Chelsey Rea • Circus Artist

AERIAL ACROBAT

Circus finds us when we need it most.

 I was three years old when I started my journey training in gymnastics, ballet, and hand-to-hand acrobatics. I quit while training for the Jr. Olympic tryouts to pursue other avenues of sport and movement throughout my teens. At age 16, I signed my first contract for a national high diving show. After high school, I found myself coaching and choreographing high school gymnasts and then off to college for what I had no idea.

Fast forward through most of my boring twenties when I discovered the flying trapeze and circus arts. Then during the next 10 years, I jumped from contract to contract depending on when and where they needed me and for how long. It was such a gift to experience so many opportunities that provided me with a breadth of knowledge in rigging and equipment design while coaching adults and kids in all disciplines of circus arts, performing for corporate gigs, touring with traditional circus shows both in the States and Europe and performing in contemporary theater productions as well.

Today, I bring over 20 years of experience and knowledge of movement to spontaneous hangout sessions with friends. I love inspiring inquisitive creativity and spatial awareness, and supporting folks as they unlock personal boundaries, gain strength, and build skills in the air and on the ground. My movement techniques stem from my drive, to have fun. 

Today, I'm a retired Seattle-based circus goofball specializing in Circus Stuff: Flying Trapeze, Aerial anything, Acrobatics, Trampoline, and Stilt Dancing.

Former Aerial Dept. Head for SANCA, School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts, while I returned to school and obtained my Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington - Seattle, WA, and currently employed as a design engineer for the Port of Seattle.

 

Mechanics of Movement

I pull my teaching technique from a unique combination of acrobatic, dance and multiple sports disciplines. I’ve traveled through numerous continents being exposed to a variety of teaching styles and techniques training under high level professionals in Tea Kwon Do, yoga teacher trainings, stilt walking, partner acrobatics, doubles aerial, theater combat, contact improvisation, ballet, high diving, hand balancing, trampoline and flying trapeze.

My background includes teaching aerial, flying trapeze classes and privates. However, from time to time some students request acrobatics and handstand training in addition to their aerial practice.

Over the years I developed a unique approach to teaching movement in the air as well as on the ground. This technique steams from a variety of sport and fitness experience through my life. I developed a specific series of conditioning sequences geared directly towards hip openings, shoulder strength, and spatial awareness. My students develop muscle memory that support their movements while they build strength and acquire more advanced vocabulary. 

I love my all students experiences. They learned alternative techniques to climbs, locks and inversions that increase stamina and refined the general skills required to execute movements with little to no effort. By defining fundamental tools needed to acquire the advanced process of play, I witness students unlock small details that allow complicated maneuvers to become easy and obtainable. Preparing students for aerial with what what I call the “Basic's for Survival”. Encouraging students to avoid false security in momentum and rather develop the ability to perform a controlled stop at any given moment. Then and only then do we create a relationship with our apparatus and we become in control, safe and beautiful.