Aerial classes in Biarritz
Practice suspended in a soft hammock.
Aerial yoga uses a soft fabric hammock hung from the ceiling, roughly at hip height, as a support for yoga poses, stretches and inversions. The hammock takes some or all of your weight, so you can hang, swing and turn upside down with help. It is part yoga, part playground.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Aerial does for you
Letting a hammock hold you means you can relax into stretches and hang upside down with your spine long and your head off the floor. Many people find the inversions unexpectedly calming, and the swinging brings out a sense of play you may not have felt since childhood. You use your grip, arms and center to move in and out of shapes, so there is real strength in it too. The final rest, cocooned in the fabric, is a highlight for many.
It suits you if
- you want to try inversions with support
- you like a playful, physical class
- you enjoy stretching but want something new
- you are curious about aerial arts without circus-level strength
Read the full guide to AerialWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes run 60 to 75 minutes in a small group, each person under their own hammock. You warm up with the fabric supporting standing stretches, then move to seated and hanging poses, and most classes include at least one supported inversion. The facilitator demonstrates each step, helps you wrap the fabric correctly and often spots you by hand while you learn. The fabric can press firmly into hips, thighs or armpits at first. You usually end lying or curled inside the hammock like a pod.
Your first time
- Wear fitted clothes that cover your armpits and the backs of your knees, since bare skin on fabric can chafe.
- Take off jewelry and skip lotion, which makes the fabric slippery.
- Eat lightly and at least two hours before class; inversions on a full stomach are no fun.
- Arrive early so the facilitator can set your hammock to the right height.
Good to know
- Check with a doctor before trying inversions if you are pregnant, have glaucoma, high blood pressure, a heart condition or vertigo, or have had recent surgery or a head injury.
- Hanging upside down can feel dizzy or queasy at first; you can always come up slowly and sit.
- Facilitators often spot you with their hands while you learn wraps; say so if you would prefer verbal cues only.
Where it comes from
Suspension in yoga has a few forerunners. B.K.S. Iyengar used ropes fixed to the wall in Pune to support poses and to let practitioners hang upside down, and circus aerial arts such as silks and trapeze supplied the fabric, rigging and many of the shapes.
Aerial yoga as a class format took shape in New York in the mid-2000s, and who did it first is disputed. Michelle Dortignac developed a hammock practice combining yoga, Pilates and dance in 2006, later known as Unnata Aerial Yoga. Christopher Harrison, a former gymnast and choreographer whose aerial performance company dated back to 1990, launched AntiGravity Fitness in 2007 and also claims to have created the form.
By 2009 other schools followed, including Fly Yoga in France, AeroYoga and AIReal Yoga, and the idea spread across Europe and Asia. Hammocks need solid ceiling anchors, so aerial classes tend to live in spaces with high ceilings. Berlin's old factory lofts and its lively circus and aerial arts scene make it a natural fit, and several studios run aerial yoga alongside silks and hoop classes.
Words you will hear
- Hammock
- The wide, soft loop of stretchy fabric that holds part or all of your weight.
- Inversion
- Any pose where your hips are above your head.
- Wrap
- A way of winding the fabric around a leg, hip or arm so it holds you securely.
- Cocoon
- Lying inside the opened hammock, fully wrapped, usually for the final rest.
- Savasana
- Corpse pose: the closing rest, here often done inside the fabric.