Aerial Edge Circus Challenge

WHAT’S YOUR PERSONAL BEST? FIND OUT AT THE AERIAL EDGE CIRCUS CHALLENGE

Aerial Edge Circus Challenge is 100 minutes designed to let you test, explore, and celebrate your skills in a fun, strategic, and supportive environment.

The challenge is designed to work for everyone from beginners to advanced levels, and will be repeatable so that you can track progress with future editions.

There are several aspects to make this exciting and genuinely challenging – there’s a step-by-step game plan at the end of this article.

The firs thing to know is that you gain points by completing skills across a range of different circus disciplines. There’s a choice of five skills for each discipline, and three levels of difficulty within each of the five. And each level of difficulty yields a different score.

But it’s not as simple as that!

A big part of the buzz is choosing what skills to attempt, and in which order, within the 100-minute time window.

With dozens of individual challenges on the table, there is more to do than anyone can realistically finish. That means you need to play to your strengths in the skills, yet assess your route from one skill to another in real-time, and be prepared to adjust your plan as you go.

For example, a straddle mount to trapeze might be an easy point to score for you – but what if there’s a queue at the hoop station? If there are fewer people at trapeze, it might be smarter to whizz over there and pop your move, then shift quickly to your next challenge.

The focus is on personal challenge and exploration, strategic decision-making under time pressure, accessibility for both beginners and advanced students, long-term progress tracking across future editions.

Of course, the more moves you pack into the 100 minutes, the more points you gain. So a beginner flying through plenty of low-point skills by being open to adaptations could end up with a better score than someone who’s determined to nail a series of high-scoring advanced skills.

Although a leaderboard will exist for inspiration and celebration, the spirit of the event is self-comparison, growth, and community, not winning.

Rather than a championship, this is a personal performance and health challenge, which can be repeated and compared across different editions over time to track progress. But essentially it’s a crazy fun day for everyone from beginners to advanced students…our teachers want to play too!

The first edition will be launched on World Circus Day 2026 – Saturday 18th April. Spaces are limited and it’s first come, first to reserve their spot when booking opens.

Structure of the event

• Each discipline is broken down into five skills, and each skill has three levels of difficulty.

• Event duration: 100 minutes

• Total disciplines: TBC (approx. 12)

• Skills per discipline: 5

• Levels per skill: 3 progressions (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3)

Strategy is a fun part of the challenge – you need to choose smart in the moment. You might get more points if you go for a discipline that has nobody on the apparatus rather than one that you’re know you’ll do best at.

Skill levels & points system

Each skill has three levels:

• Level 1: 1 point

• Level 2: 2 points

• Level 3: 3 points

Example: Flying Trapeze Skill 1 - hocks progression:

• Level 1: Knee hang

• Level 2: Hocks off

• Level 3: Hocks salto

IMPORTANT!

• Only the highest level completed per skill counts. If you complete Level 1, 2, and 3, you receive 3 points total.

• Points do not stack across levels of the same skill

• This encourages risk-taking and progression, without rewarding repetition.

The challenges

To create excitement and equal conditions, you will not know the challenges in

advance. All challenges will be revealed at the very last minute.

We will use a private Instagram account for the event where:

• Each post represents one skill

• Each post contains: 3 short videos (Level 1, 2, and 3) and a description which will give you key technical requirements, safety notes and any specific rules or constraints.

You will access the account at the start of the challenge and decide your strategy in real time.

Each level will:

• Build clearly from the previous one

• Increase difficulty through, for example, reduced points of contact, increased balance,

strength, or control, less external support, etc

Accessibility & safety

• Level 1 will be achievable by true beginners

• Level 3 will challenge experienced students, but remain safe

• No skill will require spotting that cannot be reasonably self-managed

• Description of the skills will be explicit about holds allowed, time requirements, starting and ending positions, etc

How you score points

To officially score a skill:

1. You perform the skill

2. You record yourself nailing it in a short video

3. You post it to your Instagram Story

4. You tag Aerial Edge (@aerial_edge)

Only tagged stories will be counted.

Staff will review stories and log:

• Discipline

• Skill

• Highest level achieved

This system allows live participation, easy verification and a shared community feeling

during the event.

Leaderboard & long-term tracking

A leaderboard will be published on the Aerial Edge website and rankings are for celebration, inspiration and visibility, not competition.

Prizes may exist, but they are secondary to participation and growth. Crucially, this challenge is designed to be repeatable.

In future editions:

• You can compare your scores across time

• You can track progress per discipline (not just total points)

• You can use the challenge as a personal development benchmark

Final intention

The Aerial Edge Circus Challenge is about exploring limits safely. Encouraging smart choices, not perfection. Celebrating what bodies can do today and creating a shared, playful experience across the school.

We all want to focus on what matters most: movement, creativity, courage, and fun.

Book your place

• Date: January 2026