BROOKINGS – In its “In Bloom” production, Monarch Aerial Arts studio in Brookings is celebrating its first anniversary with what owner Joscelyne Larson called “kind of a showcase.”
She added, “Our students have prepared different routines on aerial silk, mural, trapeze and so on. They will be showcasing strength, grace and creativity, routines using aerial silks, lyra, trapeze and more.”
The event takes place at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center on the SDSU campus at 6 p.m. Saturday. The showcase features 20 aerialists performing 15 acts.
It’s a ticketed event: $10 for adults; children under 7 are $5. Tickets are available at the door starting at 5 p.m.
Larson has been practicing aerial arts for about 12 years. By profession, she’s a mechanical engineer. She grew up in Sioux Falls and teaches mechanical engineering at SDSU. “This is my side business,” she noted.
She’s a certified instructor, from the Circus Arts Institute of America. “I love teaching all ages,” she noted. “Our youngest is 7 and our oldest is in her mid-40s.” While most of her students are girls and women, men and boys, anybody of all backgrounds and ages, can do it.
Larson graduated from SDSU with a bachelor’s degree in May 2021 and with a master’s degree in 2023. She had worked at a power plant before returning for her master’s degree.
Her business started as a hobby. She teaches four times a week. Her husband, Daniel Larson, is her business partner. “He just runs the business. He’s on the financial side.”
“The skills demanded could combine some aspects of gymnastics or dance, but it is different from those two,” she explained. “We use silks, or what we call the lyra, the aerial rope. We are moving through that artistically, using those apparatuses and moving artistically through a song. But it is very different than gymnastics, and it does have some aspects of dance.
“But again, we’re climbing in the air, up to 20 feet. We do some poses, some sequences, some drops – controlled.”
“Each event may last for the length of a song, usually three to four minutes,” Larson explained. “The theme for the performances is ‘In Bloom.’ It’s about spring. All our songs have a nature theme involved. Some songs are maybe a little more classical; a couple are a little more poppy. We have a range, something for everyone, but everything is done to a song.”
Larson has been practicing and been a student for about 12 years. “I still practice. I go to Minneapolis and take classes. Any time I travel and there’s a studio, I try and go to classes there.”
Many of Larson’s students are regulars who have been with her for four or five years. Some are newcomers who pick up their skills quickly. “There’s actually a student in the showcase who started in January,” she explained.
“It’s a great way to move your body, to be creative, to maybe use that artistic side,” she explained. “It really is an art form. We’re using our bodies. It’s very much fitness oriented; but I think a big part of it, and why people like it so much, is because you can be creative, you can express yourself through this part of dance.”
Larson admits that “she just kind of stumbled on to” the aerial arts: “I think I just saw an intro to aerial class, which we do once a month at our studio, and I decided I wanted to try it. I loved it.
“That was about 12 years ago. I just really enjoyed it. I had never found a sport or an activity that I truly loved. For me this was it. I went to every class I could and then I became an instructor and started teaching.”
— Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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