In-Person Flexibility Workshops
Interested in hosting a flexibility workshop at your studio? I love teaching when I travel (and traveling to teach!).
All the suggested topics below are designed as standalone workshops where students will walk away with not only a stretching routine to help them work towards their split-y or backbend-y goals, but a more thorough understanding of the why behind proper stretching form, engagement, and exercise choice based on our anatomy, kinesiology, and biomechanics.
Suggested Workshop Topics
Below are various topics I’ve found resonate will with aerial, pole, yoga, and circus arts students. I’d be happy to discuss any other ideas for topics you think your students might be interested in!
Introduction to Contortion (Backbends and Splits)
Suggested Length: 1.5-2 hours
Description: Aimed at students who have a bit of existing flexibility and want to take their training further. This workshop will focus on active flexibility drills to strengthen both back and leg flexibility, and working on skills like variations of bridges, cobra poses, splits, leg scales, and more. There will be a heavy emphasis on proper alignment and muscle engagement to ensure a safe practice - so be prepared to learn a bit about your own anatomy!
Suggested Prerequisites:
Students should be able to comfortably hold a bridge with straight arms (does not need to be a super bendy bridge)
Flat splits not required!
“Full Body” Backbending
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: Do you feel like your backbends always "crunch" into your low back? Is your upper back flat as a board when you try to backbend? This workshop will focus on learning to bend from the ENTIRE backbending chain, with isolation exercises to target our hips (they're part of backbends!), lower back, upper back, shoulders, and even neck. If you're looking for a more even, sustainable backbend - this workshop is for you!
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility levels.
Getting Split-ier Splits (Front Splits, Middle Splits, & Straddle Pancakes)
Suggested Length: 1-1.5 hours
Description: Aimed at students who are interested in deepening both front and middle splits. Whether you're working to get flat splits for the first time ever, or are already working on oversplits (splits on blocks), we'll work on helping you safely deepen your splits at your current level. This workshop will have a heavy emphasis on active flexibility (strengthening the muscles needed to support a greater range of motion in all our splits) as well as proper form and alignment (ex. training our muscles to keep our hips “square” in front splits).
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility levels.
Stretchy Shoulders
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: This one-hour workshop will specifically focus on shoulder flexibility and strength. While we’ll work on our shoulders in multiple ranges of motion (internal and external rotation, flexion, extension, and abduction), this workshop will emphasize maximizing overhead shoulder reach flexibility. Students will learn the importance of training their rotator cuff muscles for long-term shoulder health, as well as practical active flexibility drills that target the larger muscle groups to help increase shoulder flexibility. We’ll also train body awareness for understanding where our shoulder blades are (and should be) in various stretches, and learn to identify sensations of nerve tension and how to adjust our training to keep our nerves safe.
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility levels.
Additional Studio Requirements: This workshop requires access to TheraBands (or some other long light resistance band). If you already have these at your studio - great! Otherwise, we can price in including these in the workshop as a “take home” for the students, allowing them to continue to practice the banded exercises at home.
Forearm Stand Clinic
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: This backbending-focused workshop will cover proper safe backbending technique with a focus on shoulders (both “open” and “closed” shoulder flexibility) so we can work towards different variations of forearm stands (aka pincha pose). Variations of poses will be offered for varying skill levels - including playing with balance.
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility and skill levels.
Additional Studio Requirements: This workshop requires access to plenty of wall space, enough space for everyone to have a little bit of space at the wall at the same time.
Introduction to Floor Inversions (aka All the “Stands”)
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: This mixed-levels workshop is aimed at students interested in deepening their backbending flexibility practice and learning some fun bendy shapes upside down! We'll review the fundamentals of proper safe backbending technique, work on active flexibility and conditioning for our hips, back, and shoulders, and apply this engagement to various tricks when upside down: shoulder stands, headstands, forearm stands, and handstands.
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility and comfort-with-being-upside-down levels. You do not need to have previous experience with handstands/headstands/etc to join this workshop.
Additional Studio Requirements: This workshop requires access to plenty of wall space, enough space for everyone to have a little bit of space at the wall at the same time.
Front Splits Intensive
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: This one-hour workshop will be a deep-dive into getting flatter front splits (or oversplits!). In this workshop you’ll learn:
Proper alignment for front split training, including the importance of keeping your hips “square, how to tell if your hips are square, and proper muscle engagement to maintain this position
How to tell if nerve tension is limiting your range of motion in the front and/or back leg in your split
Active flexibility drills to strengthen-while-you-stretch to increase the range of motion in your front and back leg (both in your traditional on-the-floor splits as well as splits in the air!)
Drills to strengthen our deeper hip stabilizer muscles to help us stretch deeper
How to protect your knees when splits training (especially if you are hypermobile!)
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility levels. For students who have flat or close-to-flat front splits, we’ll work on learning safe technique for oversplits.
Straddle & Middle Splits Intensive
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: This one-hour workshop will focus on flattening our straddle pancakes and middle splits. We’ll cover:
The difference between pelvic position in a straddle, straddle pancake, and middle splits and why this matters to our training
Exercises for strengthening our hip rotation and controlling the pelvic tilt needed in straddle pancakes and middle splits
Active flexibility drills to strengthen-while-you-stretch to increase the range of motion in your inner and outer hips for deeper straddles and middle splits (get ready to feel the burn in your glutes!)
How to protect your knees (especially if you are hypermobile!)
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility levels. For students who have flat or close-to-flat straddle pancakes or middle splits, we’ll work on learning safe technique for oversplits.
Split-y Pole Tricks (Pole Studios Only)
Suggested Length: 1-1.5 hours
Description: Let’s get split-y! This mixed-levels workshop is great for intermediate-level pole students who are comfortable inverting into an outside leg hang (or descending into it from a Jasmine). We’ll work on a whole smorgasbord of split-y shapes on static pole, on spin pole, and various split-y shapes as floorwork or basework using the pole.
Suggested Prerequisites: This workshop can be adjusted to be an “all levels” workshop to accomodate more beginner students and “illusion” split (aka “fake split”) type shapes or modifications, but intermediate-level students who have the strength to invert are typically more “successful” at some of the fewer-contact-point type splits we often cover, so for prerequisites I suggest:
Flat or close-to-flat splits
Comfortable inverting (or descending) into an outside leg hang
This workshop works great as a 1-hour skill class when paired with a splits class right before (and students are required, or at least encouraged, to take the splits class immediately to warm up their splits). If not paired with a flexibility class before, I suggest lengthening this workshop to 1.5 hours to allow for time to warm up splits as part of the class warm up.
Backbend-y Pole Tricks (Pole Studios Only)
Suggested Length: 1 hour
Description: Show off your inner contortionist as we learn a variety of pole tricks to showcase back and shoulder flexibility. This
Suggested Prerequisites:
Can comfortably hold a bridge with both arms straight (shoulders do not have to be stacked over wrists)
Comfortable inverting (or descending) into an outside leg hang
This workshop works great as a 1-hour skill class when paired with a back/shoulder workshop right before (and students are required, or at least encouraged, to take the flexibility class immediately to warm up their backbends). If not paired with a flexibility class before, I suggest lengthening this workshop to 1.5 hours to allow for time to warm up back and shoulders thoroughly as part of the class warm up.
Needle Scales
Suggested Length: 1.5 hours
Description: Needle scales - a true contortion favorite goal! This workshop will include an active flexibility emphasis on standing front splits AND “full body backbending” flexibility (hips, lower back, upper back, and shoulders) to work towards being able to grab out leg and/or flatten our standing split in a needle scale. We'll work on adding backbends and shoulder over-reaches to our splits on the floor, as well as standing splits at the wall.
Suggested Prerequisites:
Comfortable holding a bridge with both arms straight
Flat, or close-to-flat, front splits
Additional Studio Requirements: This workshop requires access to plenty of wall space, enough space for everyone to have a little bit of space at the wall at the same time.
For less bendy students, I’d suggest the mixed-levels Splity-y Backbends workshop below instead.
Split-y Backbends (King Cobra, Dancer’s Pose, and Needle Scales, oh My!)
Suggested Length: 1.5 hours
Description: This 90-minute workshop will work on deepening both our back and leg flexibility to work towards variations of various split-y backbend-y shapes such as king cobra, dancer’s pose, needle scales, and more. Whether you’re working on being able to finally grab your foot in king pigeon, or just trying to not fall over when adding backbends to your lunges, we’ll have variations of drills to challenge you at whatever level you’re at! Roughly 1/3 of the class will focus on active flexibility for our front splits, 1/3 on active flexibility for our back and shoulders, and 1/3 on combining our leg and backbending flexibility together in different poses/skills.
Suggested Prerequisites: None (this workshop is open to all levels). Variations of drills will be given for different flexibility levels.
Suggested Pricing
For pricing, I'm happy to work with you on a model that makes the most sense for your studio. I've done workshops where I get a per-student payment based on how many students register, or I've done some where the studio prefers to pay me a flat fee regardless of how many students register. My requested minimum payout is $200/hour to cover my time investment.
I understand local market impacts how much studios prefer to charge their students. I’ve seen studios charge anywhere from $30-$80 per workshop (depending on the length of the workshop, and/or offering discounted pricing for students signing up for multiple workshops).
About Me
I've been training contortion (and various other circus arts: handbalancing, partner acrobatics, aerials, pole) for 12 years - meaning I'm very familiar with the "challenges" of learning these skills as an adult. I've performed professionally throughout Minnesota, New England, and Canada.
I have been teaching adult and youth contortion, flexibility and pole classes for the past 4 years. Currently I am only teaching online classes, but in the past have taught in-person at several studios in the Twin Cities, including Dollhouse Pole Dance, Dragons Lair Performing Arts, and Fly Freak Studio (all fabulous studios I highly recommend!).
All of my classes emphasize active flexibility and the importance of strengthening our muscles to support an increased range of motion. Strengthening is such an important component of flexibility training - and even more so for contortion style skill work where a more extreme range of motion is required.
I also like to emphasize the anatomy underlying why we stretch the way we do so students can better understand what’s happening in their own bodies. For example, this could involve discussing:
the proper position of the pelvis and thigh bones in a “square” split or lunge - and why this matters
how the vertebrae of our upper back differ from those in our lower back and neck, how this can make bending from our upper back more challenging, and how to train accordingly
the importance of “external shoulder rotation” in arms overhead backbends to maximize range of motion and protect our nerves
the role our nerves play in flexibility training, how nerve tension can masquerade as muscle tension, and how to adjust your training accordingly
If you'd like to get a sense for my teaching style, I'd suggest checking out a couple of my blog posts or Instagram. Both of those have a lot of "educational" style content that's very much in line with how I teach group classes and workshops.
Interested? Let’s Chat
Fill out the form below with some more details about your studio and what type(s) of workshops you think might be a good fit for your students and we can connect and talk further!