Ava Long is a beloved instructor and incredibly talented performer at AntiGravity. She has put years of work into getting to the point she is at, and it’s paid off. She has performed in every one of AntiGravity’s Christmas shows, “Oh What Fun,” and was part of the original cast of Forces of Nature at Disney’s Epcot. Her journey to get here is inspirational and full of determination.

Ava’s aerial journey started 11 years ago when she was only 9 years old. She started training multiple times a week, and it “quickly became a huge part of [her] life and something [she] loved challenging [herself] with”. Then, at 10 years old, only a year after she started, she joined AntiGravity’s STARZ pre-professional program. She started performing in their showcases and began traveling around the world to perform and train. She continued training multiple times a week, learning new skills and training her flexibility and strength until she was 15, when her shoulder started to bother her during training. 

Ava was then diagnosed with multidirectional instability, meaning that her shoulder was so “unstable that [it] would pop out of the socket multiple times a day, even while doing simple everyday tasks.”  This made training hard and nearly impossible, so she made the difficult decision to have surgery on her shoulder, not knowing if coming back was possible. Ava thought that her “shoulder [wasn’t] going to be able to handle high-level training and performing again.” Despite not believing she would ever be able to train at the level she did again, she was determined to try. So, after the surgery, she did physical therapy, and with her determination and the help of her doctors, she was able to start slowly coming back to aerial, the sport she loved so much. Unfortunately, right after her first shoulder recovered, she was diagnosed with multidirectional instability in her other shoulder. She was at a crossroads because she had just come back and was doing what she loved again after being stuck in bed and in physical therapy. So she did the thing she is proudest of in this journey and made the very hard decision to go through another surgery and recovery process when she didn’t know if this shoulder would make the same recovery her first one did. She went through it all again. During the recovery process, she always reminded herself, “Why [she] was doing it. [Her] goal was to get back to performing and doing what [she] loves, and keeping that in mind gave [her] the motivation to keep pushing through the hard days.” During her recovery, she says that one of the hardest parts was resting; she had always been an active person, and even though she wanted to jump right back in, she was being held back and didn’t want to risk re-injuring her shoulder. So to help her remember what she was going through all this for, she had an album on her phone of all the aerial skills she wanted to do again when she was back.

With determination and a lot of hard work, she made another full recovery and, with the help of her aerial friends, slowly started to come back to aerial arts. She rejoined the STARZ program and was able to learn all of the skills she had found during her recovery process. Her shoulder is stronger now after the surgeries. But her shoulders aren’t as flexible, and she had to relearn skills and learn new techniques with the way her shoulders moved now. Slowly, she became a better aerialist than she was before, and she was able to earn a solo in AntiGravity’s first-ever “Oh What Fun” show. She says that this show made her feel like herself again after her recovery, and that “Stepping back on stage after everything [she’d] been through reminded [her] how much [she] loved performing, and [she] felt so grateful to be doing what [she] loves again.” She continued training and getting better and better, and she was asked to be part of the opening cast of Forces of Nature at Disney’s Epcot. Which, when she was recovering, is something that “[she] honestly never thought that after all [her] injuries, [she’d] be performing at Disney. That show and that cast mean the world to [her].”

Ava is now a professional performer and also an amazing rock climber. She says that “[she] wouldn’t have been able to do it without the people who stood by [her] throughout [her] recovery.” The support from her family, friends, coaches, and physical therapist was one of the things that made it all possible. Ava’s advice to any athletes and performers going through an injury is not to rush the process. “Trust your body, trust your physical therapists, and remember that every day is going to look different. Some days will be good, and some will be really hard, but it’s all worth it.”

We are so incredibly proud of the aerialist and person that Ava has become, along with the perseverance and determination she has shown on this journey.

We love you, Ava! 

Fly High!