Red Bull x Aqualillies
By: Aqualillies Posted On: October 24, 2025
Earlier this year, Writer Zoey Goto and Photographer Brian Lowe joined us in Los Angeles for an Artistic Swimming profile for The Red Bulletin, featuring a small group of our Los Angeles team: all previously competitive Artistic Swimming athletes turned performers with Aqualillies. Keep reading to see more of what goes into the sport, both above and beneath the surface!
The 100-year-old Olympic sport of Artistic Swimming, formerly known as synchronized swimming on the world stage prior to 2017, is defined by strength, discipline, and creativity, and these days – where precision reflects competition artistry. Artistic Swimming’s balance between sport and spectacle dates back to its origins in the early 20th century, from Annette Kellerman to silver-screen star Esther Williams and the MGM’s Aquamusical era with Busby Berkeley, all the way through the modern era with our Aqualillies watershow performances and on-camera projects. What looks graceful above the waterline often means holding your breath upside down for minutes, lifting teammates into acrobatic moves, and risk of injury from a high-contact sport if a move or stunt isn’t trained properly.
The sport of Artistic Swimming often demands more than it shows: many of our team members train for decades at the top of the sport, and are still actively doing other activities such as yoga, running, pilates, and circus training to keep up performance.
Among our LA team members featured in this profile are sisters Philicia and Tamar Saunders, both of whom appeared in Black Is King, Beyonce’s 2020 film for Disney+. Philicia reflects on that experience: “It was gorgeous to see all the different shades of people in the pool, Beyoncé got in the water with us, directing the shots and making sure we were all comfortable”. It’s always been our mission at Aqualillies to reinvent the classic art form of water ballet for the new millennium and we are thrilled that the sport of artistic swimming is swimming in sync with the times!
Transitioning from being a competitive athlete to a performer is a balance of aesthetics and athleticism, as seen in these photos of the training and rehearsal process that does into our sport. Aqualillies is home to one of the largest rosters of synchronized swimming and water talent in the world, with a team of diverse and skilled artistic swimmers, current and former Olympians, underwater models, male swimmers, divers, mermaids & water body doubles.
