Kannatthaphon Sonkcharoen is a Thai aerialist with ten years of performing and teaching experience. He started his journey in aerial in Thailand and then went on to train as a Circus instructor in Montreal, Canada. He started competing in 2018 in aerial acrobatic competitions and won first prize in Aerial Silks in Airstar Aerial Competition 2018  and Aerial Hoop in Philippines aerial cup 2019. He is currently doing aerial acrobatic teacher trainings for many aerial studios in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Oak is going to be teaching aerial straps intensive and our second aerial silks teacher training! 

Mark Gibson  is the Managing Director of Aerial Edge and has specialised for the last 20 years in education for both technical, physical and artistic disciplines. When he’s not on a trapeze Mark works in humanitarian education providing education to disconnected communities around the world.

In 2000 Mark began training in static trapeze and has since been performing with both solo and doubles aerial acts for the last 19 years. Mark has been teaching aerial disciplines since 2007 and runs www. CircusRigging.info which publishes articles and videos on circus safety

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Mark is an award winning Chinese Martial Arts and Tai Chi instructor and has been doing so for 32 years. He will be conducting a rigging workshop this season.

April Ananda Bliss is the ring mistress of Bliss Circus, creatrix, and instructor. With ten years of experience of performance in the circus arts around the world and 7 years experience organizing circus events and gatherings, her goal is to share the joy and bliss of circus and build the circus community stronger where ever she goes. She is also a bodyworker, her knowledge of the body combined with the many years of training, studying, and working with movement in circus arts has provided her with an encyclopedia of information she is happy to share with her students. 

Born and raised in Quebec, Canada, Laura discovered circus 12 years ago, while studying an Adventure Tourism degree. After several years of theater as a teenager and being a natural Clown, she knew right then that circus would become and serve her life purpose; to encourage human kind to realize their greatest potential.

After training silks, capoeira and yoga for a year in Brussels, she got into INAC circus school, Portugal, where she graduated the 2 years professional circus course, specializing in Aerial rope dynamics. It is through fire dancing and partner acrobatics street shows that Laura paid her school and built a profound, long term relationship with street performance. 

Last year, Laura participated as a student in the Bliss Circus mentorship program 2022-23, before completing a 200 hours YTTC in Rishikesh in March 2023. Besides aerials as a main discipline, Laura practices, teaches and performs handstands, partner acrobatics, acroyoga, fire spinning/eating, and clowning.

Aditi discovered circus arts while taking pole lessons with PoleSoc Sussex in 2015. Under the guidance of High Top Circus instructors Kitty Peels and Abigail Horn, Aditi developed a passion for height and vertical movements. Today, Aditi is among the first batch of internationally certified aerial silk instructors, accredited by Oak Kannatthaphon of Asia Aerial Arts (AFAA and ACE approved).

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Aditi has been teaching aerial silk in Bangalore for couple of years and their teaching approach emphasizes technique, strength and conditioning, a strong commitment to safety, and fostering creative progress rather than mastering a skill.

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Outside the circus, Aditi is a recognized music entrepreneur and DJ and have played host to artists from around the world like Mike Posner, Anderson Paak, Watsky, Tinariwen, Patrick Watson, and many others. Aditi has also performed at popular music events such as Boiler Room, Road to Lollapalooza, Arcade 140, and Bangalore Massive, to name a few.

Javed is a flow artist hailing from Kerala, India. He embarked on his artistic journey 6 years ago after witnessing a street performance in Goa. He is a multifaceted performance artist specializing in poi and short staff spinning. Trained in contemporary dance and capoeira Javed incorporates a movement based object manipulation style in his performances whilst expressing a thematic. 

Over the last three years he has been sharing his expertise by teaching and performing across India and has graced the stages of Kochi-Muziris- Biennale, Goa Pride Festival, Ragam NIT Calicut etc.

Having honed their skills as a self-taught artist, Javed brings a unique approach to learning flow arts that merges various movement practices. By going back to the root systems of learning he enables them to break down different kinds of moves and therefore helping students to create their own style of spinning. 

Yara Jules Fares is a lebanese flow artist/teacher with fine arts background. Sponsored artist by Astral Hoops.

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Main disciplines: Hula hoop, Rope dart.
Others: Poi, Staff

Currently focusing on partner training: Doubles Trapeze, Acrobatics and Cradle.

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Yara has 5 years of teaching experience in Flow arts. She created ‘Mastering Circles’ in 2022, an online hula hoop program for all levels and held the first Hula hoop Bootcamp in Lebanon in summer 2023.

Yara has performed and taught in many events, circus/dance schools and international music festivals, is experienced in fire spinning and fire safety. She teaches object manipulation and the integration of movement in flow arts.