Adult Classes
In person classes are $400-450 for the 16 week semester, or $30/drop in and run through 12/19. Pro rating available.
Online classes meet via Zoom and are $15 per drop in or $50 for four weeks, and run 10/6 – 10/31.
Financial aid is available!
New student? Enter your email below to get a free drop in or $30 off your first class!
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Aerial Arts
In Person
Beginner: Saturdays 9 – 10amAll levels: Mondays 7:30 – 8:30pm, Tuesdays 7:15 – 8:15pm, Thursdays 6:30 – 7:30pm, or Fridays 1 – 2pm
Advanced: Tuesdays 8:30 – 9:30pm
Our signature “Learn to Fly” class. Build strength and flexibility while learning sequences on trapeze, lyra, Spanish web, and aerial silks. Discover your daring side as you execute a variety of climbs, inversions, and drops.
Our Aerial Arts classes are perfect for performers looking to add new skills to their arsenal as well as for non-performers seeking a unique physical challenge
Aerial Conditioning
Online
Mondays 7:30 – 8:15pmSaturdays 10 – 10:45am
Active flexibility and functional strength drills for budding aerialists, plus a healthy dose of low impact cardio for good measure.
Circus Arts
In Person
Mondays 6:15 – 7:30pmExperience all things acrobatic in our Circus Arts classes! Each week includes training in the foundations of tumbling, ground skills, and aerial skills. This class is perfect for those interested in training strength, flexibility, and balance across a wide variety of skills: gymnastics, silks, lyra, trapeze, Spanish web, rolling globe, juggling, stilt walking and more.
Circus Fitness
In Person
Fridays 9:45 – 10:45am or 5:30 – 6:30pmOnline
Fridays 1 – 1:45pmUpgrade your workout regimen! Join us for a truly unique fitness experience that incorporates circus apparatus to train muscles you didn’t even know you had. Think squats...but in an aerial silk! This class is beginner-friendly and open to all fitness levels.
Flexibility/Contortion
Online
Flexibility: Thursdays 6 – 7pmContortion: Thursdays 7 – 8pm (Instructor permission required)
Get ready to get bendy! In this all levels class we will focus on building a balance of flexibility and strength to increase mobility and work towards becoming a human pretzel. Different classes will focus on different body regions including hip, back, and side bending/twisting.
Ground to Air Choreography
In Person
Intermediate: Wednesdays 8 – 9:15pmThis course will be divided into two units, focusing in Trapeze and Fabric. Each unit will consist of in class movement based research, inspired by weekly creative prompts. Through this research, students will collaborate to create two short choreographed acts. A basic skill level of trapeze and fabric are required, but it is not necessary to be a master of either apparatus to participate.
Gymnastics
In Person
Mondays 8:30 – 9:45pmPeople of all physical backgrounds are welcome in this multi-level class! Students work with an instructor to push their individual tumbling abilities and develop increased coordination and agility.
Handstands & Handbalancing
In Person
Mondays 6:30 – 7:30pm & 7:30 – 8:30pmOnline
Tuesdays 6 – 7pmStart from scratch and learn the fundamentals of flight in inversions training. Gain access to your strength and confidence to de-mystify headstands, forearm stands & handstands.
Juggling
Online
Beginner: Thursdays 4:15 – 5pmBored of twiddling your thumbs in quarantine? Expand your juggling skills in this online class. Learn new throws, balances, patterns and develop your own style with the impressive David Chervony!
Quarterstaff
In Person
Sundays 9/27 – 11/29: 10am – 1:30pmCome take a class in the style of Quarterstaff as seen in Lord of the Rings, Xena: Warrior Princess and Mortal Kombat. This class will cover the basics of staged quarterstaff combat including attacks, defenses, footwork, and more. Particular attention will be paid to proper partnering and acting the fight. Participants will have the opportunity to take the Society of American Fight Directors skills proficiency test.
Return to Circus!
In Person
Intermediate: Wednesdays 6:30 – 7:45pmGet back into your circus brain and body in this general circus course! Each week consists of ground and aerial-based skills, including flexibility, handstands, tumbling, conditioning, and an alternating unit between bar apparatus and vertical apparatus.
We will start with a slow ramp up, to build strength, mobility, and endurance so that we can get you comfortably back in the air and upside down. We'll review basic aerial skills with the addition of new ones as we progress throughout the course.
Silks/Rope
In Person
Intermediate: Thursdays 7:30 – 8:45pmCome take class with aerial instructor Jim Domenick, who is brand new to Chicago! With over 20 years of experience coaching, he will focus on building fluid sequences on rope and silks by using strong fundamentals to create seamless transitions. Special attention will also be paid to the foundation of dynamic work.
Prerequisites - Comfortable hip key and inversions from the air
The advertising doesn’t lie: you will learn to fly! Yes, even me, 185 pounds of mom and sedentary desk worker. Do your inner child a favor and take a class here. The teachers are so supportive, figuratively and sometimes literally. I took the adult aerial arts class (with Sylvia and David) and I surprised myself by getting a lot stronger and learning so much over the course of 16 weeks. I did things on the last day of class that I never would have believed I could do on the first.
– Emily P., Yelp Reviewer
FAQs
Please note: All class sales are final, and refunds will not be given if classes are moved online due to health restrictions.
In general, students start with and repeat recreational-level classes until they develop a higher level of confidence, strength and proficiency. While a background in dance, gymnastics or other athletic pursuits will be an advantage, circus arts and physical theatre employ our muscle groups in different ways than other activities and it most often takes several sessions for students of all ages to adapt and master skills necessary to move to the advanced level.
Students need to receive instructor permission to take advanced classes and in some cases, advancement is subject to passing a skills test. If you feel ready to advance to an advanced-level class, we encourage you to talk to your instructor, who can assess if you are ready.
We recommend wearing clothing you are comfortable moving in, that is not too loose fitting.
Close-toed gym shoes should be worn to Parkour and all Circus Arts classes to use during stilting and unicycling. All other classes require bare feet.
Yes! If you register online after the class has started, your tuition will be automatically pro-rated.
Unfortunately, we are unable to allow make-ups for missed classes, as it makes it challenging for us to ensure a safe ratio of students to instructors in each class.
At the Actors Gymnasium, we operate on a philosophy that using multiple apparatus in conjunction with each other builds the increased strength, confidence, and performance skills critical to help artists achieve a level of competence that allows for the meaningful concentration on a specialized skill or apparatus. Because of that, most of our classes teach multiple apparatus.
Foundational skills remain constant from one apparatus to another. Wraps, climbs, hangs and most baseline tricks can be learned and improved on any apparatus. Until students reach an advanced skill level with sufficient strength and knowledge, the benefits of specializing will be minimal.
If you are ready to start focusing on one particular apparatus, we encourage you to consider taking private lessons with us.
No, the parking lot at the Noyes Cultural Arts center is easy for students to be dropped off and picked up before and after class.
For those who want to stay nearby, there are benches throughout the building where you can wait for your child as well as Tallmadge Park just outside our doors.
No, parents are not allowed to sit in on their child’s class, unless the class is a parent-participation class.
