At age 63, after years of playing ultimate frisbee, I am not the most flexible. Remedying this with yoga, I soon discovered my talent for the Fallen Tree pose. To be less facetious, maintaining my balance during even the most basic vinyasa class proved a real challenge. One-legged and inverted poses appeared well beyond my ability.
The solution was to take to the air. Shaw’s endlessOM Yoga & Aerial is the only studio in DC offering aerial yoga classes.
Walking in, I immediately noticed the wonderful aroma and the spare decor. Bare wooden floors and white walls punctuated by plants and decorative mandala murals give the space a calm, relaxed, welcoming vibe. The studio consists of two large practice rooms, each with anchors screwed into the ceiling, an expansive lobby and a dedicated space for healing practitioners. The studio hosts a dozen teachers, as well as weekly guest instructors.
Photo: endlessOM
Aerial Yoga
Using long strips of a low-stretch nylon fabric fastened to ceiling anchors, practitioners wrap themselves in the fabric to strike poses they might never achieve on a mat. These “silks” serve as props, analogous to blocks or straps used in conventional classes. Students employ slow movements rooted in circus arts to bend, invert and stretch the body. Building body awareness in the calm, enveloping fabric, they learn to suspend themselves.
“Silk is the best yoga prop. It allows you to access shapes that otherwise would be difficult to maintain,” explained endlessOM founder and lead instructor Sara Crosby.
The studio’s aerial classes follow a progressive structure, with prerequisites for advanced classes. The studio provides crash mats. The instructors often function as spotters when students take on new challenges. “I really want people to stay safe,” Crosby explained.
Aerial practice is “a blast,” said Crosby, who teaches students to “trust the fabric” to support their body weight as they climb using legs and arms.
“We take yoga and we put it up in the air,” Crosby added.
More advanced classes offer complex movements farther off the floor. They include Aerial Strong, Aerial Arts, Aerial Core and Aerial Pilates. There are also heated restorative and yin classes for all levels, as well as a full range of mat yoga classes.
The vibe is celebratory. Cheering, students often take photos of each other as they achieve challenging poses. The practice itself creates community, Crosby stated.
Dancing into Yoga
Yoga was not Crosby’s first love. She grew up dancing. In college, she majored in broadcast journalism with a minor in dance. After graduating, she worked as a broadcast journalist and later as a documentary producer.
On the side, Crosby taught dance to children. “Teaching movement has been a constant in my life,” she said. Giving a child an early love of movement is crucial.
She took a vinyasa class at her gym. “It was all the things I loved about dance but it was a new way to move therapeutically,” she explained. Then a friend took her to a prana vinyasa class, which “changed everything.” It was purposeful, intentional movement. “It was the way I always wanted dance to feel,” she recalled. She trained as an instructor and began teaching in 2011.
While on vacation in Alabama in 2017, Crosby tried aerial yoga for the first time. “It felt like a performance: beautiful, powerful and capable,” she recalled. She immediately trained to be an aerial instructor. For the next several years, she taught aerial and prana vinyasa yoga, eventually settling at Yoga Heights, an earlier incarnation of her current studio.
helps build strength, control and confidence. Photo: Kevin Brooks
In 2024, the owner of Yoga Heights announced she intended to sell the studio and asked Crosby if she would like to purchase it. Crosby had never considered owning a studio. Then, one of her students approached her in tears, upset that her beloved studio would close. “I am going to save it,” Crosby decided. With the aid of her husband, an experienced general contractor, she bootstrapped the renovation. The new studio opened in January 2025.
“Aerial yoga is everything you already love, tied up with a silk ribbon,” Crosby summed up.
endlessOM Yoga & Aerial is located at 905 U St. NW. For more information, visit endlessOM.com.
