Ivo and I got to be part of the first “Bali Handstand Retreat”, or “Spin Bali Retreat”, organized by Spin Circus in July 2019. If you’re thinking about joining a retreat in the future, I hope this review helps you make a decision!
So far Ivo and I have been at the “Handstand Factory”, a retreat with Miguel Santana, we’ve spent a few days at the circus school INAC in Portugal and we’ve been at the circus school in Kiev for an intensive training. And this retreat was nothing like anything we had done before. While all of the other training opportunities were mainly focused on handbalancing alone (including everything that comes with it, like flexibility), this retreat had three parts to it, taught by three different teachers:
- Handbalance (taught by Rhiannon Cavewalker)
- Acrobatics (taught by Chris Carlos)
- Yoga (taught by Sarah Yassin)
It was very refreshing to have kind of a mash of these different forms of movement and I was definitely challenged to move out of my comfort zone and try some new things. The teachers and all the people were amazing! It was particularly interesting, because there were a lot of people who were in some kind of performing art, like dancers, actors, musicians, etc. So it was really cool to connect with some creative, expressive minds who enjoy playing around with skills. After the classes we would do long jam sessions in the evening, accopmanied by some good music.
The schedule of this retreat was the most versatile I have ever seen. We covered everything from handbalance basics, to artistic exploration, different partner tricks and acro moves, restorative acro yoga and thai massage. There was something in there for everybody and you could choose what to attend and what not to. And because we had people of such different levels and from different areas, we could feed off of eachothers experiences and help eachother out. Aside from that, the organization was top notch, thanks to Mel Grace who took care that everything ran smoothly!
So if you’re into handstands and are interested in taking it a step further into other areas, like hand 2 hand and artistic development, I would highly recommend you check out this retreat. The next one will be held in 2021, so be sure to head over to the Spin website to stay up to date about the specific dates!
You can also stay up to date about upcoming retrats on their IG:
If you have any more specific questions about the retreat, don’t hesitate to write into the comment section below, or reach out to me directly!
It’s never too late to do what you love!