Circus
I was always that kid who was climbing. Trees, monkey bars, basically any piece of playground equipment you can think of, I climbed it. (I sometimes got in trouble for it, too. There's something about a little girl standing up on the top of a swing set that makes people freak out.)
As a kid, though I never really did any gymnastics classes, I still liked doing things like handstands and flips. When I was in grade five, my mom signed me up for a circus class- specifically aerial silks. I am not going to lie, I was not excited. She had to pretty much force me to go to the first trial class and I was convinced that it was going to be a terrible time. Little did I know how much I would love it.
Let me tell you a bit about circus and aerial silks. Not everybody knows what aerial silks is, and so whenever I tell them that I do aerial silks, I get a lot of questions. I always say that a silk is a large long piece of fabric hanging from the ceiling. It is hung from the middle, so there is half on either side. You can climb the silks and do tricks. You can wrap yourself up, and fall down on purpose! (This usually is followed with an,"Oh, wow! Yeah, I know what you mean!" From the people asking.) Even though that is the best way I know how to explain silks, I don't know if that quite does them justice. Silks are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. You can climb them, tie a a knot in them, sit in them, stand on them, swing on them, drop from them, roll down them, an even cocoon yourself up and take a nap! A lot of really cool stuff can be done using a silk. However, circus is not just aerial silks. It's also trapeze, hoop, juggling, trampoline, tumbling, contortion, unicycling, and a lot more. I do not know how to do all of these things, but I do work with the trapeze and hoop. I like trapeze and hoop quite a lot, but silks is my favourite.
I have been doing silks for almost six years now, and trapeze and hoop for about three, so I'm pretty good at them. My favourite thing to do on the silk is drops. Sometimes they can be a lot of work to set up for- you spend about five minutes getting set up and a total of about ten seconds falling, but I still love it. Although my explaining cannot really give you an accurate picture of what the drops look like, I'll tell you the names of some of my favourites and if you're still curious, you can look it up on YouTube or something. My favourite drops are Bungee, (from Half Pierroette), Double roll, Ping Pong from Triple Falling Angel, and Pencil Roll. Some that I dislike are One and a Half rolls and snowflakes, because they are terrifying to perform, an hard as heck. Another thing I love about circus is shows. When you are enrolled in a regular class, you don't actually get to do an end of the year performance, but I have taken a class that allowed me to do so, and it was so much fun. (Even if at one point I did fall off the trapeze during my duo routine- I played it off so well that everyone thought it was planned.) It is such a good feeling to have all your hard work pay off while performing in front of everyone, and also when they get excited when you spin all the way down the silk. It is also so rewarding when you finally nail a skill or routine that you have been perfecting- though I think this is true for anything. Another one of the countless reasons that I love circus is all the people I have met and friends I have made. I always find it a little bit scary when I first enrolled in a class- I don't know who will be in the class, and I don't know who my instructor will be, but after one class, I am comfortable with almost all of them. I love everything about circus, except maybe how much it can hurts sometimes. Those drops can occasionally cause whiplash, although I have never experienced it, and even silk burn. (think rope burn but worse) and you need to be pretty flexible, which is also very difficult. Other than that, there is nothing bad, and I am really glad that my mom dragged me to that class back in grade five.
As a kid, though I never really did any gymnastics classes, I still liked doing things like handstands and flips. When I was in grade five, my mom signed me up for a circus class- specifically aerial silks. I am not going to lie, I was not excited. She had to pretty much force me to go to the first trial class and I was convinced that it was going to be a terrible time. Little did I know how much I would love it.
Let me tell you a bit about circus and aerial silks. Not everybody knows what aerial silks is, and so whenever I tell them that I do aerial silks, I get a lot of questions. I always say that a silk is a large long piece of fabric hanging from the ceiling. It is hung from the middle, so there is half on either side. You can climb the silks and do tricks. You can wrap yourself up, and fall down on purpose! (This usually is followed with an,"Oh, wow! Yeah, I know what you mean!" From the people asking.) Even though that is the best way I know how to explain silks, I don't know if that quite does them justice. Silks are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. You can climb them, tie a a knot in them, sit in them, stand on them, swing on them, drop from them, roll down them, an even cocoon yourself up and take a nap! A lot of really cool stuff can be done using a silk. However, circus is not just aerial silks. It's also trapeze, hoop, juggling, trampoline, tumbling, contortion, unicycling, and a lot more. I do not know how to do all of these things, but I do work with the trapeze and hoop. I like trapeze and hoop quite a lot, but silks is my favourite.
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| If it was not obvious, this isn't me. |
I have been doing silks for almost six years now, and trapeze and hoop for about three, so I'm pretty good at them. My favourite thing to do on the silk is drops. Sometimes they can be a lot of work to set up for- you spend about five minutes getting set up and a total of about ten seconds falling, but I still love it. Although my explaining cannot really give you an accurate picture of what the drops look like, I'll tell you the names of some of my favourites and if you're still curious, you can look it up on YouTube or something. My favourite drops are Bungee, (from Half Pierroette), Double roll, Ping Pong from Triple Falling Angel, and Pencil Roll. Some that I dislike are One and a Half rolls and snowflakes, because they are terrifying to perform, an hard as heck. Another thing I love about circus is shows. When you are enrolled in a regular class, you don't actually get to do an end of the year performance, but I have taken a class that allowed me to do so, and it was so much fun. (Even if at one point I did fall off the trapeze during my duo routine- I played it off so well that everyone thought it was planned.) It is such a good feeling to have all your hard work pay off while performing in front of everyone, and also when they get excited when you spin all the way down the silk. It is also so rewarding when you finally nail a skill or routine that you have been perfecting- though I think this is true for anything. Another one of the countless reasons that I love circus is all the people I have met and friends I have made. I always find it a little bit scary when I first enrolled in a class- I don't know who will be in the class, and I don't know who my instructor will be, but after one class, I am comfortable with almost all of them. I love everything about circus, except maybe how much it can hurts sometimes. Those drops can occasionally cause whiplash, although I have never experienced it, and even silk burn. (think rope burn but worse) and you need to be pretty flexible, which is also very difficult. Other than that, there is nothing bad, and I am really glad that my mom dragged me to that class back in grade five.
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