Introducing The Aerial Arts Hub
We gotta start somewhere...
Hello! Welcome to the first issue of Building The Aerial Arts Hub — Journal of a Newbie Developer. My name is Yaiza, I’m a writer, aerialist and newbie developer, and this is where I’ll be tracking my journey building something called The Aerial Arts Hub. :)
What is The Aerial Arts Hub?
The Aerial Arts Hub will be a free, digital platform for the aerial arts and pole dance community.
I envision it as a resource hub, with lists of aerial and pole studios in cities all over the world (including a very exciting global map!), profiles of coaches and performers, an encyclopedia of skills with difficulty levels and prerequisites, lists of aerial and pole clothing and shoe brands, resources for buying equipment in different countries, useful podcasts and YouTube channels, and much more.
I have more ambitious plans for later versions of the platform too, including personal journals and media galleries, favouriting/saving, and lots of other interactivity—more on those plans below.
Why are you building this?
To put it simply, I want to build The Aerial Arts Hub because it’s the kind of platform I would find really useful as an aerialist.
I am very active on the r/Aerials and r/poledancing subreddits, and I see people asking questions and looking for niche resources in those subreddits every day. I hope this platform will provide answers to some of those questions and make those resources more accessible to fellow aerialists and pole dancers, particularly those who aren’t based in the United States, the UK or Australia, as resources for other countries tend to be much harder to find.
I have come across so many underrated studios and performers from all around the world over the years, as well as independent clothing and shoe brands and other resources, and I’m very excited to have a place to consolidate, organise and share those with others who may be looking for them!
The features
These are some of the features I’m planning to build into The Aerial Arts Hub.
Resources: Studios, coaches, performers, festivals, camps, competitions, brands, events…
A list and map of aerial and pole studios around the world
Profiles of coaches, linked to their studios
Profiles of performers and collectives
Lists of pole and aerial festivals, camps and competitions
Lists of aerial and pole clothing and shoe brands from all around the world
Lists of aerial and pole grip brands, equipment, rigging resources, etc.
Lists of online learning platforms, YouTube channels, podcasts, magazines, books, games, and other media
Lists of physiotherapists, flexibility coaches and other specialised health resources
Lists of photographers and videographers specialised in aerial and pole shoots
A list of online aerial and pole communities/groups
An events page, listing upcoming retreats, workshops, online events, etc.
Playlists and music recommendations for training and performance
The skills encyclopedia
An encyclopedia of skills, moves and shapes on different apparatuses, with all of the commonly used names
Difficulty levels (divided into strength, flexibility, stamina and technique) and suggested prerequisites for every skill
Media gallery, reviews, favourites, updates and stats
A private journal where users can jot down training thoughts, goals, achievements, etc.
A personal media gallery, where photos and videos can be set to private or made visible to other users
The option to tag videos and photos according to style, skills and level, both for personal tracking and for others to browse if the media is made public
The option to follow performers and coaches, review studios and brands, and like and save items
Personalised picks and recommendations based on tagged apparatuses, location, reviews, likes, etc.
Optional updates when followed brands launch new products or have sales
Potentially some personalised stats (idea to be refined!)
Who even are you? Do you know what you’re doing?
I am not a professional developer. I have no real programming experience, unless you count a cute little game I made for my wife earlier this year. I am actually a writer, and I work as the associate editor for a magazine in Singapore (I’m originally from Europe). What this means is that I am much more comfortable writing this newsletter than trying to build this platform.
I first dipped my toes into web development a couple of years ago back at university, then picked it up more seriously again last year, and have now been learning consistently for about six months. It’s going pretty well so far if you look past the fact that I’m fighting for my life with JavaScript.
On the aerial front, I first started my journey with some pole classes in early 2022, then moved on to hammock/sling a few months later, until I finally discovered my love for hoop/lyra while travelling in Bangkok in February 2023. I now train two to three days a week (here’s my Instagram if you want to follow my aerial progress), and I spend a lot of my free time watching aerial and circus performances. It started out as just a fun new activity but has snuck up on me as a real passion over the years!
I am 100% out of my depth with this project in terms of technical programming skills and probably have no idea what I’m getting myself into, but I am super excited to work on it and to learn along the way. It wouldn’t be the first time I get somewhere through sheer delusional enthusiasm (some might call this manifesting).
Suffice it to say, if you want to see how a professional, experienced developer builds something from scratch, this newsletter is going to be rather disappointing, but if you’re excited about this platform and want to follow my learning journey, I think it’s going to be a fun ride. :)
The roadmap
The plan is to build The Aerial Arts Hub in various stages/versions. Version 1 is going to be fairly static, providing most of the resources without any of the fancy interactivity like signing up, reviewing studios, journaling, etc.
Version 2 will implement the skills encyclopedia, which seems like a pain to build, as well as the option to create an account and save, like and review items. I have a feeling this is going to be a massive learning curve.
Version 3 will add in all the fun little extras: creating a personal media gallery; a pole and aerial journal to write down your reflections; and potentially some fun ways to visualise your journey through stats (I’m still working out what this would look like but I am very inspired by the way Nadia makes use of this at The StoryGraph).
I also have the wild ambition to adapt this to a mobile app at some point, as I think once the media library and journal are implemented, an app would be much more intuitive to use than a website. Perhaps that’s version 4?
Going forward
I’m aiming to publish a new issue of this newsletter every other week. I’m not setting fixed dates and times, but that’s the general idea. Hopefully, I’ll find enough time to work on this and have decent updates twice a month. 🤞
The format is going to be fairly straightforward, with four sections: what I’ve done, what I’m working on, what I’m learning, and what’s next. There will also be a little bonus section at the end dedicated to how my aerial training is going, maybe talking about a performance I watched or sharing a new aerialist I discovered.
I have no idea who’s going to be reading along—maybe some aerialists and pole dancers who are excited about the platform, maybe some fellow newbie developers, maybe experienced developers who want to see the mess I’m about to make… either way, I’d love your feedback, input and ideas along the way!
One last thing: It’s important to me to keep this platform free so it’s as accessible as possible—I have no intention of ever putting it behind a paywall or introducing any kind of premium plan. However, it’s obviously going to be a lot of work, so if you’d like to support the creation of The Aerial Arts Hub in some capacity, you can consider becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Simply sharing the newsletter with others who may be interested goes a long way too. Thank you so much. :)
See you in two weeks!