The Staff of
Monkey Aerial Arts
Tera McBlaine
Owner & Aerial instructor
Tera has been teaching aerial arts since 2007. Her focus and philosophy is to encourage mastery of solid technical foundation to enable students’ successful advancement. She loves that aerial arts exist at the intersection of artistry and athleticism. She has founded Monkey Aerial Arts to both bring aerial arts to Lake County but also to be able to provide high quality beginner and intermediate technique based on the curriculum and methods of her former teachers and coaches.
After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree at University of California- Berkeley, Tera began taking a recreational static trapeze class at the San Francisco Circus Center. She fell head over heels for it and decided to pursue circus school instead of finishing graduate school.
At the Circus Center, her curriculum ultimately included training in Spanish web, static trapeze and swinging trapeze under Virginia Meyers and Elena Panova, stretching under Jim Donak, acrobatics and Chinese pole under Liu Ye. These world-class instructors have been a huge influence on Tera’s aerial practice and teaching.
A move to New York, had Tera continuing to train independently at the Streb Lab for Action Mechanincs and also learning aerial silks with both Laura Witwer (Sassy Pants) and Tori Lubecki. She was also working on some lyra and cloud swing along with duo aerial.
In 2007, Tera started offering private lessons and classes. She realized immediately that teaching was far more personally gratifying to her than performing as an aerialist. She then went to NECCA for an aerial arts teacher training course with Elsie and Serenity (who are industry leaders in their focus on spotting techniques and injury prevention) and has focused on teaching and coaching since then. She also jumps on the opportunity to take relevant seminars or continuing education and connect with other industry leaders in technique and safety.
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In 2022, Tera completed her Masters in Exercise Science. Her thesis research project was: The Rate of Aerial Injuries in Recreational Aerial Arts.
Debra Carl
Monkey Admin/Monkey Manager
If you need help with signing up for classes or if you email the studio you will probably be "talking" with me.
I've been taking classes with Tera since September 2015. Yes, I still struggle with some stuff like pull overs and birds nest and straddles - But I keep trying! You should too.
Professionally, I worked for a local park district for 10 years coordinating all of the Arts, Music, and Dance classes (group and private) and I handled all the administrative paperwork and stuff for Arts and History. I also have an MBA with an emphasis in Logistics and I have the CPRE certification (Certified Parks and Recreation Executive), this certificate shows a mastery level of management and administration with Parks and Recreation.
I've been helping Tera here at the studio since end of 2021 and I have some experience as an executive assistant/project manager. If you think you have need of my skills let's talk.
dcarlplanning(a)gmail.com
