After years of exploring her interest in different types of performance, junior London DeSanchez participates in aerial arts and circus every week. 

Although the activity started as a pastime, DeSanchez has progressed her skills enough to participate in regular performances with Akrosphere, an aerial arts and circus training facility in Alpharetta for people of all ages.

“When I tell people I do circus, a lot of them assume it’s juggling on top of elephants and stuff, but no,” DeSanchez said. “The circus I do is called aerial arts, so it’s more like silks and trapezes with apparatuses in the air.”

Growing up, DeSanchez participated in more common types of performance, but she stopped due to a lack of interest.

“Originally, I did gymnastics for about three years when I was younger, and then before that, I did dance for five years,” DeSanchez said. “I leaned more towards the genres of contemporary and lyrical, so I wasn’t proficient in all the genres. I didn’t really like it, and I lost the passion for it.”

Finding herself in the midst of a pandemic with no extracurricular activity to participate in, DeSanchez said she faced mental health struggles that brought about a lack of motivation.

“I was just at home doing nothing, and all my life I’ve been performing some type of performance, and I started to realize that performance is my drive,” DeSanchez said. “When I quit both gymnastics and dance, I was just depressed because I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do.”

DeSanchez’s grandmother Nicole Parrish said she grew concerned about her granddaughter’s depression, and in an effort to provide support, researched and presented ideas to DeSanchez of performance-based activities she could participate in. When Parrish discovered the realm of aerial silks, she said DeSanchez was happy to take a trial class.

“I did this massive Google search to find somebody who would teach silks, but there was no studio that would take a child her age,” Parrish said. “I Googled anything I thought she would be interested in, and I happened to Google ‘trapeze,’ so I contacted [Akrosphere] through email, and they said they do a trial class where you pay $10 and get to come and try all the apparatuses you want.”

TOSSING TOGETHER: DeSanchez performs alongside her aerial circus group. Performance-based activities has had a positive impact on her mental health. (Courtesy of London DeSanchez)

Although Desanchez said she enjoyed aerial silks at first, she found herself growing more intrigued by Lyra, an aerial art that involves silks, as well as hanging apparatuses.

“I liked silks at first, but then it got boring, and I needed something else, so I moved to Lyra, because every time I went to my silks class and the coach was giving directions, I would always be looking at the Lyra class and the girls who were way older than I was and way more proficient in what they were doing,” DeSanchez said. “I would be eyeing them, and when my grandmother came to one of my silk classes, she would tap on the glass to get me to pay attention.”

Soon after DeSanchez began practicing Lyra, she was asked to join Company, the competitive sector of Akrosphere’s aerial arts performers. By dedicating large amounts of time to the sport, Descanchez rapidly progressed her abilities.

“Not even a month after I started Lyra, the manager came to me and was like, ‘I want you to try out for Company,’” DeSanchez said. “I didn’t know what Company was because I was just taking classes there. Then I tried out, and I made it in. Company is a group where we all do different apparatuses ,and we perform in shows around the state, and we do some for charity. The shows last all weekend, so you have to be very committed and dedicated to it.”

DeSanchez now dedicates most of her time to training for circus competitions and teaching younger acrobats how to build their aerial performance skills.

“I go up [to Akrosphere] on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and sometimes Saturdays for three hours each day, and when I get home around 10:30 p.m., I just have to push through to get homework done,” DeSanchez said. “I teach people who are my age and little kids. I don’t get paid, but I get lots of volunteer hours.”

AERIAL ESCAPE: Junior London DeSanchez performs using an aerial hoop and silks. DeSanchez used performance as an escape to ease her depression. (Courtesy of London DeSanchez)

Aside from Desanchez’s excellence in aerial arts, she has faced struggles due to physical injury. In November, she had a concussion before a significant performance, causing her to push herself to the point of discomfort.

“I had to perform on an apparatus called Sugarcube, and it’s really small,” DeSanchez said. “It’s three dimensional and the bars are metal. I had to perform my piece, but my coach wanted to try something new at the end, so I was on this thing called a butterfly lift, which is like a pulley system where I’m pulled up and down depending on where I need to be for the spinning. This was like two weeks before the show; we did it, and as I was getting off of it, the cube hit me in the left side of my head twice in the same spot while it was spinning.”

Although DeSanchez noticed immediate discomfort, she said her drive to perform caused her to ignore concerning symptoms of a concussion.

“I blacked out and was told to go home, and I was frustrated because when I got in the car, I was like, ‘If I can’t perform, my coach is going to be mad,’” DeSanchez said. “I started having a breakdown because the stress is real, especially for this show because I was in every act; so, I had a lot of weight on me. If something were to happen to me, I couldn’t have been replaced by someone else.”

The next morning, DeSanchez went to the hospital due to her worsened state.

“I woke up and I was totally out of it,” DeSanchez said. “The lights bothered me, noises were bothering me, and I couldn’t stand up or balance. We rushed to the ER, and they told me I had a concussion. I was praying my coach wasn’t going to cut me. That whole week, I was really wanting to be in the show, and my coach was like, ‘I want you to take care of yourself, and I’m willing to cut you if you can’t do this.’ I told him I was going to get myself together to be in the show.”

Parrish said DeSanchez’s concussion was frightening, but she said she knew her granddaughter would be able to persist.

“The concussion scared us, for sure,” Parrish said. “With any sport, you can get hurt, and we took it seriously. [DeSanchez] has a way of downplaying things, so when she told her mom what happened, it just seemed like she was tired, as usual. When she got up the next morning and acted all confused, that was concerning. Once we contacted her coach, the good thing is that he just wanted her to be safe and unafraid to get back into it. You can get hurt in any sport, but you’ve got to get back on the horse.”

After taking a week to rest, DeSanchez was able to participate in the Company performance.

“I got better, and we did the show, but after the show I went to talk to my coach, and he just thanked me,” DeSanchez said. “I felt so accomplished; it was a lot of trials and tribulations with that concussion, but it felt good knowing that the show was finally over, and we did it well despite all of that happening.”

DeSanchez said she promotes transparency in the risks of participating in a physically strenuous sport.

“I show all of the good things on my Instagram, but if I were to show you my body right now, there are hundreds of bruises, scrapes and scratches,” DeSanchez said. “Circus is not as sweet and perfect as people may see it, but I still choose to do it because it’s my passion.”