Victorious Vertical
Silks & Rope Retreat
Skills, Theory, Dynamics, Creative Sequencing, & Pizazz
Instructor: Kerri Kresinski
Int/Adv level vertical aerialists and teachers welcome!
Feb 22-March 1, 2025
Casa Chango Mexico, Puerto Escondido
BIPOC Scholarship Available. Apply here by November 1.
Spend a WEEK in PARADISE with new friends, the beach, delicious, fresh, local food, and learn loads and loads of new aerial skills!
- DYNAMIC MOVEMENT anyone? NOT just beats! We can find tons of dynamic movement in many many tricks that don’t necessarily involve beats. And we will do beats too!
- THEORY!! Understanding vertical wrap theory will change your practice. All of a sudden, a million sequencing options become available!
- TECHNIQUE! Clean it up, friends!
- CREATIVE SEQUENCING – Get out of your rut and let’s get creative…Victorious even!
- PROGRESSIONS – Learn how to keep making progress in your practice while not breaking your body and spirit! We do our drills with joy!
- IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE all we do and swing around in the air for a week! Who’s in?
Get ready to be victorious on vertical apparatus! From dynamics to wrap theory, we are going to dive into the juiciest movements to re-inspire our aerial practice! Daily classes will be focused on skills and creative sequencing using the understanding of vertical theory and technique, double and single ‘pole’ skills, and building in dynamics. You will learn how to create new sequences and how to add nuances and dynamic movement to give live to your aerial work.
Enjoy 2 classes each day. Morning class will be technical training on aerial silks and rope with focus on movement efficiency, theory, progressions, skills, and sequences. Each day we will build on the skills taught on the previous day.
Afternoon classes will be focused on implementing the skills into sequences both creatively and technically and working with music. Flexibility classes will also be included.
The rest of your time will be spent eating delicious food, swimming in the pool, lounging in hammocks, and enjoying being in nature. There will be time to explore local markets and beaches as well as the local night life.
Daily Schedule Sample:
- 7:30 – 9:30 a.m. – Tea, Coffee and Breakfast
- 10:00 a.m.-1pm – Warm Up, Silks & Rope Skills, Technique, Sequences
- 1:00 p.m. – Lunch
- 2:00 p.m. -5:00 p.m. – Free time (pool, hot tub, hammocks)
- 3:30 p.m. – Afternoon snack and beverage
- 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. – Flexibility & Creative Exploration
- 7:00 p.m. – Dinner
- 8:00 p.m. – Free time and evening activities
We’ll also take you to our favorite beaches for swimming, surfing, snorkeling, and releasing baby turtles into the sea. There are evening adventures to a bioluminescent lagoon and local night market.
Ask about our significant other / BFF rates!
Aerial nerds can indulge in all of your aerial desires while friends and family can enjoy the retreat environment, delicious, healthy food, surfing, swimming, relaxing, and get into their bodies.
Prerequisites:
This retreat is for aerialists with a regular practice on vertical apparatus at the intermediate to advanced level. Each student should arrive with a clear understanding of and be able to execute the following with ease:
- Russian climb
- Multiple straddle inverts in the air
- Catchers lock & S wrap
- Foot wraps
- Hip key
- Single star drop
- Saltos and/or revolutions
- Ability stay in the air moving/doing skills for 3 minutes without a rest
If you are more suited for a beginner retreat, please sign up for our Beginner Aerial Retreat.
Your coaches:
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.
Lily Rubin-Miller
Lily is an aerial silks and rope instructor known for empowering beginner to strong intermediate students to explore and embody their own unique movement styles in the air. With a background in contemporary, jazz, and modern dance, she has been teaching technique and creative movement since she was 16 years old. Discovering aerial arts later in her career ignited Lily’s passion for exploration and creation in the air. Her personal aerial practice is rooted in a profound love of movement and a deep connection to the body, which directly translates into her teaching philosophy. Lily’s mission is to guide each student towards a deeper connection with their bodies, facilitating authentic self-expression within the aerial arts.
Lily has spent the last two years under the mentorship of Kerri Kresinski, esteemed founder and head coach at Sweet Retreats, as a coach for the Aerial Residency program. She and Kerri developed the dance curriculum within the Circus Residency Program, equipping aerialists with concrete tools and confidence to express themselves on the ground. Drawing from a diverse range of dance styles including modern, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and Gaga, Lily’s approach has transformed her students’ relationship to floor movement.
Fueled by her deep love of vertical apparatuses, Lily’s classes blend essential aerial concepts with a sophisticated understanding of theory, offering students of all levels engaging, challenging, and fulfilling learning experiences. You can expect technique, drills, theory, choreography, and creativity from her classes. She is adept at identifying individual student challenges and skill gaps, providing targeted guidance and progressions to facilitate growth and mastery. Her warmth and energy create an inclusive and supportive learning environment where every individual feels welcomed, supported, and seen.
You can find Lily on Instagram @lilacandthebee.
Student Testimonials
“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, 2019
Kerri is an amazing silks teacher that really helped me to understand silks in a way that never made sense to me before. She has such a wealth of knowledge to share from silks theory, progressions, etc. Deborah Oh, 2021
Stay for 2 weeks!
Stay for our Vertical Theory Seminar Retreat and get the best of all aspects of vertical aerial arts.
Unravel wrap theory and creative sequencing.
More info here.
Retreat pricing:
Per person pricing in USD
Prices listed are the Early Bird Prices which are $300 discounted. Full price is $300 more than the prices listed.
Early bird discount for November retreat ends Aug 25. Early bird discount for February retreat ends Nov 1.
| Your choice of accommodations: | Victorious Vertical Retreat only Feb 22-March 1 | 2 Weeks Victorious Vertical & Vertical Theory Feb 22-March 6 |
| Shared Dorm (mixed gender) | $2000 | $2800 |
| Shared Private Room (2 friends sharing a room) 1 king size bed or 2 individual beds | $2200 | $3000 |
| Shared Private Room (2 friends sharing a room) 1 king size bed or 2 individual beds | $2300 | $3200 |
| Private Room w Shared Bathroom | $2500 | $3500 |
| Private Room w Private Bathroom | $2800 | $4000 |
| Private Room w Private Bathroom & Air Conditioner | $3100 | $4600 |
$500 Deposit is required to secure your spot.
Early bird price ends Nov 1.
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.
What’s included:
- Ground transportation to/from the Puerto Escondido Airport (PXM) to our accommodations*
- Arrive on Feb 22. Depart on March 1. (Or stay until March 6 for Vertical Theory)
- Accommodations for the duration of the retreat
- Daily meals – breakfast, lunch, dinner, & desserts and treats!
- 2 daily classes
- Aerial photoshoot
- Evening activities
- 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
- Ice Bath
- Starlink Wifi Internet
BIPOC Scholarship Available.
Links for more information:
- Casa Chango accommodations – room descriptions
- Meals and Food*
- How to get here**. Info and advice on booking your travel
- Weather in Puerto Escondido
- Testimonials
- Excursions
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.
Questions? Email us at SweetRetreatsMexico@gmail.com
*Food service begins with a snack and dinner on arrival day, and ends with breakfast on departure day. All meals 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.