Marisa Feller- Owner, Instructor and Artistic Director

Marisa grew up in Austin, TX, where she developed a passion for dance as a member of the youth competitive dance team, Austin’s Dance Elite. She trained and competed in a variety of styles, including ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary. At the age of 13, Marisa began teaching youth dance classes at Alisa’s Dance Academy and Champions Gymnastics while continuing to hone her own skills. She has also had the opportunity to train at prestigious institutions such as Edge Performing Arts Center, New York City Dance Alliance, Millennium Dance Complex, and many others.

After high school, Marisa attended Chapman University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Advertising with minors in Leadership and Education. During this time she turned to yoga to help address injuries from years of competitive dance. In 2014, she completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training with S-Vyasa. She also began performing fire dance, as well as pointe and character acts for various festivals organized by Insomniac Events and Fire and Ice Entertainment.

Marisa’s love for aerial arts began after she saw a live performance by Quixotic, which inspired her to start training in aerial silks. In 2017, she earned her aerial yoga teacher training certification from Levity Academy. Eager to delve further into the circus world, Marisa joined Flyco, a pre-professional aerial training program, in 2018. There, she trained in Chinese pole, trapeze, partner acrobatics, lyra, silks, rope, and contortion. Following her time with Flyco, Marisa became a member of A-wol, a contemporary dance aerial company, and also began coaching with The Circus Project.

In addition to her artistic pursuits, Marisa holds a real estate license and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling. She continues to train regularly in contemporary dance, silks, lyra, and contortion. In her free time, she enjoys outdoor activities like hiking with her dog, climbing, and skiing with her partner.

Brooke Warren: teacher, photographer and performer

Ursula Ostrander: performer and instructor

Corey, a native of Colorado, has called Ouray home for the past five years. She grew up practicing gymnastics and discovered aerial arts three years ago. Her favorite apparatus is aerial silks, drawn to the variety they provide—ranging from graceful poses to thrilling drops. Corey thrives on finding unique and challenging places to rig, and with her SPRAT Level 2 rigging certification, she ensures the highest standards of safety and skill. She truly comes alive when performing in front of an audience. Outside of silks, she enjoys exploring the canyons around Ouray, ice climbing in the winter and canyoning in the summer. For Corey, aerial arts offer the perfect blend of technical rigging, physical challenge, and artistic expression.

Brooke Warren is a mountain guide, rock climber, and rope technician who brings her connection to movement in the natural world to her aerial practice. Born and raised in Crested Butte, CO, she grew up climbing and dancing where she trained in ballet, tap, jazz and hip-hop, eventually joining a competitive dance team in high school. She has also explored tango, bellydance, and now, aerial dance modalities. She has choreographed and performed in local fashion shows and community events, and brings her creative eye to performance photography as well. Brooke is a substitute teacher, performer, and photographer for High Alpine Aerial.

Ursula Ostrander is a West Slope-based performer and interdisciplinary artist. First introduced to circus arts in elementary school, she fell in love with aerials and got her first real job as an assistant circus camp instructor at age 13. In high school, she studied theater at Tara Performing Arts High School and trained at Aircat Aerial Arts in Boulder, CO. She received her BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, where she studied theater history and performance art, and worked with avant-garde companies including Bread and Puppet and Double Edge Theatre.

After graduating college, she taught children’s theater and aerial classes in Bozeman, Montana for a brief stint before returning to Colorado. She taught violin at the North Fork School of Integrated Studies in Paonia, and spent 3 years as an ensemble member, acting, writing and directing for Telluride Theatre. During that time, she was introduced to burlesque through Telluride Theatre’s House of Shimmy Shake and immediately fell in love with the art form. In 2023, she began taking aerial classes with Marisa. She started performing burlesque in High Alpine Aerial’s shows in 2025. She is currently developing and directing an original show called “The Monster Project” with her sister and Juniper Circle Productions in Paonia and performing burlesque across the west slope. In her free time, Ursula can be found foraging and preserving medicinal plants, taking cat naps, writing poetry, and making chicken soup.

Since her college years, Ursula has struggled with chronic health conditions that have sometimes made training and performing extra challenging but she has always persisted and incorporated what she has learned along the way into her practice. These days her aerial training is informed by somatic practices for nervous system regulation and structural support for hypermobile bodies. She is excited to share her practices and breadth of performance experience as an aerial instructor for High Alpine Aerial.