We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maggie Hudson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maggie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Sometimes I wish I would have started my career as an aerialist sooner in life, but when I look back, I realize that all the things that happened in my life were the perfect building blocks that got me to where I am now. Born and raised in Germany, I earned a degree in Business Administration but learned quickly that sitting in an office all day was not for me. My hobbies were skydiving and competitive dancing, and after moving to the US I became a group fitness instructor and personal fitness trainer.
Thanks to my business background, starting and running my personal training company with several trainers was easy for me. After 4 years of running my company successfully I ended up on bedrest throughout my first pregnancy, and I decided to close my business.
After I had my daughter, I kept teaching group fitness, as well as children’s dance classes and even entered two “figure” competitions. Then I got pregnant with twins and was put on bed rest again. Having twins kept me so busy that I had to put my career on hold for a few years.
Throughout the years I took a few vacations to Club Med to try the high-flying trapeze.
Then I found a high-flying trapeze school in our area and was ecstatic! Having been fascinated by the Circus Arts all my life, I signed up for lessons immediately. To my disappointment, after a few years of taking lessons with my husband and kids, the school closed down.
Then I discovered aerial silks lessons. I was hooked from the second I put my hands on the silks. It was the perfect combination of my previous hobbies skydiving and dancing. Now I got to “dance in the air”!
I took as many lessons as I could, performed in several student shows, and after 4 years earned my certification as an aerial silks instructor. There is no aerial studio close to us, so we installed silks in our house, and I’ve been teaching private aerial silks lessons for 5 years now. My background in personal fitness training helps me prepare my students for the movements on the silks.
Because of my love of choreographing routines and performing, I’ve started a small performance group, and we are performing at local events.
After considering all this, I don’t think I would be as successful as I am now if I had started this career earlier in my life. I needed the experiences and education to feel confident. And I enjoyed being there for my children when they were younger. Now that they’re older and more independent, I have time to fully concentrate on my career.
I love what I do, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I answered most of these questions in the first part of the interview, but I teach private aerial silks lessons and I’m an aerial arts performer as well. With private lessons, I can focus on my student’s weaknesses and strengths, and with my background in personal fitness training, I create strengthening and conditioning programs specifically tailored to each student. This helps them advance faster than they could in a group lesson. Every year I put together a themed student showcase and I love seeing their progress.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Coming up with new ideas, and creating new choreography is a long process, but it is so rewarding to see it all coming together. And the best part is when we perform and the audience is enjoying it.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to find different ways to entertain and inspire people. Performing is my passion! To know that I’ve put a smile on someone’s face makes me happy. I also love to teach and create choreography. Even as a young child, I would create dance choreography and teach it to my younger sister. I guess because I get bored easily, I’m always looking for new things to create.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fit2flyga.com
• Instagram: fit2fly.entertainment
• Facebook: Fit2FlyLLC

Image Credits
kbazerfphotography