Hi, I'm Zoya.
Certified Aerial Yoga Instructor
Certified LYT™ Yoga Teacher
When I first came to an aerial yoga class back in 2017, I wasn't in a very good place, mentally or physically. I was living through a stressful time after moving to a new country; I also had a history of years worth of back pain, bad posture, not much balance, and very limited ranges of motion (due to my natural structure and the fact I've never done any sports professionally).
But when I came to Akademia Meli-Melo and took a class with Sara Damm, I fell in love. Or, rather, my body fell in love, and I followed...
Before aerial, I had gone through different sports like pilates, gym workouts, dancing ATS, etc. to help relieve my back pain and strengthen the muscles. Everything provided just a temporary relief.
After each aerial class, however, my back would feel so much lighter and stronger at the same time, so very soon I was training twice as much. The unique toolkit that an aerial hammock provides was the first thing that had changed the quality of my posture and life. I believe aerial yoga was also the thing that helped me through the stressful times, being a constant source of joy and empowerment.
Gradually, I took up more classes to learn about movement as much as I could (yoga, stretching, mobility, pilates, yin yoga, handstands, and more). So far, I have practiced aerial yoga with different teachers in Poland, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Portugal, Malta, and Canada (350+ hours in total); and I am grateful to have shared the practice with all the teachers.
One of the turning points was meeting Iwona Olszowska, a renowned Polish dancer and teacher, and her body awareness classes based on Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's Body-Mind Centering® method. Those classes helped immensely to build the skill of recognizing and listening to my body in movement and life in general.
In 2019, after getting her professional blessing from Sara Damm, I completed two Aerial Teacher Trainings, a personal mentorship with Sara Damm, and about 130 hours worth of workshops and courses ranging from anatomy and yoga therapy to meditation and singing bowl sound massage. The same year I began teaching at Akademia Meli-Melo, running regular and substitute classes (and a workshop) mainly in Russian and Polish.
During the COVID times, I started teaching online classes (a mix of mobility, vinyasa yoga, neural activation, and massage), and continued them after completing the 200h LYT™ yoga teacher training in 2020.
For 2021, I am back to teaching regular aerial classes and an occasional vinyasa, now at Yoga Generation in Coquitlam, BC. Come play! Or check out the online options below.
Vision and Approach
I believe all yoga is attention and observation, which is a skill that can be learned and nurtured
As a person with no sports background, I can't teach you to do some crazy splits or backbends that people post on Instagram. However, as someone who's overcome years of back pain and weakness thanks to aerial yoga and inversions, I'll show you how you can improve your movement patterns and balance, build muscle and stability, feel better in your own body and have fun in the air with a bit of work and attention.
I believe aerial tricks and high-level skills should have a solid foundation, so mobility and conditioning with correct form and alignment are key.
I am most passionate about anatomy; apart from traditional aerial exercises, I use physical therapy exercises, yoga therapy poses, fascia and trigger points release methods, and neural activation techniques. Sometimes, even self-massage!
–> Unblock your body (with awareness, neural activation, and good form)
–> Increase your range of motion (with mobility and alignment)
–> Get stronger (with conditioning and stability exercises)
–> Decompress your spine safely in inverted poses (an each-class must!)
–> Play with aerial flips and tricks
–> Have the best savasana ever in a suspended hammock
