No! But to answer this fully, skip to the part that is your actual concern:
- can the equipment hold me?
- can "big girls" do this?
THE EQUIPMENT: All of the equipment at Aerial Dance has been engineered for saftey. From our rigging points to the actual physical equipment you can be sure that the amount of force a human can exert, no matter how hard they tried, won't come close to exceeding our equipment. Our equipment can hold MULTIPLE people at one time. The record is 5 ladies on one pole. No matter how much you weigh, it doesn't matter here. Just show up and start learning!
We have excessive safety standards. We say excessive because we go above and beyond. We spare no expense to buy the best gear possible. We have rigorous safety checks of all attachment and rigging points. When you are at Aerial Dance, you are in the safest facility possible to learn Pole and Aerial.
SIZE & Pole/Aerial: Pole and Aerial is for EVERY body. Truly. If you consider yourself "large" then you need to know Aerial Dance is a safe place for you. We don't allow diet talk. We don't allow body shaming. Aerial Dance celebrates what the body can do and helps you be able to do more.
Your attitude will decide if you are successful at Pole and Aerial, not your weight. If you show up for week one of Beginner Pole, expect to be able to lift your body off the ground even though you've never done that before and can't, and then you can decide the sport isn't for you, it won't be. If you show up for week one and can't lift your weight off the ground but listen and do the move variation the instructor gives you, you will build more strength and in time you will be able to do the full move. If you're willing to keep showing up to try new things and allow your body to get stronger, then you will be successful at Pole and Aerial regardless of your body shape and size!
Here is an example of a goal move and the variations to help you get there. The full move is called a "Hang Slide" and requires enough grip strength to control your body on a descend to the floor with only your hands.
Many students do not have the grip strength when they initially start to execute the full move so they have two variations to help build up strength.
This lunge variations allows both legs to be on the ground support most of your body weight while you build strength in your hands.
This knee hold variation allows the knees to squeeze the pole transferring some of your body weight to your knees while building your hand strength.
Our Instructors are truly excellent and have spent MANY hours training so they can give you safe and appropriate variations to help you succeed.
In summary, your weight doesn't make any difference to Pole & Aerial, your attitude is truly the limiting factor so bring a good one and let's have some fun!
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