We love being creative and innovative and making new moves or washing machines together!
We haven’t made time for this in a while so we felt the excitement for it and just had a super fun session in which we created and filmed three new flows and a washing machine.
With this blog we want to share with you our process when it comes to making new acroyoga ideas come to life, so it will maybe inspire you to do the same.
So here are 5 steps to creating your own flow or washing machine!
Step one: Pick a starting point.
Sometimes this can be a certain move that you have in mind. For example; today I had the idea of trying a whip but then on my side like a cartwheel.
We wanted to see if it would be possible for the flyer to stay in their plane fully sideways on top of the base while completing the rotation.
This was our starting point for this washing machine.
Other starting point ideas that can work our identifying a type of flow you want to create, or pick a pose that you want to transition to or from.
Starting points like these narrow your options down which actually helps creativity to flow, because your mind has a container to think in.
Step two: Brainstorm about ideas.
This time for us we were just throwing out ideas while we were having lunch before training.
A few things we keep in mind:
What are original or unique transitions that could work?
Can a move be done handsfree?
Can we do this funky/goofy or pop it?
Can we take this move in a different direction, or increase the rotation?
Thinking outside the box is fun and one of the things we love about acro: the possibilities are endless and it’s such a new movement practice that a lot of new skills are still being made.
This also gives you the possibility to give acro your own flavour.
We also then consider the question:
Will this flow and feel nice to do?
For flows and washing machines our general tip is to follow the direction of movement when you link different transitions together, to make sure the energy flows and it feels nice and makes sense in your body when you do it.
Or if the flow and direction reverses, to find a way and rhythm that feels good to be changing the direction of energy.
A bonus consideration we keep in mind is:
What is the skill level of the move if we were to teach it to other people?
This might not be for everyone, but we are so teaching orientated that we try to identify how this move would be for different levels and abilities of people to get a gauge if it’s potentially something we would want to teach in the future.
Step three: The fun part!
Now it’s playtime!
We pick a starting point and the ideas that we wrote down and we start trying.
This usually is so much fun because obviously at first most things are a complete mess and we roll out and laugh.
After the first time trying the cartwheel whip idea we failed massively and Caspian said ‘oh this is not gonna work let’s switch’.
But I felt the potential and asked for ‘one more’ which became the famous acro ‘just one more’ hahah.
With every attempt we figured something out and even though we were still not making it and falling out; it went better each time!
It’s so cool how well Caspian can figure out what he as the base can do to make it work and how I can intuitively figure out how I need to move, engage and shift weight to succeed.
Eventually, we figured out how to make the cartwheel whip work (I don't think anyone's been stupid enough to try this yet haha, so it's probably a new move, yay!)
IMPORTANT NOTE for Step 3: have your safety strategies on point.
The moves we tried today we all did without a spotter, because all the skills were well within our capabilities and level, they were L base and all relatively slow.
Plus we’re super calibrated together and know in our partnership how to roll, fall, block and catch.
These overall safety skills are things we practise so that it will be instinctive when we need it, which is why we felt safe to play around and be creative without spotters.
Otherwise, if skills seem risky, are more dynamic, or we cannot guarantee to keep ourselves and each other safe, we would for sure ask someone to spot.
In that case we would explain our crazy, fun funky new idea to the spotter and figure out a way to best spot this before we try a first attempt.
Step four: Film it!
We film what we just made to see if it looks good, and also to look at the technique of it.
Usually when it feels good it looks good, but often looking back at yourself gives you some pointers to refine and make it look even more beautiful and smooth.
This will give the finishing touch to your skill or flow and let’s be honest it's also nice to see your own creation fully!
Step five: Name it!
It's always a lot of fun to come up with a name for a new flow or skill you've just created. (just note some of the time someone will have created or tried your new move before, but it's hard to always know or keep track of that in the acro world.)
Think of a personal touch, a funny twist, a reference… Find something fitting for the move.
We still need to think of names for the flows we made today, but our most recent washing machine we created we called ‘corkscrewed’.
When you see or practice it the name will make sense ;)
We had so much fun today and came up with three new flows/washing machines!
We’re for sure going to share them on Instagram so keep an eye out there and maybe we’ll even teach them in a workshop sometime soon.
Hope this helps you get started on creating some new acro moves; enjoy!
See you soon.
Laura
