Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 262: From Gymnastics to Empyrean: Waverly Jones' 10-Year Journey in Performance Arts
What makes Wavery Jones with Empyrean Arts a good neighbor?
Ever wondered what it takes to fly through the air with grace, build strength while creating art, or start a business that transforms lives through movement? Waverly Jones, co-owner of Empyrean Arts, shares her remarkable journey from recreational gymnast to aerial arts entrepreneur in this captivating conversation.
Waverly takes us behind the scenes of her movement arts facility, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this July. The studio offers an impressive array of disciplines including aerial silks, static trapeze, dance trapeze, pole arts, flexibility training, and inversion practices. Guest instructors regularly visit to teach specialized workshops in clowning, performance development, and acro yoga. What began as a passion project has evolved into a thriving community with 40 staff members and comprehensive teacher training programs.
What makes this story particularly compelling is Waverly's background. Without formal higher education or financial advantages, she built a successful business through determination and continuous learning. "When we opened I was 26 years old. I didn't go to college... I didn't graduate high school with the rest of my class - I dropped out and got a GED," she reveals. This candidness about overcoming obstacles makes her accomplishments all the more inspiring.
The most powerful message throughout our conversation is accessibility. Waverly shatters the common misconception that aerial arts require exceptional strength or previous experience: "Come as you are... You don't need to do 10 pull-ups to take a class." With equipment that can be adjusted for various abilities and instructors experienced in working with beginners, Empyrean creates a welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds, ages, and body types.
Ready to discover your own potential in the air? Follow Empyrean Arts on Instagram @empyrean_arts or visit empyreanarts.org to learn how you might surprise yourself with capabilities you never knew you had. As Waverly puts it, most people "leave kind of surprised at what they were able to do."
To learn more about Empyrean Arts go to:
Empyrean Arts
828-782-3321
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello there, everyone, and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I am very excited to learn all about a very special guest that's in our studio today. And I'm sure you'll be just as excited especially if you're a fan of the arts because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, miss Waverly Jones, who is co-owner of Empyrean Arts. Waverly, welcome to the show, thank you so much, I'm doing good you. I'm doing just fine. Like I said, we're excited to learn all about you and what you do.
Speaker 3:So, if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your business? Sure, thank you for having us on the podcast. By the way, I feel like we got an email saying we may have been nominated, so maybe somebody put our name in the bucket or something. So thank you to that person and thanks for having us. So our studio is a movement arts facility. A group of us came together about 12 years ago 11, 12 years ago basically to grow more and also to do a lot of healing through movement arts.
Speaker 3:You can also refer to us as, like performance arts, or a lot of people will call it circus arts, as kind of an all-encompassing term. As far as what we do, we are an aerial and pole art studio, but we also focus on ground-based movement arts like dance, flexibility training, inversion practice, so like headstands, handstands, forearm balancing you might also hear it called arm balancing and then we also bring in a lot of other guest instructors that might host things like clowning or building a performance act or one of my favorites acro yoga. So we have a nice space for two, three people high acrobatics, and I own the space with my dear friend, heather Poole. We opened in July 2015. So here, in a few weeks, we'll be celebrating our 10th birthday.
Speaker 2:Wow, congratulations. Ten years, that's nothing to sneeze at.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I feel the same way. Considering even just the past five years, I feel very fortunate that we are still open, considering everything.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Well, fascinating Performance arts, aerial and pole art.
Speaker 3:Uh wow, so you do the swings like uh trapeze stuff so I think what you're thinking of is flying trapeze when you're swinging trapeze. So those are two different modalities that we don't have space for. So a flying trapeze requires like a big net, a big rig, a big ladder. Typically they're outside or in, like warehouses, and then swinging trapeze is also really cool. Generally you need a lot of height and a lot of space. So the artist stands on the bar and nowadays we're connected to a safety harness but they flip around the bar moving very dynamically.
Speaker 3:We do static trapeze and dance trapeze, so those are two different types of trapeze Static trapeze and dance trapeze.
Speaker 3:So those are two different types of trapeze. Static trapeze, if you're looking at it from across the room, is going to be a bar hanging from two ropes, so it's going to look like a rectangle from afar, and then dance trapeze is a bar with two ropes that connect at one point, so from afar that would look more like a triangle. I don't do a lot of trapeze, so I want to say that the dance trapeze artists tend to work a little bit lower to the floor than static trapeze artists, and I think there might be a lot of heavier influence on using the ropes as an apparatus as well, and I think I hesitate to because I don't do a lot of trapeze and I don't want to speak wrong but I think with the static trapeze people tend to do a lot more dynamic movements of like, like, gymnastics type movements or acrobatic type movements, and for both of those you'll see multiple artists on one apparatus at a time, so they'll do duo acts or, you know, group acts, things like that Very cool, fascinating.
Speaker 2:I love it. How did you get started in this?
Speaker 3:When I was a kid I did gymnastics very recreationally. I come from a big family. I have four brothers and it was difficult for us to all be involved in sports all the time, so there was a brief period of time. I want to say, when I was like eight to 10, that I did just like a weekly gymnastics class and I loved it. I loved back then that was the nineties we had the magnificent seven was our Olympic team and Dominique Luciano was one of those uh athletes and I just thought it was the coolest thing. I didn't get to keep at it like I wanted to, so I didn't get bored with it, I didn't overdo it. I kind of continued having that longing to move in that way. Fast forward, I think to like 2009 or 10,. A friend of mine went to a local music festival and did like a five minute silks class and came back and told me about it because she knew I was interested in trying to find a gym. I had actually been looking for an adult gymnastics class, which is not easy to find. So she knew I was interested in that. She brought this idea back and she said let's go take a class. So we did and I was instantly hooked. I started taking multiple classes a week. I would take two to three classes a night, multiple times a week.
Speaker 3:Within the first year of taking classes I started performing. Actually, I want to say it was like seven months. I rehearsed for a performance troupe and got in. I started performing Shortly after that. I started teaching beginners and kids classes and workshops. I then started traveling and hosting specialty workshops that featured material I put together that was specific to me and my interests and then we built a teacher training program.
Speaker 3:So that's a big part of my focus now is training other instructors, with less emphasis on performing and specialty workshops. We built the teacher training specifically for our space and we built them through a friend of ours who had already been offering pole teacher trainings and that's how we learned how to do and teach pole at our space, because I really only had a lot of aerial background when we opened. So, yeah, we built these teacher training programs. We have really great curriculums. There's clear progressions for students. There's kind of clear expectations of what's needed to be in each level. So, yeah, that's that's kind of my background in aerial and nowadays coaching students and other instructors is kind of my focus.
Speaker 2:Wow. So, pardon me, is the teacher training program? Is that a larger portion of what you do? Or what's your main, I guess, product that you offer?
Speaker 3:Through the studio or through, like Waverly Jones.
Speaker 2:Either one.
Speaker 3:For a while there there was like I was kind of managing two different entities or two businesses. There was like me as the performer instructor that would travel, and then I also had my studio, empyrean Arts. Nowadays my main focus is mainly Empyrean Arts, local things, local teaching, local workshops and stuff like that. I do occasionally still offer some teacher trainings at other studios where people are invited to come participate, whether it's their instructors or other people in the area that just want some sort of course to kind of give them some guidelines and ideas about how to manage a class and how to put together your own timelines and that sort of thing. So nowadays Empyrean Arts is kind of my main focus.
Speaker 2:Very good, Very good. Well, outside of work. If there is time outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:I am teaching pretty lightly nowadays. I do a lot of studio admin on the computer and then when I'm not working I spend a lot of time outside, especially this time of year. My yard, I love my yard. Whoever lived here before me put a lot of beautiful stuff around. I have a lot of hibiscus bushes growing and a lot of just like kind of tropical plants, so it feels like a little tropical oasis and just living in Western North Carolina and being close to Tennessee, of course we do a lot of stuff outside in the woods and like walking my dog and I just try to be outside as much as possible.
Speaker 2:Could you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger coming out the other side?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say opening the business and keeping it open for 10 years. When we opened I was 26 years old. I didn't go to college. I went, did a couple of years at community college but I didn't get any certificates. I didn't. I didn't graduate high school with the rest of my class I dropped out and got a GED. So I feel like I was kind of untethered and just kind of unsure about where my life was going to take me of untethered and just kind of unsure about where my life was going to take me, considering I didn't have like a scholastic path. So I think, just yeah, coming from not a super wealthy family we were poor. So coming from like not a lot of money and like just some adversities I faced in life and opening a business in general is just kind of a feat for anyone Keeping it open through.
Speaker 3:Everything that we've gone through, like locally and nationally and like the world at large over the past few years, is kind of a feat. You know we saw a lot of spaces like ours close. I experienced a lot of anxiety in opening the space. At first it felt like a really big project that I was like presenting to Asheville and Western North Carolina and I just took it very seriously. So it mentally it took its toll on me, um, so I guess, in short, just opening the space, keeping it running, um, and then, as far as how it's helped me outside of being a business owner, I feel like I have better communication skills.
Speaker 3:I feel like I have gotten better about having difficult conversations with people. I wouldn't say I'm better at starting them. I always struggle with that right, like it's hard to start difficult conversations, but I feel better at being able to regulate my emotions when talking to people. We have 40 staff members, so I feel better at being able to regulate my emotions when talking to people. We have 40 staff members, so I'm in contact with people on a daily basis and sometimes it's like difficult things we have to talk about, but overall I feel like I've gotten better about that and that's also leaked out into my personal life to getting better about communicating with my loved ones, people close to me. So, um, yeah, I think owning the business has been great. As a business owner, but also as just like a human on planet earth, I feel like it's. It's helped me improve a lot, uh, with my interpersonal relationships and just kind of how I, you know, take care of myself.
Speaker 2:Well, no question, it is not easy to start a business. It is incredibly difficult, and to keep it going and and uh uh successfully for 10 years is an incredible feat, so congratulations with that. I mean this is my small business and, uh, I've been doing this about a year and, yeah, it is not easy very fulfilling and, uh, very fulfilling and satisfying when you can score a win. But yeah, not nothing, not easy, not easy at all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you wear all the hats, don't you? It's like I learned how to do so many different positions, a lot of which I have been able to fill in that time, where, you know, now I have an accountant, and now I have a social media person, and now I have, you know, a staff liaison for somebody that they can go to if they need help, you know. And so, yeah, eventually it became a little bit more autonomous, but, man, there was a long time where we just wore every single hat and that coat rack got real heavy, you know.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. I can attest so Waverly. If you, you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Empyrean arts, and or you, what would that be?
Speaker 3:I'd say come as you are. I think that a lot of people kind of already have an expectation of what they can or can't do and they think about themselves taking a class like ones that we might offer. It's physical, so you know, if you might be a person that has a difficulty just getting in and out of the car or up and down the stairs like you, might already kind of have an expectation of how a class like this might go. We have a lot of experience. We have a lot of experience working with beginners. Our points are on pulleys. So you know, I can hang a trapeze six inches off the ground if I need to, I can get you out of your wheelchair and onto the trapeze, you know. So, you, you, it's very accessible in that way for all kinds of people.
Speaker 3:So I guess I want folks to realize that that I think typically people leave kind of surprised at what they were able to do and kind of what all was accessible to them, considering. You know, everything they're already bringing with them mentally and physically. Yeah, I, you don't need to be. You know to do 10 pull-ups to come take a class. You don't need excessive upper body strength. We can really work with people where you're at and we can. There's so many different ways that we can make this art accessible to so many different people ages, sizes, backgrounds, what have you so? Yeah, I guess. In short, just come as you are, you know.
Speaker 2:Awesome, come as you are. Very good thing to remember. Well, if any of our listeners are intrigued, as I am, and interested in checking, checking you out and seeing what opportunities there may be for for them, specifically, how can they learn more?
Speaker 3:Definitely social media. We've got Instagram, we're Empyrean Arts it's E-M-P-Y-R-E-A-N space arts. Empyrean actually is like the highest realm of heaven that you can be in before you're just in like boring old outer space. So it's kind of like as high as you can get and still be in a heavenly environment. That's kind of the definition of Empyrean. And then we have a website, empyreanartsorg, and then the best way to contact us is via email and our main email address is info at empyreanartsorg.
Speaker 2:Well, waverly, I can't tell you how much we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule, and it's been fascinating. I can say this this is the first performance arts interview that I've done, and so I'm intrigued and we really appreciate you. I'm sure our listeners are as well, and thanks again for being here and moving forward. Wish you, your family and your business all the best.
Speaker 3:Skip, thank you so much, and same to you. I really appreciate the time.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Thank you, and maybe we can have you back sometime.
Speaker 3:Would love that.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873. Thank you.