Circus School

[cjsmith]

If you ever have a chance, ever in your life, to go on a flying trapeze,

TAKE IT.

Comments

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I went on one once. It was made complicated by being short (hard to reach the bar while standing on the platform), and also I dismounted badly and got pulled up short by my blessedly observant spotter, who saw that I was about to land neck-first into the netting and yanked the rope. It was a shock to be suddenly suspended in midair by my midsection, but far, far preferable to the alternative.

But yeah, I could see where it could theoretically be exhilarating ;-)

[mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com]

Ya know, it is posts like this one that reinforce how much I love the people on my flist. :)

[katestine.livejournal.com]

We want details!!

Y'know, even with all the the other things I do, including freakin' static trapeze, I'm still a little scared to try flying trapeze.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

okay :)

[hanov3r.livejournal.com]

Was that, perchance, at Trapeze Arts in Oakland? sicarii and I might be tempted to try that, actually.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I know I'm taller than you are, but I too felt awfully darned short standing up on that board reaching waaaaaay ooouuuuuut for the bar. I bet even the six-foot-two guy felt short. That bar is not close by!

Our group had a couple of bad dismounts too. The spotter was very good.

I absolutely adore the back-flip dismount. WOW. YAY.

Boy do my wrist tendons hurt today. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hee! :)

That's one thing I love about LiveJournal in general, really. Glimpses into other people's worlds.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Uh oh, I may have misnamed this thing. What is the diff... nevermind, got it.. Yes, it was "flying". We were using only one; nobody transferred over to a catcher.

My company had an obligatory long meeting offsite in a historic (read: unheated) building, and as a reward, after the meeting we all went to San Francisco's circus school and learned a few very basic things. I can now spin plates at the top of sticks, do a somersault through a hoop a coupla feet off the ground, and do a back-flip dismount off a trapeze. I skipped the tight wire due to foot damage.

Them things is scary. I think the worst parts are climbing the ladder and leaning out to catch the bar. Yiiiiii. But once you're moving, WOW. It's wonderful. More grip strength would be good, but for the short bits we were doing, complete newbies were fine.

So! You do static trapeze? Like, you can actually do nifty graceful things on a bar hanging from ropes? That sounds MUCH harder!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

When are you next going to be in the Bay Area? I'm sure we could get at least four people together... :-) :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Circus Center in San Francisco. It's stunningly wonderful. CJ and CJ say two thumbs up. :)

[katestine.livejournal.com]

Whoa. It took you less than a day to learn all those neat tricks??

It just scares me. I think it's bc I'm scared of landing on my head, which I'm sure is irrational.

I can hang from the trapeze, beat back and forth, get my knees on it, get my butt on it in a way that ought to be graceful someday, and last week I learned how to do a layback :)

[katestine.livejournal.com]

Hm, reading the descriptions, I think part of it is that I've never seen the safety setup of flying trapeze; in static trapeze, there are no harnesses. I'm the sort of person who rarely gets things on the first try, so...