Shannon Gray is suspended 10 feet in the air above a grassy knoll in Bolinas. Under soft lighting, she pirouettes and then lunges forward. She makes a pass and another pass. Two columns of red silk are her only support, and they oscillate back and forth from taut to slack faster than her movements command them. Knots tie and tie again and then unfurl as she rises and descends toward the ground. Her movements are at once organic and practiced.
The occasion was Halloween 2022, and the setting was a Bolinas backyard. When she finished, she cascaded down the silk snakes and bowed, and her audience erupted in applause.
Ms. Gray, an aerialist and circus artist, has performed hundreds such shows all over the world, from Tasmania and Cambodia to Eugene, Oregon. Years ago, she was offered a contract with Cirque du Soleil, but she chose a quieter lifestyle that allows for introspection and teaching. In the last several years, she has made Bolinas her home, and she guides children and adults across West Marin through the challenges and pleasures of moving through the air.
Her work is influenced by the principles of improvisation, her observation of the natural world, and years of physical movement that has often led to injury. Her healing process has profoundly shaped her work.
“It’s a theme in my life—listening to my body,” she said.
Ms. Gray was born in Montréal, considered by many to be the circus capital of the world. The headquarters of Cirque du Soleil, Montréal is positioned at one end of North America’s first-ever circus route, which stretched to Havana, Cuba.
Her family left the city when she was just 5 years old and continued to move around the country, following her father’s job in physical education. As a child, Ms. Gray was fascinated by dreams and the unconscious. She also excelled in sports, and though she showed promise in basketball and softball, she faced consistent injuries. Her first major concussion occurred at age 13 and it was followed by several more in high school.
Her injuries strained her physical and mental health, and when it was time to choose between a conventional college life and the life of a student athlete, she hung up her cleats and moved to Vancouver to study psychology at the University of British Columbia.
“I was injured, and my relationship with performance, success and failure had ruptured my relationship with the love I had for sports,” she said. “It was quite a confusing couple of years, trying to form an athletic identity and healing my relationship with my body.”
Ms. Gray double majored in psychology and sociology and picked up less competitive forms of exercise like rock climbing, dance and, thanks to a year abroad in Australia, surfing. In her senior year, a friend who was part of a circus showed her a clip of the aerial work he had been doing.
“I knew right away, ‘That’s the thing I’m meant to do,’” she said. “When I saw aerial, it brought creativity to the physical.”
Ms. Gray signed up for an aerial class and fell in love. She decided to follow life wherever aerial took her.
At the time, there was one place above all that a West Coast aerialist was likely to go: Burning Man.
It was at Burning Man that she got her first invitation to the Bay Area. Here she found workshops, festivals and circus events, all near a coast she could surf. But in 2012, the unthinkable happened. During an aerial rehearsal, Ms. Gray fell, shattering both of her heel bones and leaving her wheelchair-bound for six months and in recovery for over a year.
“It was such a defining moment in my life and my whole relationship with how I pushed myself,” she said. “These injuries have been my greatest teachers. They didn’t just come randomly, it was always a consequence of how I was relating to my drive and how I just kept pushing. Injuries seem to be a result of this greater longing in my life.”
In the years following the accident, Ms. Gray suffered more injuries, including a major concussion from surfing. That period of her life is blurry, she said. In search of a nurturing environment, she moved to Bolinas in 2017.
Ms. Gray began assisting aerialist Joanna Haigood, founder of Zaccho Dance Theatre, in courses at the Bolinas Community Center. She ultimately took over the classes and, for the first time, was making a steady income from her aerial work.
After a performance in San Francisco in 2018, a scout from Cirque du Soleil approached Ms. Gray with a contract offer with the most high-profile circus act in the world.
“I was at a loss,” Ms. Gray said. “I dug deep into the question of who I am and what I’m here for and what I believe in. I knew injury was always a huge part of my life and shaping who I am.”
She rejected the contract, energized by the seed of a new project. Initially conceived as a short film, Ms. Gray’s Sentience Project has become like a mantra that guides both her performance and teaching. It centers on the idea that through injury and inquiry, humans can connect more deeply to their consciousness. She received a coveted grant from the Canada Council of the Arts to produce the film, which is nearing completion.
Ms. Gray teaches six aerial classes a week in Bolinas and at the Woodacre Improvement Club, as well as private lessons. Her students range in age from 6 to 79. Using silks, slings, hoops and trapezes, her students test their physical and mental boundaries. The courses are based on stillness and moving from impulse, and they emphasize love and respect for creativity and one’s body.
San Anselmo resident Teri Vasarhelyi said Ms. Gray has been essential to developing her 17-year-old daughter’s comfort in her own skin.
“Shannon’s mentorship has instilled in her a profound appreciation for her body and its artistic capabilities,” Ms. Vasarhelyi wrote in an email. “She has played a pivotal role in fostering our child’s holistic development, nurturing both their physical and emotional intelligence.”
Geneva Tonski, an eighth grader at Bolinas-Stinson School, practiced aerial before she moved to West Marin, but under Ms. Gray’s tutelage, her practice has grown from performing strict routines to creative improvisation.
“Since moving here, I’ve never planned a single piece. I’ve just done what feels right,” Ms. Tonski said. “That’s the magic that Shannon brings to aerial.”
Ms. Gray said turning her movement practice into a business was not what she had in mind when she started aerial. Nor does running a business come naturally, she said. But her love of teaching and spreading positive reinforcement has made her business something she’s learned to value and cherish.
“The work that I do, it’s an honor, and that helps to form a better relationship with the business side of things,” she said.
Ms. Gray just completed a series of performances with the Bellingham Circus Guild. Back in Bolinas, she is looking ahead to a big summer of teaching and festivals. On April 27, she and one of her students, Don Smith, will perform at Commonweal Garden followed by a talk and Q&A.
To learn more about Shannon Gray, visit www.shannongray.ca/work. To inquiry about learning opportunities, email [email protected].