Author: Natalie Basch

It all starts with an idea.

When an idea pops into my head, I feel compelled to make the idea work and to see it come to life – no matter what. It was when the lockdown started in Rishikesh, India that I had the idea to develop an online training for Airo. I was hanging out with a friend who was working on a similar project. Our long chats helped me get a better idea of how to develop a structure. The execution part, however, already had its challenges: where to hang up the swing? How to film? Who? What? How would this even be possible?

If I have an idea, I can’t except a “no” or “not possible”. Instead it’s: “okay, here’s an obstacle. How to get over it?” I ended up finding a spot for the swing in a derelict, under-construction hotel near the Laxman Juhla bridge, in Tapovan. It was so different from the beautiful studios in Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Sri Lanka and Morocco, but there was something about the setting that just kind of worked. The symbolic message for me was strong: despite all odds, make a plan and make it work, even if the shoot location is a dungeon. You can find the beauty in it. And I also loved the contrast of the softness of the Airo practice around the harsher surroundings.

We shot the whole Airo sequence in one go, which I later started breaking down into smaller segments and explain in more detail in the course. An old school friend in Berlin helped me out with the editing, and slowly this project just began to come to life.

It took a lot longer than anticipated. My team and I all have perfectionistic tendencies, and even though it was never said, I think we all felt: “well, we may as well do it properly and as best as we can”.

And yeah, here you have it. Finally, the first Airo online course! As we were busy developing the Foundations course, some of my students reached out wanting to teach and contribute. We felt this would be an excellent opportunity to start the Airo Online Academy where we would continue to add valuable courses, classes and educational programs for Airo.

Airo has been such an exciting journey for me. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn more. Watching the evolution and growth of Airo almost makes me feel like it’s a little entity on its own now. It wants to grow; it wants to expand, it wants to be relevant. I’m simply here to make it happen. And it all started with an idea…