Cara Bode Young is the owner of FUNKMODE Studios, Diablo Magazine’s Best of the Bay Hall of Fame Winner, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year! With a BFA in Dance Education, Cara has directed/choreographed dozens of youth theater productions, choreographed the Bay Area premiere of “High School Musical” (Ray of Light Theater), produces a bi-annual Cabaret variety show for FUNKMODE, and has been teaching dance to kids and adults for 30 years. Cara is proud to have recently been voted Best Dance Instructor of East Bay Express for 2024, and really enjoys interacting with the crowd when she MC’s. 

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Melissa discovered her love for aerial after taking her first lyra class in 2020. Since then, she has also explored silks, hammock, and trapeze while keeping lyra as her main apparatus. She is currently a lyra teacher at Beloved Little Circus with her aerial big sis and mentor, Sarah Stonerock. When not in the air, Melissa enjoys tending to her aquariums, playing video games with her boyfriend, and petting her needy cat Bella.

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Kim has been practicing aerial (mainly pole, but also silks, hammock, and hoop) for 14 years. She teaches pole and chair at Rockit Pole in Oakley and has won 2 metals from PSO pole competitions as a member of Revolution Dance team. She feels that performing is always fun but made better when performing as a group with friends.

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Rachel has been exploring the world of pole dance for three years and has fallen in love with this movement practice. She first performed with SkyBox Aerial in the fall and had such a good time, so she was happy to hear more shows were forthcoming! This is her second fully pole performance but fourth performance overall in the last three years.

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Fury Roz is an aerialist who calls the East Bay home. Inspired by the post-apocalyptic energy of Mad Max, Fury Roz delivers a dose of strength and debauchery to every performance. Roz has been learning and practicing aerial since 2019 and recently got really into straps, which they are very excited about.

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Felicia started practicing Lyra in 2019 right before the shutdown, and ended up buying a hoop during Covid to keep her spirits up. She now continues to practice Lyra and cube with her Beloved Little Circus crew, and always challenges herself beyond her comfort zone. She loves her aerial family and her rigging bf, Thaddeus.

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Welcome to JJ's first hammock performance! She's very excited to share this special moment with all of you. JJ's journey into the circus world began in 2018 with a silks lesson from Willis. Since then, she's had an exhilarating time exploring all kinds of apparatuses - rope, chains, lyra, straps, chair, silk, trapeze, pole - anything that makes her go "OoooooO!"

It’s her first time performing aerially and can’t wait to fly for you! She hopes you enjoy seeing her interact with a ‘first love’. Please enjoy the show!

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The Bad*ss B*tches (BABeS) Crew —Amanda “Dimples” Retter, Amanda “AW” Walton, Leah Carlon, Tj Rivera, and Tristi Tulipano—brings decades of combined experience in Jazz/Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Tap. These passionate performers met at FUNKMODE, a Bay Area dance studio, and enjoy creating showstopping pieces and performing, whether with FUNKMODE or their own choreography.

     

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Avery Scherer has been practicing silks and lyra with Love Aerial in Sacramento since 2021 and is excited for her first performance outside her home gym! A diver and marine biologist, she thought she was aquatic until she found aerial and realized she's happy anywhere but on land.

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Tink is a fierce and fiery performer who loves to light up any stage she is on. She has been an aerialist for 4 years and counting! Tink loves pole and has also tried fly pole, lyra, chains, silks and the lollipop. She is inspired by her fellow performers and hopes to try more apparatuses this year! Prepare to be mesmerized by her encaptivating moves.

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Vee is a 28-year-old non-binary aerialist artist specializing in sling, lyra, pole, silks, chains, and trapeze. Their performances echo the soaring emotions of Florence + the Machine's "Falling" — a mix of ethereal heights and the weight of inevitable falls. In the air, they feel as though they are flying, their body moving in harmony with gravity's pull, each movement a release, a moment of transcendence. Aerial becomes their personal anthem, capturing the feeling of being weightless, of being free, yet acutely aware of the ground below. But when the fall comes, it doesn’t just touch the earth — it triggers a deep, new grief. It is a reminder of both fragility and strength, an acknowledgment of vulnerability that fuels their artistry. In the paradox of flight and fall, they discover the power in the tension, the beauty in the vulnerability, and the resilience in facing the depths.

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Kayla Knowles is the Artistic Director at Skybox Aerial. She's been in the aerial world for the last three years and is excited to do her first performance on chains. She's been an artist behind the scenes most of her life, working as a Technical Director and teacher, but now she's ready for the stage. She fell in love with chains before she even got to touch them and didn't really get to actively train on them until mid 2024. She loves chains, but she can't say no to any apparatus thrown her way!

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Katie dove into aerial just as the pandemic began and spent the lockdown finding joy swinging from a lyra hoop. She has played with different apparatuses since and found a deep connection in her first time with chains less than a year ago. The heaviness and momentum at play has allowed her to grow closer to feeling, giving her the gift of approaching aerial from her heart instead of her logic. She is excited to share this as her first chains performance.

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Symone came to the US from Hong Kong in April 2022 so this piece is a great way to celebrate her 3 year anniversary. She works as a pole and aerial instructor as well as working as a Master Trainer for Xpert pole and aerial certification courses.

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Casey is an East Bay native and mother of 2. She has performed with various theatre companies and Funkmode Performance Company since 2011. This is her third show with SkyBox Aerial and she’s loved sharing the stage with so many talented people.

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Venus Navarro is a passionate pole dancer who loves displaying strength and creativity. With a style of expressive movements and grace, she aims to captivate and inspire. Pole dancing has become her way of embracing confidence. Tonight, she’s excited to share that passion with you!

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TJ and Felicia have been creating duets for about 3 years now, and they love testing the boundaries of what they can achieve together. This piece was a fun way to show TJ’s dance side and Felicia’s hidden grumpy side, and although there may be frowns, only loads of giggles went on behind the scenes with these two.

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Dance/pole instructor with over fifteen years of dancing experience; focused on fostering growth, confidence, and artistry, creating an inclusive space for students to explore and refine their skills.

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Ashley (having zero dance/gymnastics/anything other than light yoga experience at the time) entered the aerial world mostly on accident after a friend dragged her to a silks class she was sure she'd be terrible at and never return to.

And she was terrible.
But it was the fun kind of terrible, so she took another class.
Now it's been almost seven years, and being an aerialst is the majority of her personality, and Love/Aerial Sacramento is her second home.

Oh, and she does lyra now too, among other things.
This is Ashley's first solo performance on lyra and she hopes everyone enjoys the show and the 2000s nostalgia!

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