Hanging Tough
Shoulder Anatomy and Health for the Aerial Artist
Aerial artists spend a lot of time with our arms over our heads, which can lead to pain and injury. Our shoulders are the most mobile joint in our bodies and our greatest aerial tools, but also the part of the body that is most at risk among aerialists.
This class focuses exclusively on the shoulder: the bio-mechanics of how it works and how to use it safely through its full range of motion. Learn the best techniques for hanging, smooth inversions, and levers, as well as the secrets of one-arm skills.
Your Instructor
Dr. Emily Scherb is a physical therapist with a lifelong passion for understanding human movement.
She’s been a practicing aerialist for almost 30 years and has dangled from balloons, danced in the air, and swung from trapezes. That background inspired her to specialize her practice on circus and aerial artists. She has a proven track record of helping patients who have not seen results with traditional physical therapy due to her unique perspective on how the body works both on the ground and in the air.
As an educator, she travels the country teaching circus artists, instructors, and healthcare professionals about the unique physical demands and challenges of training the body to do incredible feats.
She received her graduate degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and now lives in Seattle, where she works with professional and pre-professional circus artists through her positions as Resident Physical Therapist at the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts and as the Company Physical Therapist for the contemporary circus company Acrobatic Conundrum.
Her first book, Applied Anatomy of Aerial Artists was released in August 2018