Aerial Serpent Retreat
Circus for Life
with circus veterans Rachel Strickland and Kristina “Nekyia” Canizares
January 10-17
Casa Chango, Puerto Escondido, Mexico
How to access your physical and creative resources for now and decades from now!
Scholarship available for a Mexican artist! Fill out this form by October 1, 2025 if you are interested.
Spend a WEEK in PARADISE with new friends, the beach, delicious, fresh, local food, and learn loads and loads of skills designed to keep you mobile, training, and creating for life!
This retreat has been lovingly crafted to equip circus artists with world-class tools in serpentine mobility, injury prevention, and robust creative skills to keep you training and performing your most authentic work- for life. This retreat offers exceptional ground-based work in mobility and creativity, with opportunities for artists to put them into practice daily on an apparatus of their choice.
Prerequisites for Aerial Serpent Retreat
The only prerequisite is a consistent movement practice and a passion to learn about your body!
Morning classes with Kristina will offer training tools that prioritize your body’s long-term ability to continue to perform and thrive. Too often in the performing arts we focus on the next trick, the next performance, at the expense of the exercises that keep us healthy. Every day Kristina will lead a mobility and advanced flexibility session followed by guided individual exploration. This will be an opportunity to understand your body’s challenges and address both acute and chronic pain, tightness, and injury. You will come away with a new toolbox of training exercises and principals to optimize performance and stave off decrepitude.
Afternoon classes will be creative excavation and performance witchery with Rachel. Expect time-tested exercises and tasks designed to take your ideas out of your skull and give them flesh and blood. These tools aim to equip artists for life with the skills to effectively pursue rich, impactful performances that honor the voice and stories of the artist in communion with the audience. Artists are invited to use the end of the afternoon sessions on the aerial apparatus of their choice to put the day’s skills into practical use and work on something special to share optionally on the last evening. You can look forward to being challenged as a creator in a loving and supportive environment. Mistakes are encouraged…scratch that…mandatory. Please bring a notebook!
Additional morsels like tarot readings and private lessons in mobility, advanced flexibility, and burlesque are available.
Daily Schedule Sample: Everything is optional!
- 7:30-9:30am Coffee, Tea and Breakfast
- 10am-10:30pm Warm up
- 10:30-12pm Mobility and Flexibility Class
- 12-12:45pm- Guided Exploration
- 1pm Lunch
- 2-5pm Pool-time, relaxing
- 3:30pm Afternoon snack (ice coffee and treats)
- 5-6:30pm Creative Class
- 7pm Dinner
- 8-10pm Evening Activities
We will take you to our favorite beaches for swimming, snorkeling, and releasing baby turtles into the sea. Evening adventures include a bioluminescent lagoon and local night market.
Space is limited, so sign up now!
About The Teachers
Based in Los Angeles, Kristina “Nekyia” Cañizares began coaching after a career as a dancer, burlesque queen, and circus contortionist. She founded her company Fit & Bendy in 2012 in Los Angeles where she works with many of the industry’s top performers including musicians, actors, dancers, aerialists, pole competitors, and stunt artists. Kristina’s passion for healthy range of motion is born of her own healing journey. Throughout most of her 20s, she struggled with disability and chronic pain, due in part to hypermobility. Contortion training was part of her recovery, teaching her the mobility skills to control her muscles and joints and inspiring her to study the body and become a coach specializing in movement challenges like hypermobility, chronic tightness, persistent pain, and prolonged immobility. Starting at the age of 30 Kristina trained with renowned Mongolian contortionist Serchmaa Byamba at San Francisco Circus Center and began performing a doubles act with Serchmaa three years later. In 2009 she co-founded the contortion program at Cirque School LA and in 2010 she won the Princess of Burlesque Award at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. From 2012-2019 she was on the board of directors of BurlyCon and she now tours the world as a celebrity trainer for musicians and actors. She is writing a book on demystifying flexibility training and runs a body care clinic for strippers and sex workers in LA. She loves her derpy dogs.
Rachel Strickland is a performing artist, award winning choreographer, and development coach to artists and creative entrepreneurs. Classically trained in ballet since the age of three, she began her study of circus arts in 2007, developing a unique style and innovative approach to aerial hoop. Her work brought her international recognition, and she has coached, performed, and choreographed on four continents. She is the director of The Audacity Project, an 8-week guided process to equip artists and creatives with the tools necessary to be working professionals. Over her 14 year career as a coach and mentor, she has guided hundreds of artists through the creative process and into their own journeys towards creating sustainable, fulfilling work in their creative practices. She’s been featured in Authority Magazine and Thrive Global, and presented her stories and pedagogy on stages worldwide. Her passion is for creation- and supporting creatives to pursue their most authentic work. Given to excess and quixotic tendencies, Rachel specializes in aerial hoop choreography and the practice of telling stories. She lives in Charleston, SC with her husband, Shaun. They have no children so don’t ask, but they would like to meet your dog.
Retreat Pricing (in USD):
| Room | Early Bird Price | Full Price |
| Shared Dorm (gender mixed) | $2100 | $2400 |
| Private Shared Room (2 friends sharing) | $2300 | $2600 |
| Private Room with Shared Bathroom | $2600 | $2900 |
| Private Room with Private Bathroom | $2900 | $3200 |
Early bird price is available until 90 days before the retreat begins.
Full tuition is due by 4 weeks before the retreat begins.
Rates refer to cost of one person’s tuition.
Couples/SO’s are welcome at an additional price.
What’s Included:
- Ground transportation from the Puerto Escondido Airport (PXM) to Casa Chango if participants arrive to PXM on the specific arrival/departure dates listed.
- Arrive on Jan 10. Depart on Jan 17.
- Private or shared accommodations at Casa Chango eco-chic resort. Click here to take a look at your options.
- Daily cleaning service.
- 3 nourishing meals a day, 6 days a week in our beautiful open-air kitchen.Click here to learn more about meals.
- Breakfast: 7:30-9:30am
- Lunch: 1-1:45pm
- Afternoon snack and ice coffee/tea 3:45pm
- Dinner: 7-7:45pm
- Communal space for personal food storage in our kitchen.
- Use of all community areas:
- Swimming pool & jacuzziLounge with couches, books & a movie projectorKitchen & dining area Amazing 2000 square foot open-air Circus GymDance studio
- Hammocks for lounging
- Private hiking trail down to the Colotepec River
- Daily Classes
- Aerial photo shoot (w access to up to 15 photos)
- High Speed Starlink Internet
- Access to our network of Spanish teachers who provide private or group classes on-site.
- Access to our on-site massage space and network of body-work practitioners for hire who come on-site.
- Recommendations and guidance to enjoy all that Puerto Escondido has to offer. Beaches, nature excursions, tours, surf lessons, networking events, dance classes, and so much more. Click here for an idea of what you have to look forward to.
- On-site events: Expect dance parties, pool parties, and fun hangouts with new friends. It’s never a dull moment at Casa Chango!
Links for more information:
- Accommodations – room descriptions
- Meals and Food*
- How to get here. Info and advice on booking your travel to Puerto Escondido.**
- Weather in Puerto Escondido
- Testimonials
- Excursions
Questions? Email us at SweetRetreatsMexico@gmail.com.