Our Values
Safety
Physical and emotional safety are paramount to our practice and our teaching. The longevity of our practice depends on it. We recognize that Acro can strain both our bodies and our relationships with others. We seek to reduce physical risks through active spotting, understanding our own anatomies, and respecting our daily limitations. We seek to reduce psychological risks through non-violent communication, consent, and seeking to make Acro a safe space for everyone.
Spotting, in itself, is a beautiful art, and one that enables us to advance to new heights, protects us from our own overconfidence, and gives us an opportunity to show that we care about keeping each other safe. We see the notion of “not needing a spotter” as one only done out of convenience, and not out of consideration for the practice. While it’s unrealistic to think spotting will always be used, we never want to see ourselves as “too good” for spotting. Professionals use spotters. Recreationists can too. The instances that are perceived as “more dangerous” with a spotter are just opportunities to help someone get better at spotting.
We seek to create safe spaces. We do so by asking for consent, whether for engaging in a skill, hands-on adjustments, or even offering advice. While there is beauty in this community’s willingness to share, we understand that everyone has their own goals, and that could be figuring things out on their own. We seek to understand and acknowledge power dynamics. We recognize that we are often vulnerable in this practice; we are in precarious positions, we have to express our needs, and we have to learn to struggle together with strangers. We seek to create trust by respecting each other’s identities. And while we acknowledge that not everyone is in Acro for the same reason, we recognize that our society does not often teach non-sexual physical touch between strangers, and so we seek to provide a non-sexual environment to keep people feeling safe.
Communication
Acro, at its core, is a practice of communication. A squeeze of the hand, a rotation of the foot, even a collective breath are part of the subtle art of efficiency in cueing that we don’t expect to be embodied on day one. While we seek to refine our communication, we recognize that communication between each set of unique partners may be different, so we keep space for nuance through understanding, patience, and kindness as we learn how best to engage.
In our practice, we seek this efficiency through respect, support, and expressed intention.
We interpret the world differently when we don’t feel safe, and so we seek to make each other feel safe through learning to respect each other’s boundaries, asking for consent, and being okay with “no”. The fear of physical danger is a natural part of the practice, and so we give space to that, and we respect our own current limitations. And we recognize that our limitations are only temporary, so we treat our present selves with kindness, and we look forward in admiration of our limitless future selves.
We seek to remove blame from the dialog by focusing on addressing what we’re experiencing, removing assumptions of others, and offering support instead of critique. We give space for everyone in the partnership to have a voice, and we recognize when our own voices may not be needed.
And we set clear intentions in our practice before each movement, even it’s just to say “let’s flow”, so that we’re not working against each other. This consistency and predictability enables us to feel safe, allowing our minds to relax into our creative flow states.
Embodying these skills requires practice and work, so we give respect to all on this journey seeking to better themselves. And we seek to let these skills permeate into the rest of our lives, so that the practice continues.