American Dancer is thrilled with the continuation of this series by the multi-talented Yanina Kisler. We would love to hear about your hobbies and projects outside of dance—what brought you to them and how you have pursued them. If you have a story to share, please contact Yanina.kisler@comcast.net or American Dancer at americandancer@usadance.org. You can write your own story or simply send us a summary, along with your contact information, so we can arrange an interview.
Continuing American Dancer’s effort to highlight the accomplishments of our dancers when they are off the ballroom dance floor, I talked with Holly Cao about her learning Aerial Silks Dancing (also known as silks.) Holly is an amateur dancer who has been competing in Standard, Latin, Smooth, and Theatre Arts at the Open level Adult category.
Holly was born in China and moved to Hong Kong as a child in 2005 when her parents’ job took them there. She has been living in the United States since starting high school when she attended boarding school in western Massachusetts. Holly went to New York University for her undergraduate degree, double majoring in computer science and cinema studies. She then got her master’s degree in financial mathematics at the University of Chicago and is now a Ph.D. student in computer science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Holly started her dance journey when she was a freshman in high school. The high school dance team did performances every semester, and those included all kinds of dancing—hip hop, ballet, jazz, etc. When she started college, she wanted to continue dancing and joined every dance club she could. As a newcomer, she had the same partner for Standard and Latin, and they did Ten Dance. When she moved to Chicago, she could not find a partner for Ten Dance, and so she found two different partners—one for Latin and the other one for Smooth. Eventually, she and her Smooth partner, Gabriel Jones, also took on Standard and Theatre Arts to enhance their Smooth training. Her Theatre Arts experiences inspired her to pursue another hobby in the air – Aerial Silks.
While working on her master’s degree in Chicago, Holly knew that she wanted to come back to New York. She got a summer internship on Wall Street, and her two partners in Chicago also came to New York to train with her. They loved it there and joined her when she graduated and moved to New Jersey to pursue her PhD. She now dances Latin with Omar Mirza, and Standard, Smooth, and Theatre Arts with Gabriel Jones. They have participated in a variety of collegiate and amateur competitions. They competed at the USA Dance Nationals in March 2025 in Championship-level Smooth and Latin, as well as Championship and Pre-Championship-levels in Standard. Their latest competition was at MIT, where they placed in the finals of Championship-level Smooth and Latin and came in 2nd in Pre-Championship-level Standard.
Gabriel and Holly have been invited to do various shows in Theatre Arts, but their first Theatre Arts competition was at the NDCA Nationals this year in Utah. They were thrilled to make the finals at their first competition, especially in such a competitive event as the Nationals, placing 6th out of 17 couples. The Theatre Arts style is Holly’s favorite at the moment, and she is very excited to continue competing in it. She loves doing choreography and putting together shows, as well as being in the air, which is why Theatre Arts is so exciting for her. She loves watching this category at the Ohio Star Ball, one of the biggest competitions in the United States for Theatre Arts and show dances. She finds inspiration not only in professional couples, but also the Pro-Am couples who bring their hearts and souls to their show pieces.
Holly started Aerial Silks Dancing last summer to expand upon her experiences in the air beyond Theatre Arts. She takes silks group classes in mid-town Manhattan and has a lot of friends who also do aerial dances. She finds it the hardest thing she has tried, requiring more strength and especially spatial awareness. In silks dancing, she must be aware of where her balance is at all times. Silks studios need high ceilings and a lot of space to teach. It is a dangerous sport, and studios put thick mats on the floor in case someone falls when doing their silks tricks. Holly wears long sleeves and leggings to prevent the silk from cutting into her skin. Most professional silks dancers have a lot of bruises due to their performance outfits.
Holly used to be afraid of heights but is less afraid now and is more used to being upside down. Orientation is challenging when you are upside down, and you need to be very aware of your balance and how it’s affected depending on where you are in the silk. She tries to be conservative and careful when doing silks routines to prevent injuries. In Theatre Arts, it is more dangerous for the guy, since the girl will fall on top of him if something goes wrong. In silks, she is the only one there and needs to be very aware of being in her own body and of what she is doing and where and how she is oriented in the silk.
There are showcases in silks dancing. She has not thought about doing it yet, but will consider it for the future. For now, she enjoys the alone time in the air. There are other aerial categories, but she likes silks because she is a tactile dancer and likes working with the softness of silk.
Yanina Kisler is a Senior III and Senior IV Championship-level dancer. She has been competing together with her husband, Eric Austin, for the last seven years, both nationally and internationally. They were United States Champions in both Senior III and Senior IV Standard and World Championship Semifinalists twice. Yanina is an Electrical Engineer, now retired. She and Eric have two children and three grandchildren.
American Dancer is thrilled that Yanina Kisler is working on this series. To read more of her American Dancer articles, check out: Championship Dancer is Published Author!, How to be a Good Spectator at a Ballroom Competition, and So, You Want to Compete in a European Ballroom Dance Competition?
