Lynsey Wyatt (she/her)

Founder of Cirqulation - Aerial + Acrobatic Artist - Social Entrepreneur

Lynsey is an aerial artist and social entrepreneur that loves science and hates sitting still. In addition to owning and operating Cirqulation studio, Lynsey specializes in performing and teaching aerial silks, flexibility, handstands and partner acrobatics. As an entrepreneur, she seeks to build inclusive and affirming spaces by centering community care, safety and joy.

Lynsey took her first aerial dance class from Beth Deel and Wendy Schuyler and fell in love with the art form. At age 16, she bought a one-way ticket to the Dominican Republic, working on a farm with no running water or electricity to be in proximity to a flying trapeze and realize her dream of running away to join the circus. While in many ways, she benefited from her experiences working internationally on flying trapeze rigs and performing her first acts on stage, she also experienced first-hand the toxicity of the tourism and entertainment industry. She found herself questioning her belonging and identity and came to understand the harm she experienced and the harm her presence perpetuated was inextricably linked to the tourism industry’s roots in gentrification and patriarchal colonialism. Lynsey sought the mentorship and guidance of Mechi Annaís Estévez Cruz, an Afro-Indigenous queer activist and language teacher and began the lifelong endeavor to understand and dismantle systems of oppression within herself and the spaces she exists in.

After moving back to the US, she shifted her focus to entrepreneurship and her studies, researching how circus arts can be adapted to benefit social-emotional learning and implemented as a community health intervention. She continued her aerial and acrobatics education at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, the National Circus School in Canada. She went on to perform and coach retreats and workshops across 30 cities from Dubai to Montreal.

She is an advisor of Mental Health in Motion a dance company with a mission to foster greater understanding around mental health through advocacy, education, and awareness.

Lynsey completed her Bachelors of Science in Psychology with an emphasis on studying the intersections of neuroscience and movement arts. She received the 2019 Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s (FBRI) neuroSURF research fellowship, funded by National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. As a fellow, Lynsey collaborated with neuroscientists and occupational therapists at the FBRI Neuromotor Clinic to develop a novel method for integrating circus arts movement into therapeutic activities that precisely target movements needed to produce functional motor gains in adolescents with cerebral palsy. She also conducted and presented original research on the relationship between intensive movement therapy and speech development.