In 2020, Roxy and her husband Lukas moved to Wenatchee, Washington to start a new life—one that would support a better quality of life for the family they soon wanted to begin.

Once this determined couple got their roots established in their new hometown, one of the things Roxy really missed after her moved to Wenatchee was her aerial yoga home back in Seattle. And thus…the idea for Valkyrie Aerial Yoga & Fitness was born.

Loki was the most excellent project supervisor.

After some Google searching, in August of 2022, Roxy reached out to Vertical Art Dance to build her new aerial yoga home. She saw photos of our previous builds and read some of the client testimonials and felt confident pursuing a design with VAD. She was excited to have found our company and the unique services we offer to aerial business owners. By early November 2022, it was already time to build her completed design.

The VAD rigging team, consisting of Summer & Holly, flew out to Washington to lead and train the truss build. Our morning started early at 8am and we worked until lunch. Since this studio was on the second floor of an old cannery warehouse with no feasible way to get material lifts up the stairs, we built and stood this entire 15 foot structure by hand. Getting it to its final standing position was not easy by any means, but we had the knowledge, experience and a little bit of brute strength from some friends who came by to help get it upright. By 4:30pm we had a beautiful structure standing. The only remaining task was to get the aerial yoga hammocks tied and hung.

H: “What was the inspiration behind Valkyrie Aerial Yoga & Fitness?”

Measuring and laying out where the aerial yoga hammock rigging points will go!

R & L: “We chose the name Valkyrie because a lot of things in our life tend to have a Scandanavian theme to it. Mostly Norwegian and Swedish and it was kind of a big theme for our wedding and the decor at our house. Our dog is Loki (Norse mythology). A Valkyrie is a flying angel that brings people up to Valhalla…”

H: “How did you find Vertical Art Dance and what made you want to use us for your studio build?”

R: “I found the building first, I knew I wanted this building. This place has 17.5 foot ceilings…this building is over a 100 years old, it’s not the kind of place you can just drill into the ceilings and plus it was too tall. I knew I had to do some sort of freestanding structure. I was doing some Googling and I think I was just searching ‘aerial rigging’ or ‘aerial truss’ or ‘what do they use in aerial studios?’ or something along those lines and I came across Vertical Art Dance. I looked at the website, I looked at the Instagram and saw all the different options and I was like ‘I’m sure they can come up with something for me’.”

L: “And this makes it kind of an asset, we can like bring it with us if we want. I first told her that I would figure it out and after spending all day with you guys building it, I was like ‘this is better…this is a lot better’ (Said with a chuckle and a smile).”

R: “My motto is to ask for help…not always. I’m trying to make this my NEW motto, with this building…to try and not do it all myself. It’s worth asking people for help. It makes things easier…”

L: “I’d still be working on the welds (Says with a smile and points over to a truss leg).”

R: “He has a welder so he thought maybe he would weld some things (said in a teasing-wife tone).”

L: “It would have been more of a liability than an asset.” (Said with a laugh)

R: “Yeah.” :)

R: “I do also like the fact that you can break them (the truss parts) down and take them other places if needed. I plan on being here for at least a decade but COVID shows us that nothing is certain, so it’s nice to be able to think I can just take this and…maybe I want to do outside classes. Just take it all down, set it up somewhere outside…”

H: “What do you think is the most valuable service that Vertical Art Dance offers?”

L: “For me, the hands-on training. I was not expecting you guys to fly out and help out with it. I was telling Roxy earlier today that there was just a couple little things like even putting the pins in right that you think would be super easy (but it’s not) and it was a huge help for me, on my end.”

R: “I would say that (what L said), but also for me just freeing up emotional and mental bandwidth to focus on other things and just know that it’s (the rigging and studio build) taken care of and all I have to do is show up.”

H: “Do you feel the whole process when smoothly from start to finish, from designing to shipping to building? How do you feel like that went overall?”

R: “I would say the only hiccup was that our truss got here too soon which has to do with an overly-eager driver who got here in like 12 hours somehow instead of a few days. But thankfully, one thing I will say…I had no idea how light each of these truss pieces are for how big they are. Which made getting them up the stairs in a second story building easy with only three people. So, thank goodness for that.”

H: “What makes you most excited about your new studio?”

L: “Seeing it actually come to fruition. It’s gone from an idea to something tangible now.”

R: “For me from an aerial perspective, my home rig is like 9 feet high, which limits the poses and postures I can do. So I’m excited now to have something tall enough to do fun tricks. on I’m excited to share that and have a business and start earning all of this money back…I’m excited to have a playground and share that with other people. Wenatchee needs fun fitness.”

H: “If someone was considering using Vertical Art Dance to build a custom structure, what would you tell them?”

L: “DO IT.”

R: “I would say that time is money and this saved us time. Not having to research. I am a researcher…love to research…I’m good at it, but I’m glad I didn’t have to research how to do this ‘cause when starting a new business especially, there are so many other things to research and learn and do. And to not have to research and learn and do all of this by myself…definitely worth it.”

The cutest couple and the powerhouse team behind Valkyrie!

L: “Also, buying a structure like this, no matter who is making it…the cost is going to be like ‘whoa’ when you first figure it out. It’s a lot of metal and intricate work to put it all together. But when I heard about that cost (the cost of truss) vs. getting anchor points installed I was like, well when you put the anchor points in you can’t take them anywhere. This (the truss structure) is something we can keep forever and it’s an asset now…we can bring it places and that took a lot of the scare and shock value away. It’s (ours) and it’s not something we just put in as a sunk cost.

R: “That’s a good way to put it…not a sunk cost. Honestly, if we change our minds on where we want to do this or how we want to do this or we want to open up a retreat center or we want to do an outdoor thing we can just take this (the truss) with us. We are not stuck with this space like we would be if we installed to this building.”

H: “Any other thoughts?”

R&L: “THANK YOU!!!”

H: “Congratulations! We are so excited for you guys!!”

Stories like Roxy and Lukas’ are why we love doing what we do. We are excited for them as they start this new journey and can’t wait to see how Wenatchee responds to this new, fun fitness, opening in January 2023!

Check them out on Instagram @valkyriefitness.studio and if you happen to be in the Wenatchee, WA area, check out their classes and see what they have to offer!

You can find more info about their studio and classes at their website www.valkyriefitnessstudio.com

Do you have a vision for a new pole, aerial or fitness studio and need help bringing to life with custom rigging solutions? We would LOVE to help you build your dream space! Your first 15 minute phone consultation is free and easy to schedule!

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