Rep Talk

This Month's Edition

September 2026

Opening note

There's something I have to share with you.

I am a visual learner. And I can be slow when it comes to learning new things. During my circus education, some skills (mostly scary ones) didn't come naturally. I had to work really hard for them.

The funny thing is, I was brought up in the circus world by coaches who almost never demonstrated anything. And they trained some of the best performers in the industry.

That experience shaped how I learn and how I teach. Which is exactly what this month's Deep Dive is about: what learning styles are, what they aren't, and why the way you prefer to learn doesn't have to be the only way you can.

Let's get into it.

1 Move · 5 Ways

Back to the classic format this month: one move, five ways. The move is the flare, a skill that makes inverting while spinning easier.

We spend years building clean inverts, but the second you add a spin, the same skill feels like a whole other challenge. The timing is different, the strength required is different, and you can't just muscle your way through it. The good news: flares can be trained, taken apart, and worked on the floor. They work on pretty much any apparatus, soft or hard.

In this video, I show you five flare variations, each one landing in a different position:

• Flare to meathook
• Flare to armpit (this one is from the incredible @emiliadawiec. I had never even thought of doing flare to armpit until I saw her do it on hoop!)
• Flare to hips
• Flare to amazon (from armpit)
• Flare to opposite knee on rope (from crucifix)

Watch the video here

On repeat

• Song: Best Boy – Flora Cash. I really love this band. The lyrics, the vibe, everything.
• Playlist: My favorite playlist for movement exploration
• Account I'm loving: @nicolebudden___. I love her teaching approach and I resonate a lot with what she posts. Recently I've started unfollowing accounts that make me doubt myself, and following more people with a mindset similar to mine.
• Movement obsession: anything heated that includes breathwork. I've tried Othership in Toronto and although everyone I talk to says it's a cult, I have come to really enjoy and appreciate what they offer. They also have locations in NY!

Deep dive — You're not a learning style. You're a learner.

If you asked me, I'd call myself a visual learner. And yet, my coaches almost never demonstrated.

At first it felt challenging. Over time it became the greatest gift of my circus education, because I had to understand. I had to build the trick in my head, narrate it, feel my way through it. And back then, Instagram wasn't where you went to learn tricks. No one filmed every training session, so we had to feel things for ourselves and trust the feedback we were getting.

Here's the thing about learning styles: your preference is real, but it's a preference, not a boundary. Sticking only to the way you naturally like to learn doesn't necessarily help you learn better. In fact, the more ways you engage with a skill, the more ways you have to understand it.

Watch someone do it. Narrate the movement. Mark it on the floor. Then feel it in the air. You're doing much more than just learning the skill now, you're learning how to understand it from different angles.

This is why I demonstrate once, sometimes not at all, and almost never more than twice. Not because I'm withholding, or because I'm lazy. I would rather teach you skills and tools you can use even when I'm not in the room so that at the end of the class you not only learned a new skill, but you truly understand it. Because showing you the skill for the third time won't teach you the trick more than it did the first time; it conditions you to need a fourth one to "truly" get it. My job isn't to be your mirror. It's to hand you the tools to do the movement yourself, so that when I'm not in the room, the skill can still happen.

Online coaching proved this to me early on. Students who thought they could only learn with a coach in front of them were stunned when they realized how much they progressed when they learned to slow down, listen to my words and when they finally trusted themselves.

Sit with these this month:

• Which learning channel do you lean on, and which one do you avoid?
• When did a skill last come slowly to you, and what story did you tell yourself about why?
• If your coach never demonstrated again, what would you need to develop to keep progressing?

Where I'm performing

• Ottawa: LUZIA by Cirque du Soleil, September 10 – October 18, 2026. Get tickets
• Vancouver: LUZIA by Cirque du Soleil, November 4 – December 13, 2026. Get tickets

Work with me

Seattle, WA | September 5–6
Catch Me If You Can · Cross My Back · Resonance · C-Shaping · Spin Club
Book here

Ottawa, ON | September 21–22
C-Shaping · Spin Club · Cross My Back · Catch Me If You Can
Book here

Online
1:1 Online Coaching & Video Review

Pop-Up to Back Balance Workshop
Live on September 8 at 7 PM EDT. Replay available for purchase starting September 9.
Grab your seat here

Closing note

So here's my question for you this month: when learning gets uncomfortable, do you change the method, or do you change the size of what you believe you can do?

I'd love to hear your answer and your own experience — send me a note and let's chat.

Talk soon,
Enya White
Aerial Coach · Blacktrapeze