Hand balancing is entering a new chapter. In this episode, Meaghan Wegg introduces the Hand Balancing syllabus under Aerial Arts and shares why balance is not a trick or a strength test, but a skill that can be taught safely and progressively. From reducing fear upside down to building confidence through clear structure, this conversation explores how a syllabus changes the way hand balancing is taught in studios. If you teach dancers, aerialists, or acro students, this episode offers a fresh perspective on balance, alignment, and what is now possible with a structured approach. 

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Meaghan Wegg

Meaghan  grew up dancing where she studied Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop and Acro. In 2001, Meaghan was accepted in to L’Ecole Nationale de Cirque in Montreal where she specialized in aerial hoop and contortion with additional training in Ballet, Contemporary and Modern. Upon graduation in 2005, Meaghan performed professionally as a principal dancer in many roles, including the cast of ‘Tomorrow’ (Pigeons, International) and the cast of ‘Loft’ (7 Fingers). From 2009 – 2012, Meaghan performed on tour globally with Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘Quidam’ as a feature aerialist.

Following an extremely successful performance career, Meaghan shifted her focus to coaching and choreography. In 2013 Meaghan graduated with a diploma from L’Ecole Nationale de Cirque (Montreal, Canada) with a major in Research of Acrobatics, and a minor in Hand to Hand partnering for dancers.

Currently she works as a private acrobatic coach and choreographer, and attracts students from around the world with a focus on career development, choreography and professional stage preparation. Meaghan founded Move With The Beat dance competitions in 2013. She is the Aerial Arts Division Manager with Acrobatic Arts. Most recently she has launched her Aerial Arts Online syllabus guiding teachers with her course for their students and class preparations. Meaghan started The Academy Circus as a local London, Ontario circus and acrobatic facility in 2017.

Meaghan recently has been hired for global choreographic projects in Australia, Montreal, France, China and India creating large scale shows for special events, Casino shows and year end performance university shows. She is passionate about welcoming everyone into the performance industry while sharing tips and tools about making it a reality. She is now an on call Artistic Coach with Cirque du Soleil. Meaghan is very happy to be settled in her home town of London Ontario with her small family!

Listen to Meaghan's Previous Episodes:

Ep. 114 Take it to the Air with Meaghan Wegg
Ep. 83 Headstand Progressions for Beginners with Meaghan Wegg
Ep. 71 Student vs Professional Training with Tim Buckley & Meaghan Wegg
Ep. 46 Managing Headaches During Acro Class with Meaghan Wegg
Ep. 7 Acrobatic Arts Australia, New Zealand and Asia Division Managers - Meaghan Wegg and Tim Buckley

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Loren  0:00  
Hey everyone, welcome to the Acrobatic Arts Podcast.

Loren  0:05  
I'm Loren, and I will be interviewing some of the top leaders and innovators from the dance and acrobatic industry. If you are a teacher, performer, student, or a lifelong learner like myself, you are sure to find these episodes intriguing and full of inspiration.

Loren  0:21  
Acrobatic Arts is passionate about providing current and relevant information for everyone, so please sit back and enjoy as we share our passion with you and the world

Loren  0:39  
Today, we're diving into a discipline that's often misunderstood but incredibly powerful when it's taught with intention, hand balancing.

Loren  0:48  
I'm joined by Meaghan Wegg, the creator of aerial arts and a respected educator known for her professional aerial work with Cirque du Soleil and the seven fingers.

Loren  0:59  
Meaghan brings a rare blend of high level performance experience along with a deep insight into pedagogy. And with that expertise, she's created and curated a structured hand balancing syllabus for aerial arts.

Loren  1:14  
In this episode, we talk about what hand balancing is, why structure matters, and how this work can transform the way aerialists train, teach and understand their bodies.

Loren  1:29  
Before we begin. A quick reminder for anyone looking for professional acro training, acrobatic arts trains and certifies 1000s of teachers around the globe. You can learn more about our programs and upcoming courses at acrobatic arts.com

Loren  1:46  
Now let's welcome our guest for today,

Loren  1:52  
Meaghan, welcome back to the show. It's always a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. I love hanging out with you

Loren  2:01  
To start us off. For listeners who may not know you are the aerial arts division manager. So can you tell us what the hand balancing syllabus is and how it is housed under the aerial arts

Meaghan  2:17  
I'd love to so our hand balancing syllabus is a progressive program which trains students from the very fundamental shaping and skills all the way up to advanced hand balancing work. There are 28 skills per level which progressively develop a student's strength, control and technique proficiency, all while keeping them safe and free from injury. If strength were enough, everyone strong could hand balance, but balance is a skill, and skills can be taught. So that's about the syllabus. 

Meaghan  2:51  
It's going to be with the aerial arts app, and under the aerial arts program, it's a completely opposite skill to Ariel, so you're hanging in aerial arts with the majority of your skills. And this one, you're pressing, not the word pressing into a handstand. You're just pushing into the floor so your body is stacked versus elongated. And I guess that's how I'll say it. But I am the aerial arts division manager and the the creator of Ariel hoop and Ariel silks syllabus, and I'm also the hand balancing creator. So we're blending them together in a package under the aerial arts brand, because I'm the Division Manager. So I hope that helps.

Loren  3:39  
I love that. It reframes it not just as a party trick, but as something that we can all use at our studios. Actually, anyone that wants to learn to hand balance could probably use your syllabus. 

Meaghan  3:56  
Yeah, totally. It's for everyone.

Loren  3:59  
So this makes me curious about how you came to see it that way. Was there a specific moment in your own training where hand balancing stopped being a trick and actually became a discipline for you?

Meaghan  4:14  
Yeah, so I'm going to talk about when I was a little girl, because I made myself this crazy rule that every time I walked into my kitchen, I had to do a handstand. I'm pretty sure I spoke about this in another podcast, but I'm going to talk about it again, because it resonated, and it resonates a lot with this. So what that did is it brought me endurance stacking and a number of hours of training without me even thinking about it, and I became really good at hand bouncing really fast, because I was doing it every time I walked in my kitchen. So if you think about it, how many times you actually walk in your kitchen at home? And in my kitchen, it was my bathroom was on the other side of the kitchen, so it was a lot and so like, that's a lot of times that I was doing handstands in my teenage years. 

Meaghan  5:03  
Actually, I'm nice and stubborn, happy, stubborn. I was very strict, and I actually did a handstand every single time I walked in my kitchen. My mom and dad were going crazy because I had to watch out, not keeping anything over. So that was in my younger teenage years. Then when I went to the National Circus School in Montreal, we had handstand classes one hour at a time, three times a week. And that's when it started to blossom. I was stacking and I was I was just understanding. So to go back to your question, it became a discipline for me when I started training it outside of the studio and doing it every day. And then I also fell in love with it, because it was like that Wow. Moment, that Aha. Moment, I'm I'm holding something upside down.

Loren  5:49  
As we are a month into 2026, and I know everyone's been setting goals. I think the walking through the kitchen and doing something, whatever your goal is, is really relatable for everyone, especially dancers trying to achieve more balance on their hands. But this also brings me to something I hear all the time. A lot of dancers think hand balancing is just being strong enough. What's the biggest misconception you'd love to clear up right away.

Meaghan  6:20  
What I tell my students true balance isn't found by pushing harder. It's found by stacking smarter. And the biggest misconception is that hand bouncing is just about being strong enough, and it's not. Strength is only one small piece. Hand balancing is really about alignment, stacking and technique. It's about learning how your bones, joints and center of gravity work together. So you're not fighting balance, you're allowing it. So you're allowing balance to happen.

Loren  6:54  
That's such an important distinction, and it sounds like that thinking directly influences how you teach. So when you began creating and curating a formal hand balancing syllabus, what gap Did you see that made you think this needs a structure?

Meaghan  7:14  
What really inspired me was noticing how much fear students had around going upside down, fear of kicking up, fear of where their legs are, three o'clock or 12 o'clock, and especially the fear of falling. I saw incredibly capable dancers and athletes being held back, not because they weren't strong, but because they didn't feel safe or oriented upside down. And that's where I realized this needed structure. 

Meaghan  7:40  
I wanted to create a syllabus that builds confidence progressively, so students aren't just thrown upside down and told to try harder, but are guided step by step into understanding where they are in space when that structure is in place and fear starts to dissolve. So one of the things I love most about teaching is being able to break down the breakdowns. And hand balancing is such a streamlined discipline that it allows you to do exactly that, refine details, simplify concepts, and really meet students where they are, and the results have been incredible. I've watched students gain confidence, not just upside down, but in how they approach challenges. Overall, I've had teachers and students tell me it's actually been life changing, and that's when I knew this work mattered, that gap is exactly where the syllabus was born.

Loren  8:34  
I couldn't agree more structure can be a game changer in movement, education, especially, and when it comes to consistency across teachers, I think that structure is very important. 

Meaghan  8:47  
Yeah.

Loren  8:48  
Meaghan, how does a syllabus change the way teachers approach hand balancing versus just teaching shapes or holds.

Meaghan  9:00  
In today's world, we are flooded with visuals on social media, as we all can agree, without a syllabus, teachers often teach what they see with the syllabus, they teach why it works and how to get there, and that changes everything. It turns hand balancing from a trick into a teachable language.

Loren  9:21  
I think that clarity will relate to students as well. So let's talk about what they actually need to support all of this. What foundations do students need before hand balancing becomes safe, effective and actually enjoyable.

Meaghan  9:39  
Love that. So I'm going to say alignment, awareness and confidence comes first. Strength follows. For me, it's always fun, but I feel when they come to a point, when they feel balanced, they will be celebrating that.

Loren  9:56  
Exactly and enjoyment is the key. If they enjoy it more, they're going to practice it more, and then they'll get better at it. And it sounds like hand balancing definitely builds something deeper than strength alone. As you mentioned, it's life changing for some people. How does hand balancing develop body awareness differently from other strength based training that our acro dancers are used to.

Meaghan  10:26  
I'm going to say hand balancing teaches dancers to feel balance, not force it, and it replaces effort with awareness. If we can think around that.

Loren  10:38  
That makes so much sense, especially in the context of aerial work as well as acrobatic work, let's talk directly to the aerialists and acro dancers for a moment. Why is hand balancing such a powerful cross training tool for aerialists, acro dancers and dancers?

Meaghan  10:59  
Yeah, hand bouncing builds the exact skills acro dancers and aerialists rely on. So I'll name a few, shoulder stability, core control, alignment and spatial awareness, or spatial orientation. It teaches how to stack the body efficiently, manage weight through the hands and stay calm under load. That directly transfers to inversions, balances and dynamic skills in the air or on the ground, because it removes momentum and force precision, it strengthens technique, not just the muscles, making movement safer, cleaner and more confident.

Loren  11:37  
And I think it's important we talk about that it's not just physical when it comes to hand balancing. There's something that really shifts in us mentally when we're upside down. Can you talk about the mental side of being upside down on your hands? What happens psychologically when students start trusting themselves? 

Meaghan  11:59  
Love this moment. So being upside down asks students to confront fear and uncertainty in a very real way. At first, their instinct is to tense rush or overthink, but as they learn to trust their alignment, breathe and control, something shifts mentally. They stopped reacting and start responding. Confidence replaces panic, focus replaces noise, and that trust doesn't stay upside down, it carries into how they approach challenges everywhere else. So my biggest thing is my why, I guess, why I'm teaching everything in general is I'm guiding all teachers and students through life skills. And this could be a huge aspect or way too big to say, but it's my inspiration. What they learn while they're in training is going to resonate with them through life.

Loren  13:01  
I feel like that trust piece is really essential, and it makes me think about the responsibility that we carry as teachers.

Loren  13:12  
So Meaghan, for any of the teachers listening, what's the risk of not having a clear progression when teaching hand balancing

Meaghan  13:21  
Without a clear progression, teachers risk students muscling through skills instead of understanding them. That leads to inconsistent results, stalled progress, and a higher risk of injury because students don't actually know where they are in space. A clear progression creates safety, confidence and clarity for both the teacher and the student.

Loren  13:46  
Definitely that long term impact really matters. So let's look ahead for a moment. What excites you the most about where hand balancing is headed, especially within acrobatic arts and aerial arts education over the next few years, and what do you hope students gain beyond the physical skill itself?

Meaghan  14:08  
I see this as laying foundations that others can stand on. My hope is that future teachers won't have to reinvent this process. They'll be able to build on it. I want this work to raise the standard of how hand balancing is taught, not just how it's performed, two completely different things. I'm so excited to welcome a teaching community to the hand balancing world with me.

Loren  14:37  
That vision really feels accessible and for anyone who's intrigued but unsure where to begin, if a studio owner or teacher is curious but might be hesitant, what is the first small step they could take to explore hand balancing properly?

Meaghan  14:57  
I would start by learning the why, not just the shapes, explore basic alignment, stacking and weight transfer at the wall or with simple drills before worrying about freestanding balance. When teachers take the time to understand the foundation hand balancing stops feeling intimidating and starts feeling teachable, and that's where everything opens up. 

Meaghan  15:19  
And with the syllabus, we start right at primary. And it's it's realistic. It's very beginner for you, even yourself as a teacher, to understand the syllabus, with the shaping and the the drills. It's great. I love it.

Loren  15:36  
And Meaghan, I know I've seen you teach, and I know others have seen you teach at conventions and in class, and you're just wonderful the way that you explain everything. So just tell us a little bit more about the syllabus, how it's structured and how it aligns with acrobatic arts and aerial arts, and even where people can access it. When? I know everybody is probably excited to get started. 

Meaghan  16:02  
You're going to be able to access it on the acrobatic arts website. You'll see it the same way that you see Module One courses or aerial arts courses. You'll find it there, and it's going to have access to the aerial arts app as well. You'll have direct links and progressions on the whole syllabus with each level, and in each level, there's 28 skills, and there's five different categories. 

Meaghan  16:31  
There's many different methods of teaching, tools, and it's just, honestly, something the industry needs, and my inspiration, I have a lot of amazing Cirque du Soleil friends who are at their professional career performing 10 shows a week with Cirque du Soleil. And that's what the industry has. We have our acro dance classes where we just have our balancing classes, which are amazing, but hand balancing is a is a specialized discipline, and if you have students who have an interest or who have that natural ability to understand that stacking, or who are very keen to work even harder on their hands upside down, there's a gap in the industry, and this is where my hand balancing syllabus is going to fit, because they're going to be able to train with you our amazing teachers, and you're going to give them those building tools that I wrote in the syllabus, and if ever one day they want to pursue professional hand balancing, the syllabus will give them all the tools they need to be able to go and hire a professional hand balancing coach one day if they wanted.

Meaghan  17:45  
The syllabus is on the floor, with the wall and also with hand balancing blocks and canes. It's not too expensive for the material that's needed. Like I said, it's very, very small space. So even if you have the tiniest of studios, this could be a great space. This is also a great revenue growth for a potential new direction that if you, as teachers wanted to go, or studio owners, you can have another option to grow your business. I think overall it's it's going to be a very successful and positive outcome for all the teachers who want to try it.

Loren  18:26  
I absolutely love it. Meaghan, it really brings it full circle from the little girl, you were doing a handstand every time you went into your kitchen, and now creating this wonderful hand balancing syllabus.

Loren  18:42  
If someone finishes this episode thinking differently about hand balancing, what do you hope that thought is?

Meaghan  18:51  
I guess my hope for teachers is to feel and understand that when we change how we teach balance, we change how people experience their bodies and how they trust themselves within them.

Meaghan  19:07  
I guess that's my little feel

Loren  19:11  
That's amazing. Meaghan, thank you so much for being my guest today, and I want to wish you and aerial arts all the best in 2026

Meaghan  19:22  
Thank you so much.

Loren  19:32  
If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode. And if you know a dance teacher, student or parent who would love to hear this discussion, send it their way. Sharing the show is one of the best ways to support the podcast.

Loren  19:50  
Until next time, find power in your strength, freedom in your flexibility, and know that we are here to support you on your acro journey. You.

Loren  20:02  
Thanks for listening everyone, and have a great day!