Elevated Acroyoga Atop Desert Towers

Yoga has always been a part of my daily life of stretching and being outside. The constant search to find inner stillness, better breathe and greater flexibility in my movement has always been a joyful meditation, but I’ve always been more drawn to sharing the experience through more playful forms of balance such as slacklining, climbing and acrobatic yoga. Instead of focusing on individual static poses and personal progression, I prefer combining the finesse and flowing movement of two people together. This approach has continued to be a more relaxed and playful practice for me. I was first introduced to acroyoga a couple years ago, while living in Oregon, and immediately was intrigued by the focus and flexibility required of two people to find balance in a very simple yet beautifully complex form of choreographed motion. The creative flows are infinite, the mood always light and the natural settings where we practice are continuously shifting. In drawing on my skills and experience learned through many years of disciplined training in wrestling and mixed martial arts, where the combative goal is to counterbalance your opponent and dominate their body position, I found that dance with another person brought me a new sense of accomplishment.

Last winter I was approached by my good friends, Scott Rogers and Dallin Smith, with a  project idea that would join our combined skills of acroyoga, desert rock climbing and extensive rope rigging in a new form of adventurous artistic expression. To take these three disciplines and combine them into a single project, where the natural beauty of Moab’s desert towers became the incredible setting for our flowing balance with acroyoga, became the new focus to pursue. Being the desert wanderers that we are here in Moab, Utah, Scott and I started to brainstorm some interesting environments where acro could be practiced in new exposed ways. After deliberating on a number of different rock towers in the local area; which we had previously climbed, established highlines at and BASE jumped from their summits, we concluded that this concept of tower yoga could be achieved realistically in our own backyard. Very quickly Trimr water bottles was excited by the idea and the project was set in motion. Over a cold three day period, Scott and I climbed a couple towers, fixed ropes to their summits and began planning the logistics of getting the other yogis to these remotely exposed locations.

After two days of filming, flowing, and running around the desert to various spots, the video that you see before you was completed. I want to thank Trimr water bottles and Dallin Smith for supporting our adventurous scheming. To Chris Newman and Dakota Walbeck, of CineChopper aerials, thanks for nailing all the incredible drone shots you see in the short. To Kesley Ondine and Christiana Giordano, hats off for braving the elements and putting so much trust in my ability to balance your beautiful beings in precarious spaces. Last of all, I want to give a big bro hug to my best friend, Scott Rogers, for helping to make this dream a reality. Scott is one of the most talented all around people I’ve ever met in his ability to balance the responsibilities of filming, rigging, climbing and organizing such an awesome project. You’re all an inspiration to me and I hope with all my heart that we continue to chase our extravagant dreams and watch this concept grow in more exposed environments.

~Brian Mosbaugh