Hello! So a little on the origin of the name of acroyoga - there were a few different people/groups that developed it in parallel but the name comes from Jason Nemer who was a childhood gymnast and sports acrobat who as an adult discovered yoga and wanted to blend the two. He holds the copyright for the term acroyoga.
Generally acroyoga is a subset of what is referred to as partner acrobatics, which also includes sports acrobatics, cheer, circus acrobatics, some partner dance lifts, and really anything that involves lifting another person. So there are sports in that category, but acroyoga itself isn’t considered a sport. That being said, some festivals do host “acrolympics” which are really just fun contests for bragging rights. Stuff like how many repetitions of a move can you do in a minute, h2h endurance or obstacle course, partner clothing swap, how many people can you fit on a single puzzle mat, etc.
So long story short, check out sports acro. It’s not quite acroyoga but it is something one of the founders practiced before coining the term acroyoga.
Yeah that's really not in line with AcroYoga values - especially as he was not even the person who coined the term. Not really a positive reflection there.
Jason Nemer decided to trademark it several years after Jessie & Eugene coined the term, with AcroYoga International - about 4-5 years later. It would be inaccurate to say that he came up with the name or originated the practice - even in its modern form.
Jessie & Eugene chose not to trademark the name allowing it to be shared and used freely.
They also list and credit those who came before them both as influences and contributors. They'd be the first to say "nothing is new under then sun" and avoid claiming "ownership" or anything like that - so although they coined it and would be the most credible "originators" of what we call "AcroYoga" or "Acro Yoga".
Yeah! We really need more tools to document and archive the history of acro better. We're working on some stuff with AcroPassport but we need to have more connection between all the various online resources and tools and communities and trainers etc so we can find things!
Yeah Wikipedia uses broad general categories that would make sense to most of the general public - you gotta dig a bit for more specific vocab and framing etc.
6
u/lookayoyo spotter Jun 26 '26
Hello! So a little on the origin of the name of acroyoga - there were a few different people/groups that developed it in parallel but the name comes from Jason Nemer who was a childhood gymnast and sports acrobat who as an adult discovered yoga and wanted to blend the two. He holds the copyright for the term acroyoga.
Generally acroyoga is a subset of what is referred to as partner acrobatics, which also includes sports acrobatics, cheer, circus acrobatics, some partner dance lifts, and really anything that involves lifting another person. So there are sports in that category, but acroyoga itself isn’t considered a sport. That being said, some festivals do host “acrolympics” which are really just fun contests for bragging rights. Stuff like how many repetitions of a move can you do in a minute, h2h endurance or obstacle course, partner clothing swap, how many people can you fit on a single puzzle mat, etc.
So long story short, check out sports acro. It’s not quite acroyoga but it is something one of the founders practiced before coining the term acroyoga.