A love letter to inclusive aerial

We spent the last Friday in January celebrating winning the People’s Choice Award from Every Body Moves and Paralympics GB with some of the wonderful crew from Mobilates, who won Club of the Year! It was a day full of laughter, love and celebration of inclusivity and we left with full hearts and tired bodies. Thank you to everyone who voted for us in December, your support means the world! We got to meet some legendary Paralympians, Will Bayley, a gold medal table tennis champ ranked no. 1 in the world and Dave Clarke who has represented Great Britain in blind football a whopping 144 times and is now a CEO for ParalympicsGB. To get to teach such a prestigious athlete such as Will was an honour and Dave we are holding you to your promise of coming back to give flying a go when you have more time! 

Mobilates offer exercise classes that are accessible and inclusive for people with chronic health conditions, including Qigong, Pilates, Aerobics and socials, both online and in person. Getting to meet Leanne in person was lovely, especially getting to see her and her gang in action as she led a bed pilates session at our Peckham studio. The sense of support and trust in the room was palpable, with so many people with different needs all being supported in their own way to move comfortably and in a way that works for them. 

It’s incredible to be recognised by such prestigious organisations for all of the hard work that has gone into creating inclusive aerial classes. None of this would have been possible without the wonderful people who have put in the work to make these classes what they are. 

I want to start by thanking Edel and Chris Wigan, from Flying Fantastic’s conception, the ethos has been to make aerial accessible - everyone should be able to benefit from the joy and challenge of being upside down. These two lovely people have created a space which nurtures community and inclusivity, it doesn’t matter what your aerial goals are, Flying Fantastic is the space to make them happen. 

My thanks also go out to Access Sport and SISPAN for funding our ten-week accessible aerial program, run by the incomparable Amy Nicholls and Jemima Mitchell, with Jo Westwood, Lyn Cox and Meg Fozzard which helped shape our weekly accessible aerial class through lived experience. These wonderful women trusted our team to explore how aerial can be made accessible and the findings from this program are the foundations of our accessible aerial classes and our teacher training, so thank you two for laying the groundwork for something so important. Jemima continued to teach our accessible aerial classes, with Meg quickly becoming a permanent fixture in classes, gaining strength and confidence every week. The classes have continued to grow and especially with exposure from EveryBodyMoves, our community just keeps growing. 

Teaching the accessible aerial weekly classes is always the highlight of my week, especially since Tams joined the teaching team. Our weekly lesson planning consists of an exploration of what could be possible that week, with enough regressions and progressions that everyone in class has a challenge, but also some wins. Their gremlin energy paired with their neverending patience and support makes our classes what they are today: full of laughter and love.  The trust our aerialists put in us is incredible, as is their eagerness to explore different techniques and movements to find what works for them and their body on that specific day. Joel, who teaches our foundational teacher training also teaches accessible workshops and groups, taking care to ensure that every student is supported in a way which works for them, taking time to ensure that everyone feels safe, heard and welcome in class, especially when traditionally sports environments have been exclusionary or prohibitive. These two stars have helped nurture a feeling of inclusion and community which has created something truly special and they deserve all of the accolades that come with the Every Body Moves People’s choice award. If I was to name every instructor who has assisted in our accessible aerial sessions this blog would be absolutely endless so to all of you, my gratitude is infinite and you are what makes all of this joy possible.  

We would not be able to do half of the work we do without the donations to our charity, Open Aerial, enabling us to subsidies these sessions for local charities and schools, such as Solidarity Sports, Remark Community, Cherry Garden and Tuke Schools as well as subsidising our kids classes and accessible workshops. So thank you all for your generosity.

And finally to everybody who has trusted us to help you fly and joined us in workshops and classes, the scariest bit is getting through the door, so if you have any questions at all, please do reach out, or get a friend to reach out for you, there is no such thing as a stupid question and we will do everything in our power to make sure you are comfortable and we move at your pace. 

Love from, 

Molly x