January 2020 #hajmasterclass featured student of the month is miss Charly M.!

What better person to ring in the new year than someone who has accomplished so much with her time and energy?! The first time I met Charly was in 2018 during the Apogee Aerial Arts Festival. Charly’s studio, Arcadia, hosted the guest workshops. I was in total awe of the massive ceilings, huge mirrors and props hanging about the space. It’s truly a wonderland of a space to walk into and I felt so inspired just by being there. When I learned more about Charly and what she does I was in awe. She puts an insane amount of effort into her Seattle aerial community and has been around in the circus world longer than just about anyone I know. I have so much respect for her working a full-time job and juggling managing an entire studio, a production company, teaching and still finding the time and energy to train herself. She recently just visited me in Utah for a Traincation and I don’t know how she squeezes it all in! I love the mythical concepts that drive her creative endeavors…she has truly intertwined herself and her interests and passions into her productions. I am so thrilled to finally see a Cabiri performance live (and perform in it!) this May 2020.

It’s been wonderful to get to know this special woman. She is powerful, smart, generous and has built something that’s quite extraordinary out in Seattle. Thank you for being part of this community, Charly!

Here’s a bit more about Charly:

Charly began her journey into aerial dance in 2001 with single point dance trapeze and aerial hammock, studying under Robert Davidson (Robert Davidson Dance Co.) and Nancy Smith (Frequent Flyers Productions) and later branching out into tissu with Fred Deb (Compagnie Drapés – Aériens), cerceau with Sam Alvarez (Cirque du Soleil, Cavalia - Odysseo), and theatrical stilts with David Clarkson (Stalker Theatre Co.). Charly began teaching aerial dance in 2006 at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle and now oversees all aerial dance education at Arcadia. Charly enjoys teaching aerial sling and dance trapeze at Arcadia. In 1999, Charly co-founded The Cabiri performance troupe, where she now serves as Managing Director. Charly is passionate about mythology, storytelling, and inspiring her students and fellow Cabiri troupe members to find their creative voices via the singular connection of heaven to earth offered by aerial dance. In her 20 years of dancing in the air, she has performed on just about every apparatus in the Cabiri’s repertoire including invented apparatuses such as the sun disc and aerial moon.

I initially joined to support my favorite sling queen Holly but quickly realized there are activities and exercises that support and facilitate growth and development in all areas of my aerial practice including creativity, technique and form, and vocabulary. It is the best $19 I spend every month!

Follow Charly on Instagram: @aquarialist

Cabiri on Instagram: @thecabiri

Arcadia on Instagram: @arcadiaseattle