Aerial Arts Moab
aerialartsmoab - Moab, Utah
Photo Credits: @juggernaut3500
We are here to show you Moab through the eyes of an aerialist. We hope to change the world for the people who find us. We aim to promote the wonders of human abilities through community, nature, exploration and relaxation.
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The owner of Aerial Arts Moab, Chelsea Manning, started this company with Andy Lewis at the beginning of 2026. Andy passed away in June in a BASE jumping accident and Chelsea decided to continue the company partly in his memory and with the stoke and inspiration Andy brought to the company. Chelsea came to Moab in 2023 to pursue skydiving after a lifetime of visiting Moab for rock climbing and canyoneering. Chelsea has a background in music pedagogy and pursued an entrepreneurial career after graduating with a Master's Degree in Opera Performance. She teaches voice and piano lessons privately in town and has been teaching music full-time for 17 years. Chelsea is also a part-time coach at Skydive Moab where she teaches new skydivers how to use body position and aerodynamics to become better flyers. She is currently pursuing her teaching certification in aerial silks instruction after starting a company that offers retreat-style aerial silks experiences in Moab.
q & a
I started doing flow arts in 2024 during the winter in Moab. There’s not a lot going on in the winter here, so we all had little circus days in the park throughout the winter.
My main apparatus is silks, followed by fans.
Our company is super unique in that we have been playing in the desert for years together already. Andy was passionate about bringing this to others and he spent so much of the past 2 years getting use permits with BLM so that we could host retreats and bring people out to Moab to experience the arches in Moab in a way that is unique, but also keeps us as stewards of the fragile desert.
I have a tree in a canyon that is my absolute favorite place to practice. There are petroglyphs about 20 feet from the tree, the canyon is quiet, the tree is surrounded by soft sand and the light from the sun is stunning in the leaves.
I have felt overwhelmingly supported by the flow arts community. Everyone will cheer you on when they know you’re having a breakthrough as if you just made a goal at the World Cup. There is so much adventure in the flow community in Moab too–so many creative ideas and “What ifs” here–like, what if we did silk fans at the top of an arch while someone did silks below it?
I think the community is already doing so much to make people feel empowered. There is a very all inclusive feel in this community, like anyone can try it and anyone’s progress is worth commending. I love the nature and creative part of it–going out into the desert during sunset or taking fans out on a long hike to an arch and just playing with a flow toy in the middle of the desert.
