Vertical Fix

Shelby has been a dedicated handstand student since December 2018. She loves the feeling of being upside down! She loves working hard to achieve her goals and hopes to help her students do the same. Shelby and her husband, Paddy, discovered Partner Acro in April 2019 and immediately fell in love with working together to learn new tricks! When she’s not at Vertical Fix, you can find Shelby teaching math or playing with her cats.

Rochelle has been a performer for most of her life. After taking her first ballet class when she was five years old, Rochelle instantly fell in love with dance. She was also interested in rhythmic gymnastics: she loved the combination of ballet, flexibility, and stamina in this sport. Later, Rochelle decided to fully commit her training to ballet. Rochelle trained and performed with many different ballet companies in southern California until she was 18. After high school, Rochelle trained and performed professionally with Joffrey Ballet (New York City), and Bolshoi Ballet (Moscow).

After returning to California, Rochelle received her B.A. in Psychology and Child Development from San Diego State University. She also competed on her school’s nationally ranked dance team for two years.

In 2013, Rochelle discovered the circus arts and has been in love ever since. Her background in ballet and rhythmic helped make for a smooth transition into the aerial world. She loves the lyra (aerial hoop) most out of all the apparatus and enjoys training and performing with it. 

Rochelle coached at a rhythmic gymnastics gym in San Diego for three years and soon after, started teaching flexibility classes at circus gyms in San Diego. 

Currently, Rochelle teaches flexibility/stretching classes at Aerial Revolution in San Diego and San Diego Circus Center. She also is the ballet teacher at Children's Creative Performing Arts Academy in San Diego.

Rochelle loves sharing her knowledge of flexibility with people of all different levels and backgrounds. No matter if you have never stretched before in your entire life, or you have a strict stretching regimen,  Rochelle is here to help make your stretching goals become a reality!

Contact her today about privates, classes, workshops, skype sessions, and any questions you might have!

Tanya Gagné's interest in the trapeze all started in a barn in Washington state while she was house-sitting for the Flying Karamazoff Brothers. She then quite literally traveled the seven seas, working for two and a half years as a rigger and deck hand aboard two- and three-mated Baltic trading ships.

Initially self-taught in the circus arts, she began her official training with Irina Gold in NYC. She then traveled far and wide to train, including stints at London's Circus Space, and studying with Jean Palacy in France and Master Lu Yi at the Circus School of the Arts in San Francisco.

During this time, she also performed solo trapeze around the United States and abroad with several companies, including The Bindlestiff Family Circus, Circus Amok, and the all-women dance/circus troupe, LAVA, of which she was a co-founder.

Tanya's own dance/theater works have been produced in New York City at PS 122, Judson Memorial Church's Movement Research Series, La MaMa Theater, the Puffin Room, and Dixon Place; as well as in Europe, with performances at Kunstler Haus in Vienna and the Potsdam Theater in Berlin.

Most recently, her signature solo act, a “drag striptease on the trapeze,” was featured in La Clique at the Famous Spiegeltent in New York City.

Tanya is one-half of the world-famous Wau-Wau Sisters, winners of the “Best International Act” title at the 2008 Brighton Fringe Festival, “Best Cabaret Show” award at Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004 and “Best Troupe” award at Miss Exotic World 2005. “The Wau Waus” have also been on several national television shows, and have been featured in zillions of newspapers and magazines both here in The States and abroad. They also recently turned in a cameo appearance in John Cameron Mitchell's film, Shortbus.

Tanya shares her knowledge of the circus arts and perfomance experience – teaching performance and other circus skills – at her private studio/school, The Trapeze Loft, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Thomas took over as owner of Vertical Fix in June of 2018.  He has been in just about every position possible since Vertical Fix opened in May of 2015.  He has worked his way through the organization starting as a student, becoming a volunteer, assisting other instructors, becoming an instructor, and utimately owning the business.   He's passionate about dance trapeze and shares that joy through random performances and teaching at the studio.  Thomas also owns a landscape company that keeps him busy during the day.  He specializes in desert landscapes and botanical collections.

Brent and Alisha are a circus artist duo named “Edge Acrobatics” who specialize in dynamic partner acrobatics. Since establishing their partnership in 2014, they have trained with and learned from some of the best acrobats in the world. They currently reside in Phoenix but escape the heat training at the San Diego Circus Center under renown teacher Jean-Luc Martin. Dabbling in anything they can from tramp wall to duo trapeze, their primary focus is in hand balancing and hand-to-hand.

Alisha’s love for acrobatics started at a young age as a competitive gymnast and eventually a collegiate cheerleader on her University’s all-girl and co-ed team. After graduating with a degree in Commercial Recreation and Event Management, Alisha kept her movement background up with rock climbing, yoga, and acro. It wasn’t until she met Brent that she decided to escape the 80-hour work week to train, perform, and teach full time. She currently is a USAG certified gymnastics coach and co-owns Edge Acrobatics teaching tumbling, handstands, and acro.

Brent has been teaching and sharing his passion for movement for the majority of his life. Starting his love for movement with countless hours spent at his martial arts studio and even teaching martial arts at a very young age. He moved his focus to rock climbing and began to coach the Rock Phenoms, a competitive youth team, for the past 5 years. Alongside coaching, Brent runs Edge Acrobatics teaching and performing acro around the valley.

Edge Acrobatics currently teaches and performs around the valley and loves sharing the discipline of acro and hand balancing through workshops, events, and private lessons.

From a child, the art of body movement always intrigued MoNika. From Wushu at age 6, to ballet at age 13, he always pushed for more. His high school ballet teacher introduced him to a local circus company Pendulum Aerial Arts, where he trained over the next 12 years. MoNika joined Pendulum Aerial Arts at age 14 and went to be with the company until the age of 25. Throughout the years with Pendulum, he grew with the company as the years went on. The timeline follows starting off in the after school kids program, the recreation classes, the youth program, the Pre-professional 4 year program, Principle company member, head coach, director of education and assistance artistic director.

But MoNika wanted more, and began taking opportunities to travel abroad, which led him to Hong Kong. There, he was introduced to pole dance, and in just a few years, he placed 2nd in the world and 1st in the nation.

The summer of 2015, he left his home in Oregon and traveled south to California and then to Arizona. While maintaining his training, he immersed himself with yoga, Pilates, conditioning, technique, and overall health. Through diverse instructing, philosophy, and continuous research, he wants his student’s body movements to be a reflection of a healthy core.

MoNika has never let fear and limits intimidate him from achieving more, making him broad-range artist. MoNika has worked with: Cirque du Soleil, Pendulum Aerial Arts, Aerial Arts Academy, Oregon Ballet Theater, Oregon Gymnastics Academy, Nike, Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, Lululemon Athletica, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Atlantis, Intel, Engelbert Strauss, Les Farfadias, and many others. MoNika’s genres include: Wushu, ballet, aerial circus arts, modern &contemporary dance, pole dance & competition, contortion, jazz, tap, hip-hop, gymnastics, Pilates, and yoga. He has performed charity events, collaborated with artists from countless nations and backgrounds, and is an instructor in nearly all genres.

MoNika wants the best for his students and will always make sure the students have a strong foundation in the discipline they choose. May it be in yoga, circus, dance, Pilates, etc, a strong foundation is key to progress as an artist, and athlete. Along with his focus on foundation, he continues to challenge his students in and out of the studio with his teaching methods. He loves to share his knowledge to those who have the hunger to learn and who has an open heart and mind.

Nichole is a professional aerialist and performer. She found her calling in aerial arts in August 2016 and primarily trains under MoNika Ell and Brandon Scott. She specializes in aerial silks and lyra, but strives to become a well-rounded aerialist. In addition to teaching and training, she has also performed aerial professionally around the valley. She loves sharing her passion of aerial arts with her students. She strives to push her students to reach their goals through hard work and dedication while keeping safety and injury prevention in mind at all times.

When Nichole isn't in the air, she can be found with her nose in a book or playing video games while snuggling her cat. She also has been known to sprout a mermaid tail each year at the AZ Renaissance Festival or don a superhero costume to hand out comics with local charity group, Comicare.

Taylor has been professionally performing and teaching in the valley for over a decade. She first began performing in Los Angeles as a dancer around 2006, before traveling to Japan in 2010 to work as an aerialist for Tokyo Disney’s production, Under the Sea. In 2013, she left to travel with Royal Caribbean as a dancer/aerialist, performing stage and production shows, as well as an aerial production shows with hoop, halo harness and single straps at 65 feet in the air. This is when she began working with On the Fly Productions. She frequently travels with them as a dancer or aerialist to anywhere in the world they send her. After returning from Japan in 2011, she received her 200 HR yoga certificate in 2012, and her 800 HR in 2013! Because of her travels as an aerialist and performer, she has been teaching aerial yoga ever since! She created her own teaching style, method and sequences, drawing from her experience as an aerialist and performer, while staying true to the mind and body connection of yoga. She found that by incorporating the hammock in a way that supported her during training, she was able to restore, condition, and strengthen in ways she couldn’t before. She began working with Vertical Fix when they opened, and is extremely excited to have the opportunity to share her love for teaching aerial arts, yoga, dance and anything that involves performing! Recently, she has begun focusing on her health and training while at home here in Arizona. She loves to spend time at the studio, on the water, or at home with her husband, friends and family while pursuing her passions!

Sydney has always been an entertainer. She began her career early, at just three years old! It was love at first plié when she discovered dance. She was mesmerized by the movement, the lines and all the shapes one could make with their body. She was immediately drawn to ballet with its' structured drills and dedicated technique. By the age of six, she was performing and competing regularly. Sydney spent most of her childhood dancing, training, and performing. She continued dancing until she was 16 and then switched gears to competitive cheerleading. After a few years competing, she took some time off to get a break from the rigorous training and performing schedule.

In November 2015, she came into Vertical Fix and took her first Intro to Aerial class and has never looked back. She loves the discipline and hard work that is required to do aerial training. The long hours of repetitive drills, working thru sequences, fine tuning transitions, stretching, choreography and all the other finer details drive Sydney to keep working harder and harder.  

She attributes her mad skills to having been a dancer and a cheerleader. However, once you meet Sydney, it is obvious that she puts her best into everything she does. Sydney had the opportunity to go train at The Calgary Circus Studio in 2017.  She spent seven months there training to finesse her single point lyra skills. She goes back multiple times a year to get additional training.

Sydney recently competed at Viva Fest 2019 and placed top three in her category. We are so proud of her! In the short term, Sydney wants to continue to train, to teach and to travel. Eventually she hopes to land a contract and start performing in traveling shows!

Jeni has been practicing aerial arts since December 2016 and Partner Acro since February 2018. She specializes in dance and static trapeze, and incorporates a blend of traditional dynamic skills with contemporary dance trapeze. Jeni continually trains other aerial apparatuses to be well-rounded and to inspire her trapeze journey through aerial theory. She practices hand to hand and standing acrobatics as a part of Team Acro Seal with her boyfriend.

As an instructor, Jeni enjoys seeing her students grow with confidence and strength during their aerial journey.

Jeni graduated with her Masters degree in Public Health in December . Her capstone project was safety and injury prevention in circus arts for her internship project.  Her goal is to work in areas that promote health and well-being.

Jeni placed third at the 2019 Aerialympics Nationals in Salt Lake City, Utah in the Specialty Apparatus Category (performing on dance trapeze).

Jeni currently trains at Vertical Fix, and visits the San Diego Circus Center to train advanced trapeze skills under Tatiana Starks and Lora Kapleczak, and has trained under Kelsi Mathey in the past. Past training studios include the Circus Academy of Tucson (Katherine Tesch).

Laura began her aerial training in 2015 and at a studio in Southern California, where she focused primarily on sling and silks. She then transferred to learning skills on lyra and most recently on trapeze after relocating to Phoenix, Arizona and joining the crew here at Vertical Fix. She is also currently a doctoral student at the Hugh Downs School of Communication in Arizona State University.

Laura has been teaching aerial since 2016, where she taught youth and adults at Urban Aerial Fitness and McCoy Rigby Arts in California. She looks forward to continuing to grow as an aerialist and is excited to share her passion of aerial arts with her students.

Mary Adrenaline is a versatile artist from Bucharest, Romania. She graduated as a ceramics technician from a specialized art school where she studied traditional visual arts for 8 years. Next, she pursued photography and art modeling as a freelancer, only to discover her passion for circus after moving to Arizona in 2009. Mary started her love for the circus with pole and soon after discovered aerial arts and ground acrobatics such as hula hoops, poi spinning, stilt walking, ball walking, tightwire, fire dance, and unicycle. She has been teaching since 2011 and performing professionally since 2012, being mentored and working with various circus artists throughout the valley as well as in San Francisco for a short visit in 2015. Mary was a studio assistant manager and lead instructor for 3 years, summer youth camp director in 2015, summer aerial intensive lead instructor in 2016 and 2017 and helped direct and choreograph lots of student showcases as well as being the manager at various professional events.

Mary is currently dedicated to improving her dancing, storytelling, and scenography. She is very passionate about teaching as she believes circus training is the most well-rounded fitness activity for a strong and agile body and mind.

Kayla started dancing at the age of 3, training at studios in the Phoenix area such as Kimberly Lewis School of Dance, Victoria's Dance Depot and finally Dance Connection Too. She competed in junior and senior dance companies at Victoria's Dance Depot and Dance Connection Too. She is classically trained in the styles of ballet, jazz, tap and contemporary. She graduated from a charter school for the arts in Tempe, AZ called New School for the Arts. She started training in aerials arts about 6 years ago and has pursued a professional performing arts career this year. She has a strong eye for proper form and performance aesthetics, with years of experience performing and choreographing.  

Scott discovered partner acrobatics in 2016, and since then has spent over a thousand hours practicing the discipline. He has extensive experience with L-based acro, with an emphasis on basing. He began formally teaching partner acrobatics in 2018, and joined the Vertical Fix teaching staff in 2019.

Mary has been training and coaching aerial arts in Phoenix since 2014. She was also a competitive gymnast as a child and starting at age 17, she spent 6 years coaching gymnastics and tumbling in the west valley. During the day, she is a 3-5th grade math teacher and instructional coach for an award winning, nationally recognized charter school in Maryvale.