Charlene and I went to a Circus class last night. It was awesome! We learned a the basics of trapeze, hanging hoop, hanging silk, hanging rope, trampline as well as juggling and firesticks. This class is put on every summer by the Firefly Theatre which I think is based out of the Pheonix Gymnastics Club. It wasn’t good on my recovering joints (a little joint inflammation) but I really wanted to do it since last summer when Ange told me about the Aerial Arts classes available when I got back to Edmonton.
I have a bit more flexability than her but she trumps me everytime in the strength department. In the trapeze basics, you are supposed to get your knees onto the bar and hang upside down. Charlene looked like a pro and I had no problems either but with weak stomach muscles I am sure I wasn’t as graceful as she was. There were some who had difficulty in getting up though. In the rope work, I could not master pinching the rope between my feet and had no real upper body strength to pull myself up so I could move up the rope. Charlene’s problem that the circus method of climbing ropes is different from tree climbing rope method and so got confused when starting. One of the guys in our group did climb the rope well but because he had shorts on, got rope burn on his calf.
She and I were very giddy. During the warm up stretches we were chatting with each other and we were both slightly embarrassed with our non-flexible selves. (I can’t do the splits anymore) Juggling with scarves and balls, we learned that Charlene has a slight timing issue once she gets to three items. As you can see by her face in the picture below, she looks frustrated but having fun.
Review= two thumbs up! for both Charlene and I anyways!
Bertha