Jawaher Essa Sharafi wears an outfit splashed with pink, turquoise, lime green and yellow in a brushstroke pattern. Suspended from a hoop, she twists, twirls and drops as she practises at Aerial Lab in Arjan, Dubai.
The eight-year-old has already taken her skills to the international stage, winning bronze in aerial hoop at the IAAA Grand Open Cup in Belgrade, Serbia, in September.
The youngest competitor among more than 100 athletes from 11 countries, she became the first Emirati to compete internationally in aerial athletics – only two years after she began formal training.
An aerialist is an acrobat who specialises in performing on suspended apparatus, such as hoops, trapezes and silks. The discipline combines acrobatics and artistic performance, drawing on strength, flexibility and co-ordination as athletes move through holds, spins and drops, often set to music.
Jawaher trains on hoop and hammock, a suspended fabric sling, but asked which she prefers, there is little hesitation.
“Hoop, hoop, hoop. It's the best. First of all, I like hoop because it's hard. I like to challenge myself in aerial,” she tells The National.
The hoop shape and texture also set it apart. It's the “only one that's a circle made out of metal … because the rest [of the aerial equipment] are made out of same thing: fabric”, she says. “Hoop is made out of something different. That made me fall in love with it.”
Her enthusiasm is equally apparent when she talks about training. “Whenever I do it, I get all my excitement out,” she says. “I feel like it's meant to be.”
Following her mother
Aerial arts was familiar to Jawaher long before she attended her first class. Her mother, Fatma Almadani, practised and taught the discipline.
Almadani says: “She used to watch me train and she would attend all my trainings and be like, ‘I want to try, I want to try,’ So my trainer would put her up there since she was a baby.”
Later, Jawaher began accompanying her mother to the children’s classes she taught. Participants had to be at least nine, and Jawaher was only four or five at the time.
Watching from the sidelines did little to diminish her interest. She wanted to help, demonstrate and prove that she could keep up with the older children, her mother says.
“I’d come home and she'd be like, ‘Mama, can you please come into the gym room? I want to show you that I can do what you were teaching the kids and I'm good enough to join your classes,’” Almadani recalls.
The age restriction prompted her to look for somewhere that offered classes for younger children. Jawaher then began training at Aerial Lab when she was six.
“Other than simple things we used to teach her at home, proper training was at Aerial Lab,” Almadani says.
Watching other students perform gave Jawaher another goal. When Almadani took her to students' aerial showcases, she began asking when it would be her turn on stage.
Finding her confidence
Enthusiasm does not mean every new aerial skill comes easily. Jawaher describes the uncertainty of learning a trick that requires her to turn upside down, and wondering what might happen if she falls. However, she tries to reassure herself before attempting a move.
“I can do this, no need to be worried, my teacher is here. She'll protect me, she knows what's right for me,” she tells herself.
One drop proved particularly difficult after she fell while learning it. Returning to the movement took time, beginning slowly and gradually building speed as her confidence returned.
Developing that control matters in competition, where judges assess difficulty, execution and artistry.
For Jawaher, one detail requires particular attention: pointing her toes.
“I've also been doing karate and in karate you don't point your toes,” she says. “It's been a challenge for me to try and remember.”
Jawaher attends aerial classes on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with more training when a competition approaches. But she recognises the importance of taking a break.
“Maybe not [training] every day, because I need rest days. It's important to have rest days,” she says.
She sometimes practises at home on days when she does not have a class. The family’s gym room was originally Almadani’s space. “I actually set it up for me and now she took over,” she says. There, Jawaher has room to experiment as well as rehearse.
Almadani adds: “She loves coming here and just she puts on music and does her own routines. She tries to imagine new moves.”
From classes to competition
Almadani did not initially see her daughter’s progress. Parents were asked not to sit in on group classes, so she would drop Jawaher off and collect her afterwards.
Then the teachers began approaching her about private training.
A competition planned in the UAE offered an opportunity, and Jawaher was selected to represent the studio. Almadani says she was the only child chosen from her age group. But that event was cancelled, and the competition in Serbia became Jawaher's international debut.
Her mother was struck by her progress as she watched her prepare. “From seeing her in her first showcase on stage, compared to this year, doing a routine for the competition, I was surprised by how much she advanced in just one year,” Almadani says.
Jawaher says she feels both nervous and excited before performing, but finishing her routine brings relief.
“I'm like: finally I can get all that energy out of me. And I don't need to worry any more about my routine,” she says.
Bigger ambitions
What most impresses Almadani is her daughter’s willingness to work towards goals she has set herself.
“I find her personality very inspiring. Her confidence is very inspiring,” she says.
“It gets hard sometimes to train every day. Sometimes she's exhausted. Sometimes she wants to stay up at night and the weekends. But I'm inspired by how she's very committed to the goals she has.”
Still, she wants her daughter to have the freedom to explore other interests. Jawaher has mentioned karate competitions, horse riding and parkour, adding to an already busy schedule.
“She wants to try everything,” Almadani says. “But we don't have enough days of the week to do after-school [activities] every day.”
Whatever Jawaher eventually chooses, her mother hopes the experience will leave her with habits and confidence that extend beyond competition.
“It builds personality, it builds character and gives you skills that you need in life,” she says.
For now, Jawaher is preparing two routines for her next showcase, one on hammock and another on hoop, and looking ahead to a competition in Italy next year.
She would like more young athletes from the UAE to join her. Almadani recalls her daughter hoping that photographs from the competition in Serbia might encourage friends to enter future contests and help to build a bigger team.
Jawaher invites friends to try aerial arts at home and has already encouraged one to begin classes. While keen to share her enthusiasm, she knows not everyone will feel ready to give it a go.
“If you tried it, you would love it and you would keep going again and again,” she says. “But if you don't want to, I won't force you.”