Richard – Aerial Yoga Teacher in Vilnius
Richard has been teaching yoga and training teachers since 2011. Originally from England and now based in Vilnius, he teaches Aerial Yoga in English at Yoga Loftas.
His approach combines experience and technical understanding with something equally important: playfulness, curiosity and the simple pleasure of movement. His classes range from active aerial practice and inversions to slower, restorative work with the hammock.
Following the Joy
I originally bought a yoga swing many years ago simply to help me practise inversions. It lay in the house for weeks before I finally got around to installing it.
Once it was up, I began to notice something unexpected: people became remarkably joyful and present when they used it. That was a real eureka moment for me.
For years, I had been trying — not always successfully — to help students discover more joy, pleasure and lightness in their yoga practice. Suddenly, with the assistance of the swing, they were finding those qualities almost instinctively.
I have never forgotten that.
Since then, I have fallen in love with the swings — or, more precisely, with what they can do for people.
I believe they can bring us closer to what I think of as the feeling of yoga: a state characterised by pleasure, lightness, spontaneity, freedom of movement and presence.
When I began teaching aerial yoga, there was very little training available, so much of my early work was self-taught. I started by experimenting with friends and then small groups, before founding Aerial Yoga London in 2011.
Over the following years, aerial yoga gradually became the centre of my teaching. By 2017, we were teaching up to fifteen aerial yoga classes each week.
After six years of classes and workshops in London, Agne and I moved to India for nine months. During that time we created an Aerial Yoga Teacher Training course, bringing together what we had learned from teaching thousands of classes.
That experience continues to shape the way I teach today: using the swing safely, creatively and intelligently while helping people discover that joyful feeling of yoga for themselves.
My Approach to Aerial Yoga
I don’t see aerial yoga simply as a collection of impressive poses.
The hammock can help us explore familiar yoga postures differently, develop strength and mobility, experience inversions, and discover new relationships with balance and gravity. It can also provide support for slower, restorative movement and relaxation.
My aim is to make unfamiliar movements understandable and approachable, including for people who are completely new to aerial yoga.
Most importantly, I want classes to retain a sense of curiosity and play. Yoga can be serious without always having to feel serious.
Classes with Richard
Aerial Yoga GENERAL
A more active practice exploring yoga postures, strength, mobility, balance and inversions.
Aerial Yoga RELAX
A slower class combining gentle movement with supported and restorative work in the hammock.
Classes are taught in English at Yoga Loftas in Vilnius.
