Aerialist from San Antonio Soars with Students, Helping Dreams Take Flight

Dessany Romero had just turned 23 years old when she walked into a local gym and found herself staring at long strips of fabric that were hanging from the ceiling.

The worn columns of fabric were for gymnasts performing aerial silks – a form of aerial arts where performers engage in acrobatics while hanging from the fabric.

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Romero’s curious gaze caught the attention of a female gymnast.

“Hey,” the gymnast asked Romero, “do you want to climb this?”

Romero climbed onto the tethered material  – and found her passion.

She kept working with aerial enthusiasts after the facility closed that day, and she stuck with it. She built up her upper body strength and learned to forge a firm grip on swaths of silk. She learned to twirl, and how to control her body.

She had  found her way into the world aerial arts — a type of performance art in which performers use different apparatuses to perform acrobatic and dance-like movements while suspended in the air. Aerial arts are often grouped with the circus arts, whose origins go back hundred of year to  traditional Indian dance, Chinese acrobatics and equestrian horseback riding.

“It’s exhilarating,” said Romero, 30.  “It’s a form of therapy. It kind of took over my life."

Creating a career

Romero has turned her passion into a career. These days, she teaches students of all ages and backgrounds as studio manager and coach at Cirque Aria , an aerial dance studio at on Timco Street in San Antonio. Other aerial arts studios in San Antonio include the Aerium and Aerial City .

Romero teaches students aerial skills on apparatus including silks, sling, trapeze and lyra, which is also called aerial hoop.

"Our mission is to provide a safe and comfortable space for students to create and gain confidence," Romero said.

On July 12, Romero and fellow coaches will host Cirique Aria's re-grand opening from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event, celebrating the opening  of additional studio space, will feature free mini classes, performances and vendors. The studio also offers classes in juggling, fire flow, aerial yoga and dance trapeze.

Romero’s professional experience includes performing aerial, contortion and stilt-walking, in New York and across Texas. In 2021, Romero and her husband, Javier Romero, performed trapeze and aerial silks at San Antonio’s Paramour Rooftop Bar. Her certifications include aerial teacher training in Atlanta from the Institute of Circus Arts, in the Circus Arts Therapy program.

Every third Tuesday, Romero hosts a free aerials class for home-schooled students. The class is in honor of Romero's mother, Jessica Battaglia, who home-schooled her. Romero said her mother wept when she learned she was the inspiration behind the class.

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'Your vibe attracts your tribe'

Romero met Cirque Aria founder Angela Sanchez four years ago in an aerial class. Sanchez said she took up aerial arts a dozen years ago after moving back to San Antonio.  Sanchez founded the studio on the West Side to make aerial arts accessible to all people. Now, she teaches full time at the studio where she said students and instructors have formed a family.

“It’s that kind of thing where your vibe attracts your tribe,” said Sanchez, 46. "There’s definitely an awesome community here.”

On a recent evening, Romero and Sanchez led teens and adults in separate classes. Before students took to the air, Romero and Sanchez made sure they’d practiced their moves repeatedly on the ground. Hailey Ramirez, 11, who has been taking classes for more than a year, got some help from Sanchez as she clambered up a length of a pink silk, six feet above black crash mats. Romero offered some coaching tips as Hailey curled into the curve of a suspended aerial hoop as high-energy music blared from a portable radio.

Becky Ramirez, Hailey's grandmother, cheered her on as she performed. Ramirez said her granddaughter graduated from practicing with a stretch of yarn and a Barbie doll to executing whirls, twirls and turns.

Hailey said she can envision a day when she performs the high aerials she’s learned in a circus.

“It’s like free time,” Hailey said. “Something to do after school and not be bored at home during the summer.”

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'Proud of our bruises'

Celine Thomasson, 64, and Gayle Calderon, 48, were on hand to take part in the studio's aerial arts classes for adults. Each of them said they took up the activity more than 10 years ago. They recalled how instructors helped them develop upper body strength and inner core to make routines easier.

Thomasson said the studio is welcoming for all body types and levels of ability. The workouts, she said, have been transformative for her. She learned patience and focus, traits that served her well during the coronavirus pandemic, when she could have “slipped into couch potato mode,” she said.

“My love for this art kept me motivated when it would have been easy to say, ‘oh, forget it,’” Thomasson said. “There’s no room for internal chatter. It takes every ounce of your brain; you cannot be on autopilot.”

Calderon said she was introduced to the aerial arts when her daughter took up the activity after school in Dallas. When they moved to San Antonio, Calderon said she decided to try it herself. Now it's become a constant through the births of two children, life challenges and professional achievements. She said her husband even built her a rig to use at home.

Calderon said after encouragement from Sanchez and Romero, she earned a certification to coach students.

“This is something we love,” Calderon said. “There is one weird thing – we all are extremely proud of our bruises. It’s like, I earned this. When you’re sore the next day, you’re like ‘I did something, you know?’ ”

Across the studio, Romero continued working with younger performers in her teen class.

"That's beautiful," Romero beamed to a student twirling on silk. "That's a good spin on you, girl!"

One teen swiveled on a hoop and posed like a mermaid swimming in the sea.

"And you did it without me?" Romero said to the smiling teen. "I'm so very proud of you!"