Our Instructors
This studio and its diverse instructors have given me the greatest gift: a loving, nonjudgmental, inclusive space to hone my craft and become an aerialist. Each of the instructors brings their own unique talents and experience, and continually demonstrate their commitment to helping their students improve, whether in the studio or outside of it.
-Kieran
emily van kley
Emily Van Kley began practicing aerial acrobatics in 2012, and quickly fell in love. She has been an aerial teacher and performer in Olympia since 2016, and adores empowering students to achieve what they may not have imagined possible in the air. In addition to continuing beginner and intermediate classes featuring silks, corde lisse, and trapeze, Emily offers private lessons and specialty courses focused on lyra, sling, doubles work, flexibility, and (her favorite) drops! Emily is also a working poet. Learn more about her writing, books, and aerial + poetry projects, at www.emilyvankley.com
Contact: ejvankley@gmail.com
Rumi minowa
(they/them) In late 2016, Rumi was inspired to learn aerial arts after attending the long-standing local show, The Brotherhood Takes Flight. Since then, they have progressed through the curriculum at Sparrow Studios, spent four months in Mexico immersed in an artist residency, and performed on various apparatuses in the South Sound region. Rumi has been teaching at Sparrow Studios since 2020 and in 2023 became a co-owner. They train primarily on rope but also silks, sling, and static trapeze. They LOVE to find and teach adaptations that allow everybody to participate in circus arts. They continue to deepen their aerial practice through learning from coaches & artists they admire, teaching at all levels, and occasionally performing at the Brotherhood.
Rumi typically has daytime lesson availability Tuesdays through Fridays. Some weekends and Friday evenings, by request.
(updated May 2024)
Contact: rumi.catherine@gmail.com
Ariel schmidtke
Ariel Schmidtke is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and educator. Drawing on a childhood background in gymnastics and an academic education in creative writing, she has spent her adult years crafting circus theater shows fusing acrobatics, trapeze, shadow puppetry, and storytelling. She began her circus training in 2009 with the Bellingham Circus Guild and has travelled as far as France’s Academie Fratellini to improve her skills. In 2022 Ariel completed a master’s in teaching at Evergreen State College and is now the co-owner of Sparrow Studios. When she’s not sharing her art on stage, she finds herself working with young people to help them develop their creativity and find their own unique ways to tell their stories. See more of her work at: alengthofrope.com and afrayedknotcircus.com
Contact: typewriterkeys@gmail.com
giselle garcia
Giselle Gabrielle Garcia has been teaching at Sparrow Studios for three years, and performing since childhood. She performs regularly in town at the Brotherhood Takes Flight and works as a synthesist, composer, photographer, and designer out of her home studio in Olympia. She mostly teaches beginning and continuing beginning students at Sparrow Studios, and loves helping students begin and continue their aerial circus art practices more than anything. www.gisellegabrielle.com
Contact: giselleg@gmail.com
mirrah stoller
Mirrah commenced her aerial journey in 2015 at Airbound Arts. Once lost in a sea of musical and visual mediums, she found her home with rope, silks, trapeze, sling, lyra, and dance trapeze. She has studied aerial at Sparrow Studios, NECCA, Paperdoll Militia, and Versatile Arts, and has performed at The Brotherhood Takes Flight since 2018. Mirrah is passionate about helping students improve spatial cognition, body awareness, and self esteem. She aims to make aerial safe and accessible to anyone who wants to check it out! Find her work at www.aerialinterface.com/
audrey spinazola
Like most of us, Audrey Spinazola is super cool and can do lots of things. After graduating from The Clown Conservatory in 2008 and a second physical theater conservatory program in 2009, she has been creating, performing, and coaching circus and theater non-stop. She has coached with Prescott Circus Theater in the Bay Area, was Youth Performance Program Manager for SANCA in Seattle, co-created and toured the amazing Genie and Audrey's Dream Show!!! worked as a hospital clown for the Medical Clown Project, performed with Olympia Family Theater, and has juggled for MythBusters and the SF Opera. In her spare time she enjoys being upside down, paddling around in her canoe, and playing music.
Contact: audreyspinazola@gmail.com
MARLO WINTER
Eda Begadix (Marlo Winter) is an aerialist and clown, playing with a unique style of wild vulnerability and bright-eyed debauchery. This is their 12th year performing and are inspired by sharing their concepts around aerial as a stage craft with students. They are a founding member of Airbound Underground Circus Collective and a producer of numerous local shows like Private Pansey and Falsettos and Sunsets.