1:1 and Group Classes 2016

2016 Classes and Lessons Availability

Expert tuition in London from one of Londons flexibility experts, qualified and experienced gymnastics coach, and established professional contortionist and handbalancer Sally Miller.

1:1 Slots Availability: (updated 09/02/16)

Mondays:
10am - 1pm

Tuesdays:
2 - 6pm
7 - 8pm

Wednesdays:
-

Thursdays:
10am-4pm

Fridays:
10am - 1pm

Saturdays:
On Request between 2.45-5.45pm

Sundays:
10:30am - 1pm - new group classes will be announced very soon!
1-2pm: 1:1 slot in N16 Newington Green

Costs for 1:1 lessons from my facility in N15/N16:
10am - 5pm : £60 per hour
5pm-8pm + weekends: £65 per hour

I am also able to travel to your facility, costs for this are dependant on location where I am travelling to.

Please email dancingupsidedown@gmail.com for bookings and more information.

Nick Delaney Photoshoot

Last month I collaborated with the very talented photographer and artist Nick Delaney.  Every time we shoot I say this but I think this time we shot our best set of images yet!  I love these images :)

Please check out Nick's website at www.nickdelaney.com  He has some beautiful work on there, and is one of the best photographers i have been fortunate enough to work with over the past years.  In particular check out the section called Flexile Geometry which is a set of geometric images Nick has composed using purely yoga/circus/flexible people that he has worked with.  Blown up big sized these images look more than amazing!

These images are copyrighted, please do not steal or post these images anywhere without permission.

Ice Queen Handbalance

Check out these beautiful pictures of me by Nick Delaney (www.nickdelaney.com).

My Ice Queen performances are available as either Handbalance with Canes and/or Contortion. 

For booking enquiries please email bookings@sallymiller.uk

Sally Xx

Ambient Walkabout Contortion at the Corinthia Hotel

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to have the amazingly talented photographer Nick Delaney (www.nickdelaney.com) come and take pictures of me as I performed at an event at the Corinthia Hotel with the lovely Sternberg Clarke (www.sternbergclarke.com).

Walkabout Sets are where I wander about the guests finding a suitable space where i then contort my body into crazy shapes, and balance on my hands.

I was recently asked if I prefer performing ambient/walkabout sets or a choreographed to music stage show.  I like both for their different reasons.  I love in a choreographed stage show being the centre of attention on the stage, and being able to combine my technical skills with artistry and emotion to the music.  Ambient/Walkabout sets then I love the freedom and randomness of it all, that i can show all of my technical skills that might not be included in my choreographed acts, and i like that the guests can also get to speak to me and ask me questions about my flexibility :)

Anyway, here are the lovely pictures that Nick took of me :)   Please do not use these pictures without permission.

BIMM & SOMM Winter Symposium 2015 Hypermobility

This weekend was the 2015 Winter Symposium by the British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine (BIMM) and the Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine (SOMM).  This year the topic was Challenging Joints - Management of Laxity, Instability, and Hypermobility.

I was honoured to appear on the front and back cover of the programme with a photo by the wonderful Simon Richardson.  I was also honoured to be able to attend the symposium and listen to the excellent and informative presentations given by some of the leading experts in the field of hypermobility.

Although I am now a full time performer, I graduated from university with a degree in physiotherapy, and my interest in physiotherapy still strongly exists. One of the topics that absolutely fascinates me is hypermobility symptomatic and asymptomatic. 

Although in my current working life I see, work with, and teach many people who could be classed as hypermobile as they are crazy flexible and score great on the Beighton scale then they are not symptomatic. There is a management side of when I'm teaching them, but they are the lucky ones as generally they do not have one of the symptomatic hypermobility syndromes that can affect others so severely.  (On the subject of the beighton scale then interesting fact is that I only score 3. Yet my knees are officially hypermobile, hurt each day, and from puberty to about until 3yrs ago subluxed/dislocated regularly, I also have a few of the systemic symptoms).

This symposium looked at those who have symptomatic joint hypermobility syndromes. It also looked beyond the joint at the systemic problems that can occur.

For me I listened and absorbed information on each and every talk.  Usually if I'm up at 6am after not very much sleep then I am flagging by midday and sitting through lectures would send me to sleep.  I was so interested in this subject that I never once flagged or felt tired till I got home!

As well as learning a tremendous amount then the day did a few things to me. It taught me to be aware of the extra symptoms of joint hypermobility disorders, as someone who deals with flexible people on a daily basis I think it's good to have an awareness of these. Secondly it encouraged me to read further about certain aspects that were highlighted on the day that I found interesting. And thirdly it made me want to be back into the physio world treating and helping people. That route would be long and tremendously hard as I haven't practiced since I graduated, but maybe one day... if performing taught me anything it's that not many things are impossible if you are willing to work hard and believe.

A big thankyou to BIMM and SOMM for organising such an amazing day and allowing me to attend :)

Www.bimm.org.uk

Handstand Workshop Feedback and Pictures

Last sunday I led my second very successful workshop at Bikram Highbury and Islington to learn how to handstand.

My workshops cover the building blocks for successful handstanding and inversions, I use progressive steps to show how to build up the strength required, and develop the correct technique to ensure success.

If you would like me to run a workshop in your venue, or if you are interested in private handbalance classes then do get in touch with me on sallyacrocoach@yahoo.com.

"I cannot speak highly enough for Sally's teaching! Her structured approach, deep understanding of the human body & passion for handstands makes her teaching inspiring! I highly recommend anyone who is interested in improving their handstand to attend one of her workshops."

"Love it. Learnt some good techniques to help my handstands. Very clear and helpful teaching. Thanks Sally."

"Sally makes everything possible. Really good to build strength for your yoga practice."

"Really great workshop. Sally took us throughall the progression steps and broke it down so that we could all build on our skills regardless of our level."

"Very Good. Great content about technique but also fun to do."

Halloween Handstand Workshop NOV 1st 2015 !!!!

Join me for a handstand workshop SUNDAY NOVEMBER 1st  1-2:30pm at Bikram Highbury and Islington Studios.

The last handstand workshop was a big success and the feedback was incredible, so here is another one!

The workshop is geared to beginners and intermediate handbalancers, although handstanders of all levels are welcome and i will give different exercises to more advanced students.
The workshop will draw on my 15 years of teaching expertise and in the workshop which will begin with handstand preparation stretches, you will learn how to create the right body shape, tension, positioning, and strength to balance on your hands, learn the techniques to safely get into the handstand through a variety of progressive exercises, and once you are there then how to stay up there!

It should be a fun, informative, and progressive workshop and I can not wait to teach at Bikram Highbury again :)

To guarantee your spot please book in advance directly through Bikram Highbury, spaces are limited and reception will be told to let no more people in once the workshop is full.
www.bikramhighburyandislington.com

Sally Xx

Lessons/Workshops/1:1s - Availability September

I am in the process of setting up a website with my available times and dates for teaching.  In the meantime i will be updating this blog with my availability.

What I put on here is also subject to availability with the space that i use which changes constantly, and with other bookings as they come in, so to be in with the best shot of getting your preferred time then please do book in as soon as is possible.

I offer 1:1 private lessons in handbalance and also in flexibility/contortion to all levels from beginner to expert.  My cost is £55 per hour for tuition from my facility in Seven Sisters.  If you wish me to travel to your location that is most of the time do-able within London's tube network but the cost is higher depending on where you are and travel time and cost.

September
Thurs 3rd:  10am - 4pm
Mon 7th:  11am - 4pm
Weds 9th: 11am - 8pm
Mon 21st: 1pm - 4pm
Tues 22nd:  3pm - 6pm
Weds 23rd: 11am - 8pm
Thurs 24th: 10am - 4pm

Sun 27th: 11am - 1.45pm  SPLITS AND BACKBEND FLEXIBILITY/CONTORTION WORKSHOP nr Newington Green - details and booking info coming this week!

Mon 28th: 1pm - 4pm
Tues 29th: 3pm - 6pm
Weds 30th: 11am - 8pm

Weekends available on request, although i tend to be on courses or working away a lot during September.

My email for tuition bookings is:  sallyacrocoach@yahoo.com

Unique You

This week I was sent the most fabulous set of images from award winning photographer Ben Marden (www.benmarden.com.au).  Me yoga asana'ing around Prague city centre after the European Yoga Cup.

It was an impromptu shoot after 3 very intense yoga asana days.  My body felt exhausted, but i love a photoshoot so i kept pulling out the poses!  Looking through the images i was happily smiling at how awesome they all looked.  Ben had managed to capture some stunning photos :)

Then I came to an image of me stood upright doing no yoga asana.  I rarely shoot a 'normal' photo.  I overlooked the fact that this was infact a beautiful photo of me.  The first thing i saw was too big hips and legs, too big shoulders and muscles, my body was horrible compared to the image in my head of what i wish it looked like.  Then after picking apart my body bit by bit and hating it I thought how sad it was that these were the first things that I thought seeing a normal image of me.  And how it was weird how i thought none of this when i saw the other photos of me in weird bendy poses.

I looked at the image again.

I saw a fit healthy perfectly how i'm meant to be body.  I saw strength, I saw me, I saw a beautiful picture of me.  A strong women whose outside strength matches her inside strength.  Without my physical strength I wouldn't be doing handstands like i do, those shoulders give me much joy.  Without my inner strength I wouldn't have made it to today, I fiercely fought my own battles and alone kept strong for many years through some nasty nasty events.

The more i look at the image the more i lose the negativity, my mind thinking instead of the positives.

I am incredibly lucky to have the body that I do have.  It is not perfect, nobodies perfect, what is perfect anyway.  I have a few non-aesthetic faults.  But other than a few small things my body is this wonderful vessel journeying me through life happily and healthily.  From today I am going to appreciate this body even more, it's the only one I get and life is precious and short, why waste time hating the bits I can not change.

If you look at a photo and just start reeling off your perceived imperfections look at the photo again, look differently, look with an eye that looks deeper than the surface, look and see how you are so much more than a few of your perceived imperfections.  You were designed beautifully to be you, and we are all perfect and beautiful just the way we are.

Here are a few of the other stunning images from this wonderful photoshoot.

Handstand Workshop 31st May !!!!!

I am super excited to announce that I shall be leading a super fun awesome handstand workshop happening on the 31st May at Bikram Highbury and Islington!!!!

The workshop shall be beginner/intermediate level with no prior experience needed.

In the workshop I shall lead you through a series of exercises that I use to prepare people to handstand, lots of lovely exercises to either begin to get you upsidedown and/or refine your handstand alignment and hold, exercises with the wall and without the wall, look at different ways into the handstand and safe exits, explore a few other fun armbalances, and give you lots of my standing on your hands top tips.

I am one of Londons top professional female handbalancers, I have been standing on my hands since I can remember and teaching for over 13 years.  I am honoured to have been able to perform my art at big events all over the world.  I am also the current UK UKYSF Yoga Asana champion.

VENUE: Bikram Highbury and Islington

TIME: 1-3pm

COST: £30

BOOKING: www.bikramhighburyandislington.com 

Places are limited and so sign up now so that you do not miss out!

100 Years of Fitness

Check out this super wonderful video of 100 Years of Fitness in 90 seconds.  It went viral and at the time of writing this then it currently has about 2 million views.  My wonderful sister Karyn Fleeting was the talented person behind creating this video for Benenden Health :)

Lessons and Workshops

I am currently offering flexibility and/or handstand tuition lessons.

At the moment these are on a 1:1 or 2:1 basis from my venues in N15 or N16, or I can travel to workshops if you can supply the venue.

I am a qualified British Gymnastics coach, have a degree in physiotherapy, am an international performer specialising in handbalance, and am also an avid yogi with much respect for correct alignment and technique.  I have learnt myself from many great people and constantly update my knowledge so it is current.  I have 10+ years of teaching both adults and children.

And... I am thinking of host a flexibility workshop and a handstand workshop in one of my venues, either in N15 or N16, so if you are reading this and are interested then do add me on Instagram (flexiprincess), or on Facebook (Sally Miller - Flexible Handbalancer), to keep updated on when this will be :)