Apparatus, Levels, and Prerequisites

Are you and your children new to the world of aerial and circus arts and wanna learn more? You’ve come to the right place!

Is your kid a Sky Candy regular (or joining us from another studio) and wants to know what level to start at / go to? You’re also in the right place!

If you have any other questions, many of them are answered the FAQ on our Getting Started page.

Here at Sky Candy, we believe that circus is for every body. We welcome youth and teen students of all backgrounds to join the Beginner level of any apparatus. This page offers one easy spot to learn about all of the different apparatus and disciplines we teach, our leveling system, and class prerequisites. Currently we teach the “core four” apparatus in our kids classes in Austin, TX: silks, trapeze, sling, and lyra. Unlike graduating from grades in school, our levels are designed to be taken as many times as a student needs to before advancing with the majority of our students taking multiple rounds of a semester long series class before advancing to the next level.

Jump down to the bottom of this page to learn more about our class levels, our advancement philosophy, and how we define skill mastery.

Silks

Silks (also known as aerial silks, fabric, or tissu) is one of the most popular aerial apparatus. Silks hang in two long strands from a single point in the ceiling and students will learn how to climb, wrap, suspend, and drop as they build core and upper body strength developing their skills. This apparatus is great for folks who enjoy puzzles and problem solving!

  • Prerequisites

    • No prerequisites to enter

    Goals

    • Climb and descend the apparatus comfortably using basic techniques

    • Learn footlocks and footlock shapes on the ground and begin executing those skills in the air

    • Learn and master short arm inversions on the ground and begin executing those skills in the air

    • Learn the mechanics of supported inverted skills using knee hooks, lever action, and wraps

    • Learn basic pathways to S and U wraps

    • Get comfortable with fundamental positions and shapes, including gazelle, straddle, arabesque, hipkey, front balance, crucifix, crochet, and more

  • Prerequisites

    • 10 second long and short arm hang with hollow body

    • Russian and standard climbs - able to climb 16 ft.

    • Single and double footlocks in the air (figure 8 and aerial dance)

    • Footlock roll-ups and arrow

    • Split pole (tuck & straddle/frog) and single pole inversions (straddle/frog) from the ground

    • Inversion in the air (tagging okay)

    • 10 second inverted straddle hold with poles together and with poles apart

    • Hip key from Russian lean

    • Clear understanding of same side and opposite side knee hooks

    • Single same side knee hook climb & exit

    • Controlled catcher’s descent

    • S Lock from catcher’s keyover / shoofly

    • Cross catcher’s → U Lock

    • Endurance in the air (1 minute)

    Goals

    • Learn closed wrap drops & dives that move through space forwards, backwards, sideways, and down

    • Develop and apply understanding of S & U wrap theory and its accompanying movements

    • Develop and apply understanding of outside knee hook family and its accompanying movements

    • Learn rotational movements around a fixed point, including windmill, BBQ/legocopter, J-flip, etc

    • Develop endurance for executing multiple inversions in the air and sequencing familiar skills

    • Introduce C shaping, including specific work on back balance skills

    • Work on more advanced conditioning drills for skills such straight leg fankick hipkey, one arm hang, flags, meathooks, and skin the cat

    • Introduce beats and build long arm inversion strength

    • Learn skills with more complex entry and exit options, including belay

  • Prerequisites

    • Crossback straddle

    • Any entry to belay

    • Windmill (frog is okay)

    • Single star

    • Salto

    • Back balance (controlled entry, hand spot okay)

    • Endurance in the air (3 minutes)

    • BBQ / legocopter / single thigh rotations

    • Consistently clean straight leg inversions in air throughout class

    • Fankick hipkey

    • Multiple inversion knee hook climb

    • 360 Drops (forward and backwards)

    Goals

    • Expand on existing drop vocabulary to learn more complex and challenging wrapped drop variations, drops that change direction while falling, dynamic drops, and open drops

    • Explore skills that utilize meathook and skin the cat pathways

    • Learn more complex, dynamic pathways to familiar skills

    • Apply beats to dynamic skills and transitions and C shaping to rollups

    • Develop endurance for longer sequences of more advanced skills

    • Apply aerial theory to finding new pathways into familiar skills

    • Develop and apply understanding of inside knee hook family and its accompanying movements

Lyra

Lyra (also known as aerial hoop) is a metal apparatus (generally made from solid or tube steel). We have lyras in a wide variety of sizes to fit students of all heights, shapes, and abilities. Students learn how to invert, spin, pose, and transition as they core and upper body strength. This is a great apparatus for folks who love to spin!

  • Prerequisites

    • No prerequisites to enter

    Goals

    • Build strength and comfort in hanging positions

    • Enter the lyra unassisted

    • Master foundational skills in and below the hoop

    • Move safely into and out of a hip hang

    • Demonstrate the basics of knee beats

    • Demonstrate control of the lyra during mounting and exiting

    • Familiarity with spinning

  • Prerequisites

    • Side entrance

    • Straddle entrance (tag okay)

    • Knee beats

    • Pike under the bar (top or bottom)

    • Gazelle

    • Mermaid

    • Transition into and out of hip drape

    • Wineglass

    • Dragonfly

    • Front balance (hands on okay)

    • Straddleback

    • Top bar knee hang and safe exit

    Goals

    • Build strength in short arm positions, inversions, balances, and skills with one point of contact

    • Learn dynamic movements: beats, rolls, and small drops

    • Learn to use beats for dynamic skills and transitions

    • Build spin tolerance

    • Learn technique and build strength in long arm inversions and flares

    • Begin to sequence skills together and build endurance

  • Prerequisites

    • Straddle inversion and hold

    • Pullover

    • Front Balance (hands free)

    • Ankle Hang

    • Back Balance (hands free)

    • Amazon

    • Skin the Cat

    • Sitting → Single Hip Hang

    • Beat to sit

    • Single Arm, Elbow, and Knee Hang

    • Flag

    • A drop of student’s choice

    • Long beats and pike beats

    Goals

    • Learn advanced hangs, balances, and half and full release skills

    • Expand repertoire of dynamic skills and rolls

    • Develop endurance for longer sequences of more advanced skills

    • Increase spin tolerance and strength in long arm inversions

Sling

Sling (also known as aerial hammock) is a loop of fabric with endless possibilities! For new-to-aerial students, sling is an accessible starting point to begin your journey and for more experienced students, sling offers a huge variety of movement opportunities that may feel familiar to skills you’ve worked on in silks, lyra, or trapeze. This is a great apparatus to start or deepen your aerial journey!

  • Prerequisites

    • No prerequisites to enter

    Goals

    • Learn inversions from the ground

    • Learn foundational positions and their facets, including straddleback, horse, knee hooks, front balance, hipkey, catcher’s, seatbelt, and how to transition in and out of them

    • Develop standing skill vocabulary

    • Explore open sling shapes and skills

    • Introduce and develop comfort with simple dives and drops (forward dives, pops)

    • Introduce dynamic movement (knee beats, crucifix beats)

    • Sequence basic skills

  • Prerequisites

    • Short arm straddle and tuck inversions from standing on the ground

    • Knee beat

    • Pullover to front balance

    • Catcher’s

    • Hipkey

    • Arabesque on single pole

    • Triangle

    • Single leg roll up

    • Catcher’s dive of choice

    • Seatbelt entrance of choice

    • Sequence 5 skills of student’s choice in a row

    Goals

    • Introduce relational theory (how skills transitions between each other, for example with catcher’s, seatbelt, and hip/thigh corsets)

    • Learn more simple drops and dives that move backwards, sideways, and straight down through space

    • Introduce C shaping, including specific work on back balance skills

    • Continue work on beats and learn new pathways

    • Learn rotational movements around a fixed point, including BBQ, J-flip, etc

    • Master aerial inversions and develop skills in the poles/ropes

    • Work on more advanced conditioning drills for skills such one arm hang, flags, meathooks, and skin the cat

  • Prerequisites

    • Clean aerial inversion (tuck and straddle) throughout class

    • Forward, pike, and bell beats

    • Hip corset entrance of choice

    • Thigh corset entrance of choice

    • Slow BBQ/rotisserie

    • Crossback straddle

    • Horse arounds / beauty rolls in both directions

    • Scissor roll

    • Back dive

    • Sideways moving drop/dive of choice (hipkey, secretary, peter pan, cartwheel)

    • Endurance in the air (3 minutes)

    Goals

    • Continue working on skills in the poles/ropes

    • Apply C shaping and dynamic movement in familiar skills and new pathways

    • Expand on existing drop vocabulary to learn more complex and challenging wrapped drop variations, drops that change direction while falling, dynamic drops, and open drops

    • Develop long arm inversion strength

    • Experiment with more challenging variations and longer sequences using previously established skills

    • Expand repertoire of dynamic skills and rolls, including new beat variations

Trapeze

Trapeze (also known as static trapeze) is one of the most iconic aerial apparatus. Made up of two ropes and a steel bar, this apparatus is beautifully versatile with accessible skills for new students and challenging dynamic movements for experienced students. Part “soft apparatus” and part “hard apparatus”, trapeze is a great apparatus if you want to explore aerial movements where you move around your apparatus and where your apparatus moves around you!

  • Prerequisites

    • No prerequisites to enter

    Goals

    • Find ease and balance in, into, and out of neutral positions (long arm hang, sit, stand, hip drape, knee hang)

    • Learn and master foundational positions and their facets/points of contact, including gazelle, mermaid, coffin, hip drape, straddle back, knee hang, bat hang, and how to transition in and out of them

    • Discover pathways through rotations (sit to hips/hips to sit)

    • Master foundational skills on and below the bar

    • Learn the basics of momentum skills, including long, pike, and knee beats

    • Learn how to independently get to high bar (rope climb, jump, etc)

    • While this class is mostly taught on static trapeze, we will also introduce single-point trapeze.

  • Prerequisites

    • Able to invert without assistance through a pullover and a tuck or a straddle

    • Knee beats

    • Gazelle

    • Mermaid

    • Transition into and out of hip drape (via rotation)

    • Dragonfly

    • Front balance

    • Straddleback

    • Bat hang

    • Standing side balance

    • Arabesque

    • Lijanna

    • Ankle hang with spotting rope

    • Able to safely get onto a high bar without assistance

    • Beginner Up/Down: Tuck or straddle onto bar, rock n’ roll to sit, perch to stand, stand on demi-pointe, return perch, straddle/trashcan exit, straddle out

    Goals

    • Develop transitions above/below bar

    • Continue work on beats, learn new pathways and learn to use beats for dynamic skills and transitions

    • Introduce more dynamic movements including rolls/rotations, slides, and small drops

    • Build strength in short arm positions, inversions, balances, and skills with one point of contact

    • Begin to sequence skills together and build endurance

    • Introduce relational theory (how skills transitions between each other)

    • Master aerial inversions and develop skills in the ropes

    • Work on more advanced conditioning drills for skills such toe hangs, heel hangs, single knee hang, one arm hang, meathooks, and skin the cat

  • Prerequisites

    • Aerial inversion (straddle and tuck)

    • Single crochet (both sides)

    • Ankle hang

    • Single knee hang (both sides)

    • Long and pike beats

    • Single arm hang (both sides)

    • Crucifix

    • Skin the cat

    • Intermediate Up/Down: Pullover on the bar to hip drape to front balance to no hand drop to catcher’s to straddle to knee beat to pop to sit to ankles to long arm straddle down

    Goals

    • Learn advanced hangs, balances, and half and full release skills

    • Expand repertoire of dynamic skills and rolls and drops

    • Develop endurance for longer sequences of more advanced skills

    • Develop strength in long arm inversions

    • Explore more skills in the ropes

    • Learn and apply C shaping

    • Develop a personalized vocabulary of transitions and shapes

About Class Levels

Classes at Sky Candy are all about progressions. Each class is designed around a number of core concepts, listed as “Goals” in the table below. These core concepts develop from one level to the next. In each 5-week or 10-week series, your teacher will work with you through a selection of skills, drills, and transitions from that level’s curriculum. 

Series classes are split out into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. For most apparatuses, Beginner classes have no prerequisites and are open to those with no experience. Our main notable exception is Straps, which is a more demanding apparatus that has requisite strength requirements to start due to its steep learning curve and its intense demands on the body.

It’s All About the Journey

It can be easy to see a list of levels as a ladder to climb as quickly as possible, but we encourage students to let go of expectations about how long it will take them to graduate from a level. Everyone moves at their own pace, and progress isn’t always linear. Students are welcome to move back to a previous level after taking a break, recovering from injury or illness, or just to refresh fundamental skills in a less advanced class. 

We use the prerequisites listed below as a quick guide to what you’ll need in the next level, but your teacher always has the final say on when you advance.

Mastery And Why Is It Important

You’ll see that many prerequisites ask for “mastery” of particular skills. We define mastery as:

  • Ability to execute a skill independently

    • Without cues or demos (verbal or physical)

    • Without spotting

  • Solid form / technique

    • Safe entry and exit from the skill (not just getting to the skill at any cost)

    • Performed in a manner that is safe, efficient, and repeatable one’s body

  • Understanding and awareness of facets/points of contact and where your body is in space while executing skill

Why is skill mastery important for advancement?

  • Good form now opens up students to more easily transitioning to more advanced progressions

  • Minimizes risk of injury

  • Gives students the freedom to make aesthetic choices

  • Efficiency in movement ensures longevity in the activity

About Class Levels