The Aerial World Is Having a Moment — And We're Watching It From Inside the Studio
For a long time, aerial arts lived in a kind of beautiful obscurity. Those of us who fell in love with it knew exactly what it could do for the body, the mind, and the spirit — but the wider world hadn't quite caught up yet. That's changing. And it's changing fast, on a few different fronts at once.
I wanted to take a minute to talk about what we're seeing in our industry right now, because some of it is happening far outside our studio walls, in places like Washington, D.C. — and some of it is happening right inside them, with our own students.
A New Kind of Recognition in Washington
This year, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee took a step that circus and aerial arts advocates have been working toward for years: recognizing circus arts as a distinct component of the nation's performing arts workforce, with the designation set to take effect in 2027.
It might sound like a small administrative detail buried in a budget document. But for an art form that has historically been lumped into vague "multidisciplinary" categories — treated as a footnote to dance or theater rather than its own discipline — this is a meaningful shift. It means aerial and circus performers, instructors, and choreographers are starting to be acknowledged, at a federal level, as their own professional class within the performing arts.
That kind of recognition matters. It shapes funding, workforce data, and how seriously our art form is taken in conversations about arts education and cultural investment.
Closer to Home: The Push Toward Olympic Status
Recognition isn't stopping at the federal level. Two recently estblished organizing bodies are also seeking to govern aerial arts as an internationally recognized sport — the United States Aerial Arts Organization (USAAO) and the International Aerial Arts Organization (IAAO) — have been actively pursuing the requirements needed to be recognized as an Olympic sport.
This isn't a distant, abstract goal for us. Our Elite Competition Team competed in qualifiers connected to this very pathway last weekend, and two of our students, Savannah and Selah, qualified to compete at the international level this August. Watching our competitors step into that arena, knowing they're part of a sport that is inching closer to the world's biggest stage, is the kind of moment that makes all the long practices and difficult hours of conditioning feel like they're building toward something bigger than any one routine.
When our students succeed in qualifiers like this, they're not just representing Eternal Aerial Arts. They're representing an entire discipline that is fighting — successfully — for a seat at the table.
What We're Seeing Reflected in Our Own Studio
The growth isn't only happening in committee rooms and qualifying competitions. It's showing up on our own studio floor, in ways that mirror exactly what's happening across the industry nationally.
More adults are walking through our doors. Aerial arts used to be seen as something mostly for kids. That's no longer true. Adults of every age and background are climbing onto silks, hoops, and hammocks for the first time, often well into their 30s, 40s, and beyond and many are also seeking opportunities to perform and compete.
It's becoming as much about the mind as the body. We're hearing it more and more from adult students especially — aerial isn't just a workout to them. It's a place to process stress, build confidence, and feel present in their bodies in a way that talk therapy or a treadmill never quite offered. The aerial community at large is starting to talk seriously about this discipline as a tool for both physical and emotional well-being.
The apparatus list keeps growing. Silks and lyra used to be the entry point and the endpoint for most studios. Now we're seeing real growth in apparatuses like aerial rope, bungee, straps, and flying pole, as studios and competitors look for new ways to express movement and tell stories in the air.
Group work is having its own renaissance. For years, large-scale ensemble and duet aerial work felt like something reserved for Cirque du Soleil-level productions. That's shifting. More studios — ours included, with our Mary Poppins and Deception ensembles headed to Nationals — are building ambitious group pieces that require trust, timing, and choreography on a scale we didn't see offered at studios, even a few years ago.
And the skills themselves keep pushing further. The ceiling on what the human body can be trained to do in the air keeps rising, and athletes are answering that call with discipline, training and new and innovative skills that require coaches and athletes alike to continually reconsider our art form and sport.
Why This Matters to Us
We don't take any of this lightly. Scripture tells us, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize... they do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever" (1 Corinthians 9:24–25). Our students aren't just chasing medals or qualifying spots — though we're so proud when they earn them. They're stewarding the gifts and discipline God has given them, in a sport and art that the rest of the world is finally starting to recognize as the serious, beautiful discipline we've always known it to be.
It's a good season to be part of this industry. We're grateful to be growing alongside it.
Peggy Ployhar Owner, Eternal Aerial Arts
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