Aerial Ambitions was founded to meet our students wherever they're at in their Aerial journey, from beginner to experienced. We want to help you achieve your ambitions.  Aerial silks, Lyra (hoop) and Acro yoga are great ways to gain strength, flexibility, and self-confidence in a fun and supportive environment. We strive to make each experience full of positivity and personal growth.

Amanda is originally from St. Louis, MO and spent her college days and roaring 20’s in Orlando, FL. She has always been into athletics, playing multiple sports in high school, participating in a number of triathlons, 5Ks, 10Ks and Half Marathons in her 20s and 30s. She has also trained in bootcamp style classes and yoga for many years. For her day job, she has been with TEKsystems, a leading IT Services firm, since 2005. She was promoted to become a Director of Business Operations for Greensboro, NC and moved there from Orlando in 2009.

In 2013, while having a conversation with a friend of hers in NYC who was starting dance trapeze, she discovered Triad Aerial Arts in Greensboro, NC and Sabrina Woods. Amanda started training in aerial silks with her, then in 2016 added Lyra to her apparatuses. Since she's a type A person that thinks about work a lot, she loved how she had to be completely present in aerial class. She studied with Sabrina until 2018 when her company transferred her to Greenville, SC where she found a wealth of aerial instructors: Samantha Sanders, Megan Phillips, Kelly VanLeeuwen, Charity Tamburg, Allison Davey, and Chris Alston.  She expanded her apparatuses to include straps and rope (and a little sling from time to time), while continuing to focus on silks and lyra.  

After the pandemic Amanda directed her focus to at home online classes to continue with her training in strength and flexibility. From there she has continued her training with aerial silks and lyra along side Khris and taking other aerial classes in the area or while traveling for work. 

Khris grew up in Aiken, SC, being involved in several different sports: ultimate frisbee, soccer, track, and volleyball. She spent her college years at Clemson University getting a degree in Architecture. Where she expanded her athleticism to include rock climbing, yoga, archery, and kickball. It wasn't until she went to grad school at Tennessee University in 2014, that she discovered Acro Yoga while at a rock climbing fundraiser event. From there her love of movement in acrobatics grew into a new form, as she never studied dance, gymnastics, or acrobatics as a child. For her day job, Khris is an Architect with COR3 Design LLC., where she manages projects for her company since 2016. 

Khris found her love of aerials in 2016. It first started with taking classes for Acro Yoga at Maya Movement Arts with Kelly Vanleeuwen and then grew from there. She has always liked to push and challenge herself physically, and aerials fit in perfectly. She has trained on aerial sling, lyra, aerial silks, rope and straps. Her main instructors were Kelly Vanleeuwen with Maya Movement Arts, Megan Philips with MAlice in Flight Studio, Sam Sander with Samantha Kay-Aerial & Flexibility Coach, and Chris Aslton with Nehvir Athletics. From her training, she found her main apparatus to be aerial silks. In June 2021, she completed the teacher training for aerial silks level 1 with Paper Doll Militia, and in March and December of 2024 she completed her teacher training in lyra level 1 & 2 also with Paper Doll Militia. 

Outside of aerials, you can find her doing everything under the sun. To list a few, she plays the clarinet in a local orchestra, playing on ultimate frisbee teams, goes rock climbing at the local climbing gyms, and loves to go hiking and camping. 

You can follow her on instagram @flyingshrimp7

Amber started her aerial journey in 2013 with flying trapeze in Philadelphia. After moving to Michigan in 2016, she began taking lyra, hammock, static trapeze, and silks classes under the instruction of Anny Malla at the Ann Arbor Aviary. Very quickly she had fallen in love with lyra, and knew that lyra was her apparatus of choice. After a few years, Amber and her family moved to Simpsonville, SC. Immediately she sought out aerial classes and started taking lyra classes with Megan Phillips and Samantha Sanders with Maya Movement Arts. This is where she met Amanda and Khris. From there they all became good friends and training partners.

Amber continued to take classes with MAlice in Flight Studio and Aerial Ambitions, then expressed interest in her dream to teach lyra. After completing her level 1 lyra teaching certification in March 2024 with Paper Doll Militia, Amber was brought on to teach lyra classes with Aerial Ambitions. After 8 months of being with Aerial Ambitions, she completed her level 2 teacher training in December 2024 with Paper Doll Militia. She plans to keep up with new trainings and future certifications. 

Outside of aerial training, you can find her creating beautiful flower arrangements with her soap sculpting skills; or being an amazing mom of two beautiful daughters. 

Madelyn started her aerial journey with us at Aerial Ambitions in November of 2022. From there she found a new passion that made her feel strong, beautiful, and got to scratch that itch for her earlier days when she was a theater kid and singer. Over the years of working with Aerial Ambitions as a student, she found this large aerial community with the GVL Collective that supports each other and it became her new home/safe space. 

As her passion and skills grew, we at Aerial Ambitions saw an opportunity to cultivate Madelyn's skills of working with kids, similar to her coaching girls rec league soccer, and bringing it to assist with our kids silks classes. 

In February 2025, Madelyn completed her level 1 teacher training with Paper Doll Militia. We are happy to have Madelyn join this team of women to help guide the next generation in their aerial journeys. 

Unfortunately, during the pandemic the Greenville studio where all of those wonderful teachers taught had to shut down. So, we took advantage of the resources that suddenly became available online and utilized the time we gained from being locked down to learn more about our bodies and gained additional strength. When the world reopened, we were lucky to have a great new facility in Greenville that could house aerials. We started taking classes at Motive Movement with Chris Alston. Unfortunately, all of our instructors that taught silks had either left town or chosen to no longer teach. Khris Kirk and Amanda Box started traveling to take lessons out of town to continue their training in aerial silks. We saw a need in our home community to bring back aerial silks. So we both completed our silks teacher training with Paper Doll Militia and opened Aerial Ambitions, LLC. We are excited to provide silks instruction again for anyone interested in serious aerial training, honing their current skills, or exploring it for the first time here in the upstate area. We have also added Lyra training to our list of classes, now that Amanda and Khris have both received their teaching certifications. As the interest of classes have grown, we've added Amber to our staff to help with the lyra classes and offering open gym times for people to practice their skills outside of class time. Also, because so many people requested it, Khris has brought back acro yoga instruction to the Greenville area. We are constantly trying to find ways to bring opportunities and different ways of instruction to the area. 

Amanda has received her teaching certifications through Paper Doll Militia. She received her teaching certificates for aerial silks level 1 & 2 in the summer of 2021. She is also a certified Lyra instructor in level 1 & 2 as of December 2023.

Khris has received her teaching certifications through Paper Doll Militia. She received her teaching certificate for aerial silks level 1 in the summer of 2021. She received her Lyra  level 1 certification in March 2024 and level 2 certification December 2024. She has been practicing Acro Yoga since 2014 and assisting with instructions with Nehvir Athletics for 4 years. She started main instructions with Aerial Ambitions in 2024.

Amber has received her teaching certification for Lyra level 1 through Paper Doll Militia in March 2024 and her level 2 certification in December 2024.

Madelyn has received her teaching certification for Silks Level 1 through Paper Doll Militia in February 2025.

To keep up with our knowledge and skills as teachers, we also use outside resources like Silk Stars and Aerial Physique, and attending workshops when available. We are always striving to add more knowledge, skills, and stretching techniques to our wheelhouse to share with our students.