New York to Alaska. And has recently resettled in Seattle, WA after completing a 5 month 25 city workshop tour.
As an Aerial Coach, she seeks to provide the highest quality progressive instruction to aerialists of all abilities from novice to professional performer. Her mission as a human is to cultivate a warm, non-judgmental learning environment that fosters community, to build personal physical and emotional strength within the individuals who participate in this environment and methodically construct a vehicle by which to create art. Check out Jenn’s website here and instagram page here.
Dakota Rooney
Dakota has been involved in the circus world for over 30 years. She has performed around the world as an aerialist at circus shows, corporate events, theatrical productions, art museums and galleries, film, nightclubs and with international music acts. She is a seasoned performer of multiple aerial acts- solo, double, and group, as well as partner acrobatics. Dakota has been coaching aspiring aerialists of all ages since the late 1990’s. As a coach, she has created acts, choreographed and coached aerialists across the United States and abroad. She was mentored and trained in coaching technique, spotting, aerial curriculum development, and skills progression by Sandrine DePlanque. Dakota has trained in rigging and safety for aerialists with Jonathan Deull. Dakota is a Kane School certified Pilates instructor. She brings a strong knowledge of anatomy and biomechanics to her coaching style. Dakota had the honor of a work study position at FAMI (Functional Anatomy for Movement and Injuries) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She has returned twice to receive deeper training in rehab of the spine and shoulder.
Brett Womack
Brett is a critically acclaimed aerialist who has been teaching and performing professionally for over 14 years. He received his training in aerial, acrobatics and dance from the Circus Center, Acrosports, and the San Francisco Ballet. The San Francisco Weekly has described Brett’s work as “Stunning to behold,” and he was the winner of the Judges Award and the Audience Award for ‘Best Aerial Act’ at the 4th Annual American Circus Festival in 2006. Brett has performed all over the world with such companies as Cirque Du Soleil, Luminario Ballet, Cirque Dreams, Troupe Vertigo, and Cirque Berserk as well as appeared on TV shows such as NBC’s The Voice, Syfy’s Face Off, and Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen. He has also worked on various commercial campaigns for the popular FX series, American Horror Story portraying characters such as ‘The Rubberman’ and ‘Liz Taylor’. Currently based in Los Angeles, Brett performs weekly at The Edison downtown as one-half of the dynamic aerial duo Womack and Bowman. Together, with a passion to share their love of aerial art and provide high quality training to the greater Los Angeles community, the duo founded the popular aerial dance studio ‘Womack and Bowman – The Loft” in North Hollywood. www.WomackandBowman.com Here is a video of Brett’s work.
Caitlin Wallace
Caitlin (she/they) took her first aerial class in January 2014 after spending 13 years playing competitive fastpitch softball. Aerial arts quickly became an obsession, leading her to seek professional training
opportunities to expand her skill and repertoire.
From 2016-2019 she participated in the ProTrack Program at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), majoring in dance trapeze and minoring in injury-prevention-based flexibility. During her time at NECCA she explored a variety of circus disciplines including cyr wheel, handstands, partner acrobatics, aerial fabric (silks), and corde lisse (rope). As a trapeze artist she is driven by improvisation and strives to
move with authenticity while traveling amongst multiple levels of her apparatus.
Caitlin completed aerial teacher trainings in both trapeze and fabric through Paper Doll Militia. As a coach she focuses on building and refining foundational technique, while encouraging exploration and creative play to draw out the unique styles of her students. She is passionate about inventing new skills and progressions to make her classes exciting, accessible, and fresh. Her approach to flexibility focuses
on increasing stability and strength to improve control through full ranges of motion.
She has worked with a variety of students, ranging from beginners to pre-professional artists. Her favorite part about coaching is connecting with her students, watching them progress over time, and helping them improve confidence and empowerment.
Caitlin currently resides in Spokane, Washington where she attends Eastern Washington University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. Her long-term goal is to help circus and performing artists of all levels achieve and maintain their best performance through specialized injury prevention and rehabilitation services.
Amanda Ritchie
Amanda began performing at three years old. By the age of seven she starred in a local South Florida children’s show, KidZone. Her passion for performing blossomed and before she attended high school she was offered the opportunity to study with the Joffrey Ballet School on scholarship.
During her academic schooling, Amanda worked full time performing with the Ft. Lauderale Ballet Classique. But after graduation, her desire to travel the world led her to run away with the circus as a headlining aerialist/dancer with shows such as: Dezire, Cirque on Ice and Four Spirit of the Elements.
In 2009 until May 2015 she made the bright lights of Vegas her home performing with Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity and Michael Jackson ONE. Amanda now lives in Los Angeles, California where she teaches her craft to all ages and all walks of life. In 2020 Grounded in Flight, Amanda’s aerial company and studio, was born.
Brandi Cooling
Brandi’s career in dance began many moons ago at age of 3, after being particularly inspired by a Judy Garland movie, or so she is told. She spent her childhood in the studio studying ballet, jazz, tap and pointe. Going on to compete all across Texas with her company. This passion has continued well into adulthood although she has now traded her pointe shoes and tutu for a steel hoop (admittedly she still sports the occasional tutu). Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Brandi relocated to Dallas for college and to pursue a career. in interior design (we’re sensing a love of glamour, aren’t we?) Brandi began pole fitness in early 2012. She soon transitioned her love of pole into aerial hoop in 2013 and was instantly hooked. Which of course led to many gateway activities such as contortion, lollipop lyra, cube, acro…the list keeps growing! Her love of Aerial dance has allowed her to continue to share her passion with others through performance and instruction in Texas and beyond.
Kari Jay Hunter
Drawing from a background in dance, gymnastics, theater, and music, Kari has been training, performing and coaching circus arts since 2001. Her coaching credits include the Circus Guild, Versatile Arts, Emerald City Trapeze, Le Cirque Centre, the Circus Center (San Francisco), New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts (SANCA) where she served as lead aerial coach for the Professional Preparatory Program, and most recently, The Circus Project, where she served as Education Manager, youth training company manager,and rigging coordinator in addition to coaching. Deemed an “aerialist par excellence” by the Seattle Times, Kari has graced the stage in over 30 major U.S. cities and internationally with the Seattle Opera, Pallazo Variete, Freidrichsbau Variete (Germany), Festival Burlesco (Portugal), and Teatro Zinzanni (Seattle and San Francisco), among many others regionally. Kari is delighted to share her knowledge and joy with new circus communities and audiences!
Jim Donak
For over 50 years Jim has been studying and teaching movement and poise. He has been teaching movement and circus arts since the early 80’s. He maintains a private practice focusing on physical skill development, neuromusculoskeletal healing through the integration of Asian manual therapies, orthopedic and osteopathic bodywork, and rehabilitation exercises. He can also be found teaching related workshops and continuing education seminars to movers, healers, and teachers from a variety of disciplines. Find him at divingbuddah.com.
Shira Yaziv
Shira Yaziv (handstands, acrobatics, AcroYoga, partner massage, hula hooping) I grew up in Haifa, Israel. Currently live in Oakland, CA, USAThroughout my childhood I experimented with different movement disciplines. In my late teens to early twenties, I spent 6 years studying with Ido Portal. Ido introduced me to the worlds of Capoeira, acrobatics, strength & conditioning, nutrition, teaching and performing. I went on to teach crossfit, Capoeira and became a personal trainer. This is when I found circus arts and parkour.
In 2008 I co-founded Athletic PlayGround, a playful dynamic playspace, which inspires a supportive, non-competitive community-oriented environment through vibrant movement group classes, open play times and events. I love teaching a wide variety of movement disciplines, performing and giving bodywork. shira.yaziv.com
Cohdi Harrell
Cohdi Harrell (trapeze, rope, flexibility, handstands, creative movement, act development) is a New Mexico born performance maker. Coming from a backwoods history of training in circus and martial arts, he has spent the past thirteen years crafting, improvising, producing, and examining the articulation and potential of the human body. A primarily self taught trapeze artist and an untrained dancer, his unique approach to acrobatics and movement has brought him international acclaim; being hailed as “vital to the evolution of contemporary circus in America.” His work takes him around the world and has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, CNN and many other publications he doesn’t read. He is a 2013 recipient of the ‘Makers Muse Award’ from the Kindle Foundation. For the past seven years, he has worked as the co-director of RICOCHET (www.ricochet.name), a circus of two, whose theatrical circus productions have toured to sold out audiences and standing ovations across the country. See Cohdi on trapeze. For more information, please visit www.cohdiharrell.com
If you are interested in being a Host Teacher at Sweet Retreats, email us at SweetRetreatsdr@gmail.com.