Heather Adams spent her youth participating in competitive gymnastics. After high school, she settled into a career in mathematics working as an actuary and statistician. After spending years sitting at work during the day and studying for professional exams at night, she got out of shape. Although she has achieved great success, earning an Associate of the Society of Actuaries designation, she missed being active and fit.
“I didn’t have any physical activity or creative outlet anymore,” says Adams, who is the statistician for the IU School of Nursing. She joined a gym but wasn’t a fan. She tried pole dancing but it didn’t click. She did, however, fall in love with aerial silks. So she became a certified coach and taught at a cheer school, then later at some circus schools. All along, Adams, who will soon earn a master’s degree in kinesiology, knew that one day she wanted to own her own space.
She set up a 20-foot-tall, portable structure in her backyard where she began teaching aerial acrobatics to individual students. In September 2024 she opened Suspended Animation Aerials, a beautiful, brightly lit space on the north side with tons of parking and the highest ceilings around.
Students try aerial acrobatics for a variety of reasons. Some come for fitness. Others come because they have a background in cheer, dance or gymnastics. Then there are those who saw Pink do it or were mesmerized by a contestant on “America’s Got Talent”.
“It’s fun to hear people say, ‘I’ve never turned upside down my entire life, but I want to try this,’” says Adams, who notes that often people assume they need to lose weight or gain strength before they start, but that’s not the case. The first class is very basic, and she teaches a pose where you turn upside down on the sling, hook a knee, and climb above.
“It looks like it’s a lot of arm strength, so students see me demonstrate it and give me this look like, ‘You’ve lost your mind if you think I can do that!’” Adams says. “But then they do it and a giant smile crosses their face. It really shocks people what they can achieve on day one.”
Sometimes a party will come through, and everybody is nervous at first.
“You can tell it was one person’s idea and everybody else got dragged along, but before long the whole gym is erupting in laughter because it’s fun,” Adams says. “It can be humbling, and you’re laughing at yourself and with each other, but then you succeed and there’s clapping and cheering.”
The first class everyone takes is Intro to Aerial, where students try four main apparatuses: silks, sling, lyra and trapeze. After the intro class, students progress at their own pace as they master various skills. In addition to classes, open gym time allows students to practice the things they learned in class. They offer a class called Adult Tumbling, which helps people gain awareness of where they are in the air. They also have a low-flow dance class that shows students how to dance on the ground.
“A lot of aerialists learn the tricks on the apparatus, but they don’t know what to do on the ground before they go up there because that’s a separate skill set,” Adams says.
While some people may be leery about trying aerial acrobatics for fear of falling, according to insurance companies, people are more likely to get injured in an aerial gym from tripping over a mat on the ground than from falling out of the air.
“All of our students tell us they love how much we talk about safety,” Adams says.
The gym has 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slots for classes during the week, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends. They offer both adult and kid classes (for kids aged 7 to 18). Students can either pay a drop-in price and pay per class or they can join as a monthly member with different pay structures.
In addition to instruction, they offer aerial entertainment for parties and events. For these performances, Adams pulls from her instructors and most advanced students.
“I always try to source it locally, because I love to have performance opportunities for my students so they have something to work towards,” Adams says. “Otherwise I have the ability to hire out of town.”
In the past they have performed at events like the Indiana Wine Festival, Heartland Films’ Cinemania, and the Children’s Museum’s annual fundraiser.
Although many people take classes for fitness, very quickly they get the itch to perform. Therefore, Adams puts on two student showcases every year in addition to doing informal events where intermediate students can perform.
One of Adams’ students had been encouraging her fiancé to come try a class, but he was reluctant. Then he attended a student showcase and raved that it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen. He signed up the next day.
Suspended Animation Aerials is located at 8401 Michigan Road, Suite 1 in Indianapolis. For more information, email suspendedanimationaerials@gmail.com.