I originally got a swing to practice inversions with, many years ago. It lay in the house for weeks before I eventually got around to installing it. Once installed, I began to notice how joyful and present people became when using it. This was a real 'eureka' moment for me. For years I had been trying - and failing - to get people to find the joy, pleasure and lightness in a Yoga practise. Suddenly, because of the swing's assistance, they were finding it. This is something that I’ve never forgotten. Since then, I would have to say, I have been in love with the swings. Or more precisely in love with what they can do for people. I believe they take people closer to an experience of the feeling of Yoga. It is a feeling characterised by pleasure, lightness, spontaneity, freedom of movement and presence. It is a great privilege, as a Yoga teacher, to be able to take people to that place. Initially, I had to teach myself as there was no training available at that time. Beginning with friends, moving onto small groups and then starting 'Aerial Yoga London' in 2011 - London's only dedicated Aerial Yoga studio. Within a couple of years I had given up most of my other Yoga work and by 2017 we were teaching up to fifteen classes a week of Aerial Yoga at the studio. In 2017, after 6 years of teaching classes and workshops in London, Agne and I decided to take a break and plan our next move. We moved to India for 9 months and in that time created an Aerial Yoga Teacher Training course that distils what we have learnt over teaching thousands of classes. We now feel ready to train others in how to safely, artfully and creatively use the swings to help people reach this joyful 'feeling of Yoga'.
Richard Holroyd