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About Us

Aerial Arts of Rochester is co-owned by aerial partners and husband/wife team, Jennifer and William D’Ovidio.

Since Opening in 2010, the school has blossomed into a community sharing a passion and respect for all things circus.

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Aerial Arts is a safe place where creativity can flourish. Providing an encouraging and supportive environment where students can grow at their own pace is how we approach our training. We believe that everyone can and should fly if they so desire. We will help you on your journey from the ground, up - literally!

 

Although a recreational school, we have the skills to develop athletes and artists who wish to pursue careers in the industry. We are primarily an alternative fitness facility, however we are also a performance arts venue, where both youth and adults have the opportunity to perform in showcases and themed productions.


Currently Aerial Arts of Rochester offers classes, workshops and memberships. In in addition to children’s birthday parties, camps, school field trips and team building opportunities.


We are also home to the The Aerial Arts of Rochester Cirque Performance Troupe that is available for hire in the WNY region. AAOR has a team of instructors all with impressive lists of accomplishments and unique talents that they bring to the school. We continually seek out opportunities to help us grow as aerialists and instructors.

Facility

Our facility is apprx. 13,000 square feet. Upstairs we have an observation desk that overlooks our The Arena, complete with Kitchen and rest rooms.

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The "Arena" is 7,500 square feet

Pole Studio is about 900 square feet

Fitness Studio is about 950 square feet
The Gym Space is aprox. 600 square feet

Home to Alpha Physical Performance

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Awards & Recognition

Community Donations

Aerial Arts is happy to make a donation to your organization. Below are local organizations we have worked with in the past.

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Camp Good Days and Special Times

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The Center for Youth

Geva Theater

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Foodlink

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CURE

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The Strong Museum of Play

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Discovering Deaf Worlds

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Veterans Outreach

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and many more....

Meet the Team

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First Aid & CPR Certified




2016 TED Talk Presenter

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2017
Rochester's Top Fitness
Instructor Finalist

 

William D'Ovidio

Ring Master
Instructor
Performer
Entertainment Troupe Coordinator

As the co-owner of Aerial Arts of Rochester, William brings an innovative style and approach to teaching that allows people of all ages, levels and abilities to do experience the circus arts. Prior to aerial, he was a 3rd degree black belt and instructed martial arts for 10 years. Throughout college he focused on sports medicine, while attaining a comprehensive understanding of human physiology and anatomy. He has been able to help many athletes and aerialists avoid injuries and succeed in their training.



William is also a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology and professional photographer. Having worked as digital editor for the New York Times Magazine, he has been able to use his multi-media experience to elevate the professionalism of Aerial Arts of Rochester.


When transiting back to his roots in the health and fitness industry William trained under Olympic Athlete, Christine VanLoo, Cirque Du Soliel artist, Ann Stimmel and at many circus arts training schools across the U.S. including the reputable New England Center of Circus Arts. Through education, he continues to inspire others to follow their dreams of running away with the circus.

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First Aid & CPR Certified


Dance Discoveries Certified Pole Dance Instructor

2012
 Elite Finalist

American Pole Fitness Championship

2013

1st Place

Level 3 Artistic Division

Central Pole Dance Championships

2014
2nd Place

Level 4
Entertainment Division

Atlantic Pole Championships

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2019
Girls Scouts WNY
Keynote Speaker

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2020
Virtual Pole Judge for
Pole Sports Organization

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Jennifer D'Ovidio

Ring Mistress
Instructor
Performer
Youth Program Director

Jennifer is classically trained dancer all throughout adolescence and continued to pursue dance at the collegiate level. She become a professional actress at the age of 13 when she hit the stage at Geva Theater in "A Christmas Carol". Into early adulthood, she pursued writing and recording music with GFI productions and toured with band, Justified. She has been on 92.5 WBEE's Upstate on Stage, featured on local commercial jingles and sang back up vocals for previous platinum selling artists. Jennifer has also had the privilege of being on the Rochester Brigade dance team, teaching children’s dance classes and coaching CYO cheerleading.


As a Rochester Institute of Technology Alumni she studied Arts Management, Business and Hospitality. As her passion for entrepreneurship grew stronger, she opened the studio in 2010.


Initially training aerial acrobatics with a competitive gymnastics coach, she went on to do private training sessions and workshops with some of the best athletes in the world, including Olympic athlete of the decade, Christine VanLoo.Jennifer has also studied at several circus arts centers up and down east coast including the New England Center of Circus Arts, Esh Aerial Arts, Sunshine Circus Arts and more. Jennifer now performs locally in the upstate area with the Aerial Arts of Rochester cirque troupe.

Recently, she had had the honor and pleasure of being a keynote speaker for Girl Scouts of WNY and would love to inspire other area groups by sharing her experience and knowledge with our community. She is also helping local theater organizations with aerial choreography and is planning new  productions for AAoR students.


 

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Frances Winterberger

 Instructor, Trainer

Frances attended her first aerial class here at Aerial Arts of Rochester back in 2014. Since then, she has found a love for every apparatus and is now proficient in aerial silks, lyra, dance trapeze, aerial doubles work, as well as partner acrobatics.

 

In November of 2019, Frances completed the Nimble Arts Teacher Training Certification and continues to research and refine her teaching methods. She has also trained at New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), The Bird's Nest in Buffalo, TSNY-NYC, Orlando Circus School, and Gorilla Circus in London.

 

Outside of the studio, you can find Frances studying hard as an Applied Statistics student at RIT, traveling, or relaxing with her 3 dogs and Netflix.

 

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Paxton Hummer

Instructor, Performer, Event Hostess

Paxton Hummer is a Canadian movement artist and theatre creator with a passion for teaching. An alumni of Canterbury’s Dramatic Arts program, she continued her performance training in Humber College’s Devised Physical Theatre program in Toronto, before relocating to Rochester. Paxton is enamored with bringing stories to life through collective creation and working expressively with choreography.


Having been raised in a household that founded both the “DanceXperience” and the “FeminineXperience”, Paxton was heavily involved in the creative process as executive assistant.

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Her involvement in the family dance business also included leading children’s classes, providing instruction at birthday parties, and choreographing flash mob performances. This extended to large scale flash mobs, notably one financed by the city of Ottawa in 2014.

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While attending theatre college, Paxton decided to push her flexibility to the next level by extensively stretching and training herself in back bending contortion. In 2019, she discovered her new found love of aerial arts, utilizing her flexibility and exploring a wide range of apparatuses. Paxton is committed to mastering the circus performance arts in order to spread knowledge, creativity, and positivity to the world.

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Julia Frederick

Studio Manager, Youth Instructor, Party Hostess

With a Bachelors in Theatre, Julia knows how to run this circus! As the front desk coordinator, Julia helps with all aspects of studio including enrollments, event bookings and productions. She has been with Aerial Arts of Rochester since 2015 and loves to hear when students finally achieve the move that had challenged them most!

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Paige Pensgen

Instructor

Bio Coming Soon...

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Kaylin Cervini

Instructor

Kaylin started training aerial in fall of 2015. She has performed on the aerial hoop for various music events including Cirque Du Bass in the WNY area. She is published actress in a horror film called "Book of Evil" that can be found on Amazon, Target Online, Fandangonow and other streaming services. Prior to aerial, Kaylin was cheerleader and trained taekwondo, as a purple belt.

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Kaylin is a local celebrity playing her original music on several local radio stations, as well as live on Good Day Rochester Fox News. She has opened up for musical stars such as Teddy Geiger, Tyler Hilton, Ryan Cabrera, as well as most recently Aaron Carter.

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"There's a certain magic people in seeing people fly, and I wanted to be part of that. One personal thing I love about performing aerial, is that I get to be evidence that people of all body sizes can be fit, can be strong. There are no limitations in the circus."

 

 In the future she hopes to continue bringing music, and singing, into her aerial performances.

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Miranda Bryan

Instructor, Performer

After taking her first aerial silks class in 2014, Miranda has been hooked on aerial ever since. Miranda is from Southern California and has an athletic background in gymnastics and field hockey. She taught beginner to intermediate gymnastics for children ages 6-14 and taught cheerleaders ages 7-14 basic tumbling skills at California cartwheel Center in CA. In addition she has trained at various studios such as Domestic Goddess, TSNY-Santa Monica, The Aerial Classroom, Womack and Bowman, and The Choreography House in various apparatuses. For the past 3 years before moving to Rochester, NY, Miranda performed with The RockAngel Cabaret in California performing at weddings, corporate events, birthday parties, and even TV shows. Miranda believes aerial is the meaning of fitness and fun.

In her spare time, Miranda is building her own business, creating art pieces that customers can purchase for their homes and/or businesses. She creates and sells, live and faux plant arrangements, abstract paintings, macrame home decor and soy candles.

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Jess Soto

Instructor, Performer

Bio Coming Soon

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TBD

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Macrina Jeary

Instructor

Bio Coming Soon...

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Kiendra Simpson

Youth Instructor, Performer

Kiendra Simpson is a current graduate student in the Masters of Social Work program at The State University of New York at Brockport. With this, they hope to become a licensed social worker and later a licensed clinical social worker. They also hope to become licensed in play and art therapy. Kiendra further is a recent graduate of The State University of New York at Buffalo with their BA in Psychology, prior to this they also received their AA in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Alfred State College.

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In their educational career, Kiendra focuses on human rights, mental health care, mental illness recovery, psychotherapy, psychoeducation, quantitative and qualitative research, art and policy. They are a sister of Delta Chi Omega sorority and fluent in violin and saxophone. Lastly, Kiendra was inducted into Psi Beta, and awarded the Senior Academic Distinction Award in their major at Alfred State College. They pride themself in taking a person centered, trauma informed and harm reduction approach with the people they serve.

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Kiendra’s athletic background includes running cross country, running varsity track when they were just in eighth grade and being apart of her high school co- ed cheerleading team, the Elmira Express, where they had won States in 2015. Kiendra found a love for hoop dancing in 2018 and then found aerial in 2019 where they have trained on multiple apparatuses. Since working at Aerial Arts of Rochester, Kiendra has assisted in multiple kinds of birthday parties and events. They also have performed at various locations with their hula hoop and on multiple aerial apparatuses, they have also partook in multiple student showcases.

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Emily Lipski

Instructor, Performer

Bio Coming Soon...

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Sebastian Ferlo

Assistant Instructor, Performer

Sebastian is a second generation circus performer. His parents met in Ringling Brothers circus with his mother being an aerialist and his father a clown. Both Sebastian and his brother started doing circus when they were children.

 

Sebastian specializes in juggling and acrobatics in addition to diabolo, rola bola, handbalancing, mini tramp, and unicycle. As a coach, Sebastian has worked at Circus Smirkus Summer Camp in Greensboro, VT for four summers as a counselor, juggling coach, and acrobatics coach.He has also coached acrobatics in Clearwater, FL at Dance and Circus Arts of Tampa Bay.
 

Sebastian is a graduate of the Biological Sciences program at RIT and was the president of the Juggling Club for 2 years.

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Cathy Linehan

Marketing & Communications, Instructor

Cathy is a Hoop Love Coach and Hoopnotica-certified hula hooping instructor. Cathy began hula hooping 10 years ago, where she would take her hoop with her on-the-go so she could dance to live music. She became very passionate about learning new tricks and sharing her love for hooping with her friends. Cathy made custom hula hoops for several of her friends and family members, and was inspired by the joy of seeing her loved ones find happiness with hula hooping. Cathy has taught classes and workshops at the YMCA and RAC for Women, and is thrilled to share her love her hooping with students at Aerial Arts of Rochester. She prides herself on being an enthusiastic, dedicated, and attentive instructor, for she genuinely loves seeing others get excited about learning new ways to dance with the hoop. Cathy is a digital marketer by day, and is energized by thinking innovatively and doing what’s best for the customer. In her spare time, she studies aerial hoop (lyra) and trapeze at Aerial Arts of Rochester. Cathy also enjoys making hula hoops!

*Photo by Analise Olszewski

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Franca Mantisi

Graphic Designer

Franca is a graduate from Nazerath College and creates beautiful content for Aerial Arts. She works full time at a local graphic design company.

As a student at Aerial Arts of Rochester, she has witnessed first hand how something can seem impossible, until its done.

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Jill Calvert aka Jillery Hoops

Instructor/Performer

Jillery Hoops has been hooping in Rochester, NY since 2009. She’s sponsored by Ruby Hooping (http://www.rubyhooping.com) and has an impressive playlist of tutorials on her YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlKoT7GmWuLtKFHNqZ1b6Laqxb_B4Px3r).

 

Jillery has taught workshops and/or performed at Return to Roots Hoop Gathering, Manipulation by MOPS, The RIT Juggle-In, Nights of Fire, Frostbite Flow Arts Camp, Kinetic Fire, Guelph Juggling Festival, Northeast Fire & Arts, Whirly Wednesday, Corporate "Hoop for Health" workshops at Paychex, and countless local events. She was part of Whirly Wednesday (@whirlywednesday), a Rochester NY flow jam started in 2009 that also serves as an incubator for up and coming local DJs. She has also brought out of town flow instructors to Rochester periodically to offer workshops using various props.

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Shaun McCurdy

 Instructor/Performer

Bio Coming Soon

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Nicole Pratt

 Instructor/Performer

Nicole’s passion for aerial arts began after seeing her first Cirque du Soliel show in 5th grade. She performed gymnastics and cheerleading for several years preceding her aerial arts journey at AAOR in 2012.  She has trained contortion, pole, and silks at several NYC studios, including Circus Warehouse, Aerial Arts NYC, Body and Pole, and Pole Position.

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When she is not teaching, performing, or training aerial arts, Nicole is working hard towards her degree in becoming a Clinical Laboratory Scientist at Brockport University. In her down time she enjoys traveling, spending time outdoors, or spending time with her cats.

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As an instructor she applies her knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology aiming to help her students build strength and flexibility.  She advocates the art of movement and aerial as a means of tranquility and a creative expression of oneself. 

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