Lynsey Grace Wyatt (she/her/hers)

Owner and Instructor, Cirqulation

Lynsey is an aerial artist and acrobat based in Virginia. In addition to owning and operating Cirqulation studio, Lynsey specializes in performing and teaching aerial silks, flexibility, handstands and partner acrobatics. As an intersectional feminist, she believes the personal is political and seeks to build inclusive and affirming spaces by centering community care, safety and accountability.

At age 12, Lynsey was introduced to aerial dance by Beth Deel and Wendy Schuyler. At age 16, she bought a one-way ticket to the Dominican Republic, where she began her professional training. While in many ways, she benefited from her experiences working internationally on flying trapeze rigs and performing her first acts on stage, she also experienced first-hand the toxicity of the tourism and entertainment industry. She found herself questioning her belonging and identity and came to understand the harm she experienced and the harm her presence perpetuated was inextricably linked to the tourism industry’s roots in gentrification, white supremacy and patriarchal colonialism. Lynsey sought the mentorship and guidance of Mechi Annaís Estévez Cruz, an Afro-Indigenous queer activist and language teacher and began the lifelong endeavor to understand and dismantle systems of oppression within herself and the spaces she exists in.

After moving back to the US, she shifted her focus to teaching, as well as researching how circus arts can be adapted to benefit social emotional learning and implemented as a community health intervention. She is deeply committed to the creation of anti-oppressive movement spaces where folks can come to learn about their bodies, explore their potential and experience the joy of movement and community. She believes that through this pursuit we can break free of practices that cause harm and move towards building supportive, affirming and empowering communities that advance the causes of equity, mental health and collective liberation.

She is a member of Mental Health in Motion, a dance company with a mission to foster greater understanding around mental health through advocacy, education, and awareness.

In her recent academic pursuits, Lynsey completed her Bachelors of Science in Psychology with an emphasis on studying the intersections of neuroscience and movement arts. She received the 2019 Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s (FBRI) neuroSURF research fellowship, funded by National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. As a fellow, Lynsey collaborated with neuroscientists and occupational therapists at the FBRI Neuromotor Clinic to develop a novel method for integrating circus arts movement into therapeutic activities that precisely target movements needed to produce functional motor gains in adolescents with cerebral palsy. She also conducted and presented original research on the relationship between intensive movement therapy and speech development.