Gretchen Ernst

I came to be a hand balancer in a not so conventional way. Growing up in rural upstate NY I’d
dreamt of being a flamboyant dancing acrobat but never had the opportunity to train. I instead
was involved with music and theatre. In my early adulthood the desire was still burning in my
heart but the belief that it was possible increasingly diminished. I went to massage school
which gave me a good start in the understanding of the body and how to care for it. Shortly
after that I found my way into a circus school and took an intro to aerial class. The moment I
touched the trapeze I knew I was home. At that humble starting point I couldn’t do a push-up,
a pull-up, a split, nothing! I spent the next year training as much as I could and trying various
apparatus to find a specialization. I created a character driven single point trapeze act and
had begun working on handstands with a coach. I talked with her about what it takes to make
a ground act and she said hand balancers need to be able to do one arm handstands. She
thought I had the right mentality for it. It felt right.
I spent the next 4 years training 4-6 hours a day, 6 days a week and waiting tables at night to
fund it all. In addition to hand balancing I training ballet, popping and acting. I went on my first
show in Lima Peru in 2013. The first audience I ever performed hand balancing in front of was
about 4,500 people! After this I moved to Montreal to seek out more training and connections.
I have worked for several US trad shows, theatre shows, Celebrity Cruises and Cirque du Soleil.
Through the years of performing I had various overuse and incorrect use based issues come
up in the body. I found some very knowledgeable physical therapists and other body
professionals as a result. My massage training had been very anatomically/pathology based
and so chatting with the other professionals was fun and interesting. I’ve become friends with
a number of them and still hang out just to talk about body things and expand my knowledge
of how the body works most efficiently. This way of looking at the body has become the basis
for how I teach hand balancing remotely.
I had been teaching in person and online variously since I first began performing. I repeatedly
received feedback that I was good at explaining things and making them make sense to the
adult brain. Having done literally all of my training as an adult made me have to think through
things in a way that children don’t. I decided I wanted to share the way I approach things in
hopes to make the journey easier for others. In that Technique Artist was born! In the
beginning of 2020 I made my first e-book: Happy Wrists Guide - a 48 page pdf with video
tutorials on everything hands, wrists and forearms as they pertain to the handstand. Shortly
after that the quarantine began. Almost immediately I found myself teaching online nearly
every day. I began doing online workshops, inviting guest coaches and am currently
designing more downloadable resources. I didn’t expect to find online teaching to be so
rewarding but seeing others grow and change and find strength and balance has been
completely beautiful. It’s been more than a physical journey for most. Handstands are
completely interconnected with the psychology. With the right blend of body use and mental
focus they are their own form of magic.