About Yvette Reyes
My name is Yvette Reyes and I moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area about eight years ago when I accepted a welding position. Originally I grew up in Crookston, MN and received my welding diploma at NCTC-TRF. Fargo was intended to be a stepping stone for me to save money and pursue higher education. However, I ended up pivoting and instead starting Fargo’s first dedicated aerial arts studio, FM Aerial & Movement Arts, in 2019 after acquiring the pole studio I had been training at for a few years.
Looking back on the year that was in 2022 and the year to come in 2023, what is your new years business resolution?
My New Year’s business resolution is to continue to develop new programming and to focus on creating residencies and inclusive programming specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.
How do you plan to accomplish this resolution?
I plan on accomplishing this resolution by seeking community partners that have similar values and missions and by using our resources to bring this idea to life. Additionally, I’m going to seek out circus schools that have successfully created inclusive programming in the past. I need individuals who are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) to start the learning process of aerial arts so that they are ready to teach after a few years of training and getting to know the ins and outs of the apparatus and the language needed to teach.
What do you anticipate the challenges to be?
Early challenges will be finding people fluent in ASL who are willing to learn aerial arts for the purpose to teach in the future. Although rewarding, aerial arts are difficult to learn—especially silks, and the process is very slow. Aerial is not an art form you can simply learn to teach over a weekend certification program. So, we will need people who will embrace the snail pace process so that they can safely teach in the future. Additionally, I feel like the FM area currently tends to be a temporary place for people. So, I would like to find people who plan to stay for a while.
Are there any tools or things you plan to use to keep yourself on track/accountable?
The tools I have in place are quarterly goal check-ins where I write things down in an app called Trello and then I take a look back every once in a while. I also find that telling my community, keeps me accountable as well because they will check in and ask how things are going. As a studio owner, I feel like I have a lot going on all the time. So, little check-ins help immensely.
What has kept you from making this change in the past?
COVID! And then one variant after another. Prior to opening the aerial space in June of 2021, I had a small corner of a car shop in Moorhead where I would train, and I also worked the second shift so it was really difficult to meet with anyone and we definitely couldn’t have classes there—the idea of having a space just to teach aerial arts seemed so far away.
What is the biggest lesson you learned in 2022?
One person can’t do it all, and when they do, things fall apart. It was a hard and painful lesson. When I quit welding, I thought I would finally have the time to take care of all the things, but instead, I just added more to my plate to the point where important things were falling through. Moving forward, I am much more cautious of what I say yes to and I have accountability partners and measures in place.
Do you have any personal new year’s resolutions?
My personal New Year’s resolution is to get back to creating just for the fun of it. I have an incredible team and I am so excited to see them take ownership of the things that they do. Soon I feel like I will be able to step back a little bit from teaching and performing and start training and creating for myself again.
Are there any books you are looking to read this year?
There are, yes! I have a few that I picked up from Zandbroz that I have yet to finish including “The Selected Works of Audre Lorde”, “This is What America Looks Like” by Ilhan Omar and “Who Rules the World” by Noam Chomsky.
Looking even further out, what is something on your professional bucket list?
One thing on my professional bucket list is to have a full aerial/theater production. I want there to be singing, dancing, aerial acrobatics, a professional sound and lighting crew, the whole works. That would be my dream.
fmaerial.com
Facebook: /fmaerial
Instagram: fmaerial_pole
TikTok: fmaerial
Are there any books you are looking to read this year?
“The Selected Works of Audre Lorde”
“This is What America Looks Like” by Ilhan Omar
“Who Rules the World” by Noam Chomsky
