Featured Masterclass Student: Amy W.

For the month of November 2019 I am featuring Masterclass student, miss Amy Wennersten! (@amy_in_the_air)

Amy is such an energetic and spunky human. I love that this class has brought us together and I was able to meet her in real life this past year when I visited California. She’s just as adorable (and tiny) in real life as she is on the internets! Even though she is small, she has a FIERCE personality. I have enjoyed the time we have spent together getting to know each other and helping her through her aerial training. She probably doesn’t know this but I always feel happier after our lessons together. She has a way of spreading contagious joy and I’m not sure if it’s because of her carefree attitude or her quirky humor. Either way, I’m so glad to know her and honored to be part of her aerial journey in one way or another!

Here’s a little more about miss Amy:

My name is Amy and I am from Huntington Beach, California. Professionally, I am a consultant helping companies implement change and improve their operations. I love what I do, but my passions are travel and aerial. I started aerial 5 years ago. I had seen Cirque du Soleil, but did not realize that people could actually learn to do it until I walked into a studio for another type of fitness class. I saw that they offered aerial and fell in love with my first class. I started out doing silks and lyra. When our studio introduced sling, it was a new and different challenge but quickly became one of my favorite apparatuses. My first performance ever was on sling! We performed to the song “Barbie Girl” and my costume was a completely ridiculous Barbie outfit. We had a lot of fun putting together the routine and performing it. Since then, I have done several group and solo performances on sling. I am most proud of the routine I performed at VivaFest in Las Vegas this year. It was choreographed by Kristi Monson and was the hardest routine I had ever done. When we first started working on it, I couldn’t even make it through the whole thing! In addition to sling, I am well known around my studio as the aerial dinosaur. My aerial partner is an animal trainer. As a joke, we came up with the idea to have her be a dinosaur trainer and the next thing I knew I was doing aerial in an inflatable t-rex costume! The dinosaur has made appearances on silks, lyra, acro, and even pole, but the inflatable costume does not translate very well to sling. I also recently added span sets to my repertoire.

Why did you join the HAJ Masterclass?

I had followed Holly for some time and really liked her style. Flow has always been my challenge and she flows so beautifully. Master class gave me a great opportunity to learn from her and improve my flow on sling. Working with Holly and participating in Masterclass really helped me prepare for VivaFest. Holly gave me some great conditioning exercises and exercises to work on straight leg inverts. She also gave me feedback on my form and positioning. In addition, she helped me prepare for other performance by giving me feedback on the routines and suggesting creative transitions. I love her focus on the basics and the details.

Follow Amy on Instagram to see more of what she’s up to!