Studio Classes – Wise Fool New Mexico

Wise Fool welcomes adults and teens of all ages, genders, fitness and experience levels to join us for ongoing classes in circus arts! If you are looking for classes stuitable for children, please take a look at our Youth Programs page.

Disciplines taught throughout the year may include trapeze, lyra, aerial fabric, partner acrobatics, flexibility, juggling, unicycling, handstands, conditioning, and more!

If you would like to be updated on our new class sessions, please make sure to follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter.

Current Class Schedule

class schedule (Flyer (5.5 × 8.5 in)) (6)

Winter Class Schedule

Winter Class runs from October 30th- December 15th
Questions? Contact Amelia at amelia@wisefoolnm.org or call (845) 901-2251

Monday

5:15 - 6:15pm: Teen/Tween Aerials - Kristen
5:30 - 7:00pm: Beginner Rope - Carey
7:15- 8:45 pm: Physical Theatre and the Clown- SJ (begins Nov 20th)

Wednesday

5:30 - 7:00pm: Aerial Fabric - Lisa
7pm- 8:30pm: Unicycle and Juggling - Indi

Thursday

5:30 - 7:00pm: Beginner Fabric - Kristen
5:30 - 7:00pm: Trapeze & Lyra - Lisa
5:30 - 7:00pm: Open Studio
7:00 - 8:30pm: Partnering in the Air - Alessandra & Tucci

Friday

10:30am - 12:00pm: Aerial Fabric - Lisa
2:30 - 3:30pm: Circus Play for Families - Carey
5:30- 7pm: Continuing Rope with Clara (mask required)

Saturday

10am- 11am: Youth Aerials with Clara & Kristen
10am- 11am: Open Studio

Sunday

3:00 - 4:30pm: Mixed Level Fabric - Kristen

Private Lessons

Interested in focused, one-on-one coaching? We offer Private Lessons with our amazing and talented coaches. Lesson options include Aerial Fabric, Trapeze, Lyra, Flexibility, and Handstands.

You can opt for a shared a group private, or have your coach all to yourself. Some of our coaches even offer remote lessons over Zoom!

To schedule a lesson or learn more, reach out to: amelia@wisefoolnm.org

Open Training Program

Our Open Training privileges enable folks access to Wise Fool's studio, so that they can train during unscheduled times. Students who have taken a minimum of two sessions of classes with Wise Fool (or who have previous circus experience) may be considered. This privilege requires approval and a special orientation meeting with Wise Fool staff.

Contact Amelia to sign up: amelia@wisefoolnm.org

Open Training Program vs. Open Studio

Please note that our Open Training program is different than Open Studio times listed on our schedule.

Our Open Training Program give you the freedom to use the studio whenever it is available, but requires approval.

Open Studio times have specific slots on our schedule, which you can register for the same way you'd enroll in a class. Prior approval is not required as Wise Fool staff are present during Open Studio time to supervise.

Accommodations

Wise Fool strives to make our classes accessible! We are able to offer ASL interpretations or other accommodations upon request.
Contact Amelia to request accommodations: amelia@wisefoolnm.org

We are not currently able to offer scholarships for adult programs at this time.

We do offer a Work-Trade Program. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out or apply.

Apply for Work Trade

Class Registration

Wise Fool classes are on a 6-week session registration model. Each class meets once a week throughout the six week session. Our class offerings vary between sessions.

Our classes need a minimum of 4 students to be bulk enrolled for every date within a session in order for it to remain active on our schedule. Once a class has reached the 4-student minimum enrollment, it will be available to sign up for on a drop-in basis. This means you can join in and pay on a class-to-class basis.

If you want to keep seeing a specific class on our schedule, we highly encourage you to bulk enroll ahead of time - it saves you money and helps support our coaches and community!

Session Dates

How To Enroll

Create a profile in Pike13, our registration software: https://wisefool.pike13.com/schedule
Purchase a 6 Class Pass for the type of class you would like
Enroll in class, which can happen in several ways:
1. Manually enroll yourself for each class date throughout the session
2. Email our Adult Programs Coordinator your name, the day of the week, and time of the class(es) you want to be bulk enrolled in: amelia@wisefoolnm.org
3. If you are having trouble enrolling online, please arrive 10-15 minutes earlier than your class start time and we can walk you through the process in person

It's Important to note that Purchasing a Class Pass does not automatically enroll you in any class! Please enroll yourself in the desired class AFTER purchasing your pass, either manually by date, or by emailing Amelia for bulk enrollment

Refund Model

Why a Session Model?

Session models guarantee work for our coaches
Drop-in models mean our coaches have to prepare a class and show up to the studio, even if nobody is enrolled. This is a drain on resources for our coaches and community. Knowing we have active and ongoing enrollment keeps our classes robust and healthy!
Session models allow us to be more equitable
By knowing ahead of time about enrollment in a class, the session model allows us to distribute scholarships to students while ensuring the sustainability of the organization.
Session models encourage community
Learning new skills is both exciting and scary. Knowing you will be returning to class with a group of familiar faces who are just as excited (and maybe a little scared) as you can help develop meaningful bonds through the experience.
Session models save you money
Once you experience a class, we know you’ll want to come back! Most students attend at least 4 out of the 6 classes in a session. Paying the drop-in rate for each individual class is more expensive than bulk enrollment. The session model allows us to be more forward thinking and less reactive.

Class Pricing

In order to ensure that everyone in Northern New Mexico has access to the magic of the circus arts, we offer a sliding scale payment policy. We allow folks to enroll at a regular price, a discounted price, or at a "pay it forward" price that helps to subsidize the cost for other students.

Be sure to enter in the corresponding code when checking out to ensure you are paying the right price!

Purple Classes

Aerial

$25 per Class

Pay It Forwards: $28 per class.
No code needed
True Cost: $25 per class
Code: PURPLE100
Discounted: $23 per class
Code: PURPLEDISCOUNT

Purchase an Aerial 6 Class Pass

Green Classes

Ground

$20 per Class

Pay It Forwards: $22 per class.
No code needed
True Cost: $20 per class
Code: GREEN100
Discounted: $18 per class
Code: GREENDISCOUNT

Purchase a Ground 6 Class Pass

Class Descriptions

Learn more about our circus arts classes below by clicking on the class title (listed alphabetically). These include a guide to levels.

Please note that classes available varies from session to session. Please see our schedule above for current offerings!

Beginner Fabrics

Aerial Fabric

Learn or further develop the fundamentals of aerial fabric, sometimes called "silks". This course will include climbing, wraps, foot locks, drops, and poses. From conditioning and basic skills to explorations in choreography, fabrics are a fun way to build core strength and flexibility while defying gravity! Pre-registration is encouraged as classes fill up fast! Sign up for one or more classes per week.

Mixed Level Fabric: suitable for complete beginners all the way through advanced students.

Youth Aerials: Designed for the focus of students up to age 10, this class will get your kiddo started early!

Teen/Tween Aerials: For students 11-19, especially those with some experience, to be in an environment catered to younger learners.

Partnering in the Air

How do we work with a partner in the air?

This class will explore how to interact in the magical space above the ground with someone else, on trapeze, hoop or fabric.

We will look at ways to share weight, move together and create choreography together.

This is a beginning partner class, but is meant for people who already are comfortable on an aerial apparatus.

This class is open to participants 10 and up.

Join Alessandra Ogren and Amy Bertucci for a special 6 week aerial partnering class!

Alessandra and Amy ( Tucce) have decades of aerial partnering experience and are excited to get together again to offer a class for people at Wise Fool.

Trapeze and Lyra

The quintessential circus discipline, and a great way to build strength and coordination for other aerial apparata. Class includes a dynamic warm-up, floor exercises and aerial vocabulary, technique, and conditioning on static trapeze & lyra/aerial hoop in a supportive, non-competitive environment. Trapeze and Lyra are hung low at 3' to 7' high. See descriptions below for which level is right for you.

Trapeze/Lyra Beginner/Intermediate: for brand new students through students working up to level 4 on Lyra and up to level 7 on trapeze.

Trapeze/Lyra Intermed/Advanced: For students working level 4 and up on Lyra and/or 7 and up on trapeze.

Lyra All Levels: for students wanting to focus exclusively on Lyra. Must be open to exploring spinning.

Aerial Rope

Aerial rope, also known as corde lisse, is a challenging but exciting aerial apparatus. Students will learn to climb, hold themselves in various positions, wrap for and perform drops and explore movement quality. We'll work where you are and individualize goals based on the class. We will work on level-appropriate skills, sequences, and creative choreography. Bring yourself, and a kn-95 mask to wear in the space.

Beginner/Intermediate: Suitable for students with no experience through to students who are working on beats and multiple climbs.

Intermediate/Advanced: For students with previous experience on rope who are comfortable with beats, inversions and at least beginning to explore roll-ups and open drops.

Striptease as Reclamation - Queerlesque

Burlesque is a performance art of sensual, theatrically exaggerated storytelling. In theory, many styles of storytelling work on the burlesque stage, but in practice, the main character of those stories are usually women, and the climax is her reveal, be that one bare leg, her whole body (and all of its intersections). The striptease is a story about the person, told by the person, potentially in direct contrast to the expected story told by society (like, WARNING: ASSIGNED-MALE BABY WILL EXPLODE IF TOUCHED BY PINK).

Now enter the world of the queer. We collectively reject binary categorizations of gender identity and compulsive assumptions of sexual orientation. We undo societal restrictions and shame, to act and present the way we want to, and to connect and love others authentically. Queer allows identity to be expansive.

This is a safe space for a queer-centric deconstruction of burlesque. It's a movement class, and also a gender studies, burlesque theory, queer theory class mixed with self-confidence bootcamp. To reclaim the striptease, you'll learn the fundamentals of the stripping, teasing, performance art, gender performativity, and storytelling in the most theoretical way possible. Then we'll apply that theory to reconstruct those elements into Queerlesque: an artform that tells your story for a community that gets it.

It takes a lot of guts for queer people to stand up and perform something real on stage, after living in a world that says who you are is wrong, that you should be and act a certain way. That's what this class is for - creating a safe space to tell your story and finding the community to receive you whole.

This class is drop-in accessible, but each class synergizes with the next and the prior. Each week teaches a different tool, then applies all the tools collected thus far; the more tools you have, the easier. For stripping, bring a loose fitting tank top, crop top, or short sleeved shirt. Also bring something that opens from the front, like a button down or a jacket. If you've taken Queer Burlesque before, consider this the 201 version of that 101 class.

Physical Theatre and the Clown

Via the red nose clown, we will explore comedic timing, stage presence, breath, the absurd, problem solving in the clown world, stillness, character development, and improvisation in duos and trios. This class is great for a deeper recognition of who we are and what we have to offer on stage, from circus to Shakespeare. It is all about authentic expression and tapping into our own inner clown. If you've taken this class with me before, come take it again. Many students do this as there is so much to learn and practice over and over again. All levels welcome.

Teen Intro to Circus

Circus Play for Families

Open Studio

Private Lessons

Regular classes don't fit into your schedule? Passing through town and want some special attention? Just looking for a more personalized circus experience? Private lessons are for you!

Private lessons available in:

Private lessons are $60/hour. Email studio@wisefoolnm.org to book your lesson.

Unicyling & Juggling

Flexibility

Tumbling

I'm ready to sign up! Take me to registration.