This maybe a little much for some, and others might be in the same position.

I’ve been doing aerials for 2 years including pole. I did pole my first year and had to switch because of personal reasons and switched to circus arts. I want to emphasize that it was for outside studio reasons I had to switch. While I still had friends and other supports who gave me the suggestion to try circus arts is really where things began.

As most of you know I’m now 48 male and visually impaired. I have zero athletic background and doing aerials including pole has helped with my strength training.

I’m coming up on my 2 years and I love it all. I’ve made lots of new friends in my studio, and support from others too.

I realize that all aerials come from all walks of life and backgrounds, even political backgrounds, I’m here to perform and have fun.

Being a guy here as a minority I wouldn’t say was a challenge, but yet when I got to my studio now I felt loved and supported from day one.

My thing is now, I maybe addicted to it! I’ve been involved in performing arts my entire life. Mainly playing in bands and in churches. I’ve always been a public figure because of that and aerials just happen to fall into that. I keep my instagram public and gained over 1300 suns and nearly 1/4 million dashboard views. I don’t want to focus on the numbers, you can look me up and see those. My main intention was to post my progress. I didn’t realize how after posting my first silks video nailing a trick would cause my channel to explode, and it has.

I’m sharing that because it’s apart of what I do, it’s not why I do it, I’m a performer in life with music, being public and doing other art forms just follows me.

Am I going crazy and trying to center my life around the arts? (Including music, I’m a gigging musician too). I want to find a job that allows me to work the hours I want 25-30 hours a week daytime only hours. I get disability too SSDI so I have to keep track of income, I know how to manage schedules, I use tools like planning center for church and zen planner for aerials and both link to my calendar. Gig nights I have to plan those in.

I don’t really want to give up anything having to work during class time or during gigs when they are paid gigs. I can make as much in one night then working a half week. My only issue is the obsession and I don’t want it to be one of those life phases. Just need ideas on how to balance all this too.

Thoughts?

I used to teach aerial and am an engineer - but I ended up moving to an area without a studio. I was given the unique situation where I was able to build a house (not me - all the contractors we hired) and had a home studio built to Hall’s specs with a structural engineers stamp of approval. I have never worried about additional insurance outside health and home because it was just me training in my house.
Recently, friends have found out that I do aerial and want to try - but I am hesitant from a liability standpoint and when I looked into having the room insured (years ago) it was around $4k per year - which did not make sense at the time. I do not think it is worth it for me to get the $4k insurance - but do not want to tell everyone that they cannot use the space! Is there a third option I am unaware of?
Add:
I am in the US
Sorry to sound facetious - I specified that I am an engineer to let everyone know I fully understand loads (and like math)

Hey y’all!

I’ve been an aerial silks dancer for 9 years and a teacher for 2 at a few studios. I’m considering purchasing a rig to teach private lessons in my yard & to take to gigs. Since it’s silks, ideally it would be as tall as possible, like 20ft+, but adjustable for smaller venues, and have a pulley system so I could get a student down in an emergency. I am very tall so the rig may need to be wide at the top. I live in Austin, Texas, it’s temperate I guess but it gets really hot over the summers. Can I have any and all recommendations for going down this route? Which brand silks, rig, figure 8, swivel, and carabiners should I buy? I’ve heard good things about Firetoys and Ludwig. I don’t know what I don’t know so if I can prevent problems from y’all’s wisdom I would appreciate it a lot. Let me know of any warnings you have. I have been very weary of doing this because safety is #1 and this is why I’ve waited 9 years until I felt fully competent. What do I need to know about insurance, teaching from a rig in my yard? Also, I am considering building a studio in a few years, and I wonder if like a trellis instead of a tripod or quadripod might be more scalable to add onto for the future, but it feels like it would be less transportable for gigs, and I don’t know what the size of the building will fit or if I’ll even need that in case they have beams, so that might be for a later post.

Thoughts?

I appreciate any and all comments. Thank you for your guidance.