Acro Revolution
Acro Revolution was born out of a desire to bring partner acrobatics knowledge together in a way that is user friendly and most helpful to the teachers, students, and community. Our teacher trainings are geared to acrobats that have put the time into their practice to be able to complete the prerequisites, and want to dive deeper into their own practice and learn new material. We use progressive/method-based teaching practices to facilitate positive learning experiences. In our training you learn techniques, progressions, and calibrations for washing machines, hand-to-hand, foot-to-hand, whips, and pops. We show you how to properly train these skills and teach the basic elements. We facilitate teacher’s that are embodied in their own acro practice and have the tools to be a successful acro teacher in their community. Josh is happiest when he is empowering others to be the best version of themselves. He spends all of his free time flying everyone through hand-to-hand, washing machines, whips, and pops! When he is not tossing someone around, he is dorking out on cataloging every single acro washing machine, pose, and transition. After spending years searching for acro videos on YouTube, Josh came up with the idea to build Acropedia.org: a free online resource for partner acrobatics.
Josh’s movement journey began when he was tormented by lower back pain. After 14 surgeries and hundreds of doctors he found no relief from chronic pain. He healed himself through yoga and mindfulness practices. Josh spent over a decade as a critical care registered nurse, working in intensive care. His passion for healing himself and others developed into his passion for partner acrobatics. Josh’s mission in life is to empower people to find their own path to happiness, healing, support, and love. Lizzy is life-long circus monkey with Masters in Business and Economics. From the time she could crawl she was monkeying around and was lucky enough to have an older brother that was in the circus. Lizzy loves playing with and learning from friends and sees everyone’s potential to be an acrobatic super hero! In addition to teaching yoga, she has facilitated an after-school circus program for under-served youth, a women’s empowerment group in Washington DC, and women’s political training programs in the Middle East. Lizzy believes that acrobatics helps us learn life lessons about balance, inner-strength, and literally and figuratively lifting up others.
Whaka is the spiritual heart beat of the Acro Revolution tribe. Having always been a warrior and athlete, Whaka found the healing power of acropeutics and the joy of acrobatics when he was living in the US as a professional rugby player. In 2005, he started his healing journey after giving up his perception that yoga “was for girls” and not for tough guys. A few months into his practice, Whaka noticed his body recovered from tough rugby matches without the usual drugs or surgery. Through the path of yoga he learned to heal himself. Whaka then began to give this gift of healing to others by becoming a certified yoga teacher and thai massage practitioner. Whaka found acro serendipitously on a beach when a women approached him and asked him if he wanted to fly. That woman became his wife, Sara. In one day Whaka found his life long passion and the person he would share that gift to the world with for the rest of his life. Whaka & Sara founded Koha Yoga in 2009. Koha is the Maori word for gift. Whaka & Sara travel around the world with their daughter Tahi, helping people discover the gifts of trust, joy, laughter, play, balance, and release through acro, acropeutics, yoga, and paddle-boarding.
Sara is the official Acro Mama of the Acro Revolution Tribe. Her journey started when she found yoga at the age of 18. Yoga kept Sara grounded and connected to her breath, mind, and spirit. Sara began teaching yoga to her community, but she felt something was missing. Yoga, as traditionally taught, lacked connection with others. The day Sara found herself on top of someone’s feet, flying through the air with the support of another human being, her life changed forever. She immediately started to share a different approach to yoga, an approach with more fun, play, joy, and transformation. Sara is now lucky to share this practice with her love / husband / partner / co-teacher Whakapaingia and their baby girl, Tahi. Sara and her family travel around the world spreading the gift of joy, playfulness, and connection.