— Practice 01
Aerial Yoga
Silk hammocks turn the familiar shapes of a yoga class inside out — the spine lengthens, the ground lets go, and the body remembers how to hang.
The first thing most people notice is the quiet. A hammock takes your weight before you have decided to trust it, and the argument you were having with your own body simply stops mid-sentence.
Our silks hang from the timber beams of the open shala, three metres of fabric that behave like a swing, a sling and a second pair of hands depending on what the shape asks for. Beginners spend the first twenty minutes learning to sit, lean and fall into the fabric. After that, inversions arrive almost by accident.
The practice borrows its vocabulary from hatha and its logic from traction. Hanging decompresses the spine in a way no mat pose can, which is why guests who arrive with desk shoulders and long-haul backs tend to book the second class before they have finished the first.
“You are not being asked to hold yourself up. That is the whole lesson, and it takes most of us a full week to accept it.”
In the practice.
- How a class runs
- A slow warm-up on the mat, twenty minutes of hammock familiarity, a flowing suspended sequence, then long assisted inversions and a savasana cocooned in the silk.
- Who it suits
- First-time flyers, stiff spines, and anyone curious about inversions without loading the neck or wrists. Small groups mean the teacher can rig each hammock to your height.
- What to bring
- Clothing that covers the backs of the knees and armpits, no zips or jewellery, and an empty stomach. Everything else is provided.
Good to know.
- Not suitable in the first trimester of pregnancy, or with glaucoma, recent surgery or uncontrolled high blood pressure — tell us in advance and we will adapt.
- Maximum eight hammocks per class.
- Drop-ins welcome when there is space; let us know the day before.
