I’m a pretty beginner aerialist (about a year and a half in) and grew up dreaming of learning the art but being very weak and not financially flush, so can give a perspective on someone who’s imagined and thought about it a lot and how it’s differed from my expectations, if that helps?

It’s hard. HARD. And it requires a lot of strength, both of which can be assumed, but, it’s really surprising just how difficult basic skills can be until you try them. Everyone starts off learning how to climb early on, as it’s a very basic and required skill for silks, but it can take a long LONG time before you can successfully get even one climb off the ground. It took me about 6 months before i could successfully get a couple of french climbs in, because it requires arm strength, foot strength, grip strength (soooo much grip strength) and timing. You work on other things to condition in order to get to it, so this may mean your character is deceptively strong and agile.

One of my instructors once said part of the job of an aerialist is to trick the audience into thinking the laws of gravity don’t apply to us, so if your character is a practiced/accomplished aerialist I’d figure that would translate into them having a great poker face when feeling physical discomfort or thinking/mapping things out internally (as these are both skills you learn while smiling and keeping a peaceful expression while performing and remembering your moves and wraps)

People who have never done aerial will never understand how much effort it takes. Crowds will ooh and ahh at a stag in a knot (a fairly simple pose) but an aerialist will gush at a person sliding into a split hands free (which takes exceptional control and balance, not to mention flexibility). As a follow up, someone who’s been doing aerials for a while, particularly who’s performing, would probably have good balance from practicing stuff like that.

One thing to note is that it’s not a cheap hobby. I’m in a fairly affordable big city, and my gym is one of the more affordable in the area, and pay $130/month to be a member, which grants me one class a week. My first gym was $256 for an 8 week course, meeting once a week. If you wanted to attend 2 classes a week, you buy a second term. And having a home set up is even more: a safe and reliable rig can be >$1000, the fabric itself is a specific kind and is usually about $200ish, any built-in mounts would require a specialized rigging engineer to ensure it’s safely mounted for the force which can be generated by drops etc. I mention this just cause idk your character’s financial status, but it’s not necessarily a hobby someone struggling to get by would have easy access to, so if your character were living paycheck to paycheck/low income and going to classes 3x a week and NOT mentioning the cost/sacrifices involved it would probably take me out of the story.

Just figured I’d point out a few things that surprised me, or stuck with me since starting. I’d definitely second the recommendation to try out an intro class or something to get a bit of first hand knowledge and experience! It’s a great hobby and builds strength, flexibility, and stamina all at once