With The Greatest Of Ease...Well, "Ease" May Not Be Exactly The Word I'd Use

On Saturday, Adam, my sister, Leah, and I drove ourselves over the I-9o bridge and into the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle to SANCA. That's the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts. While I do have visions of running away with the circus on particularly bad days with the boys, this was not the reason we were there that afternoon. After signing up for one two-hour session of trapeze lessons a few months back on a whim when my sister saw a half-price coupon online, the day had arrived to screw our courage to the sticking point and become students of the flying trapeze. That's the logistical reason I was there.

However, there is more. I'm not all that big on being high above the ground, nor do I feel very comfortable flinging my body into empty space off of high places. But I am big on overcoming things that make me afraid--in safe and controlled environments. I refuse to let my fears keep me from enjoying my life to the fullest. So I guess that is the real reason I found myself outside SANCA's "School of Flight" pavilion Saturday afternoon. I am so glad I decided to show up. Wow! What an experience!

Our first step was to do the regular old step-off the platform and swing. Oh, I was freaked out! You can always tell when I am nervous about something because I become very quiet, and if you know me much at all, I'm not a quiet kind of girl. But when I am afraid I kind of have to go inside and do some inner talk, "You are going to be fine, you can do this, people do this all the time," stuff like that. Although the "people do this all the time" argument didn't really do much for me this time because my rational side kept saying to that calming inner voice, "No, they don't. People do not trapeze all the time."

We did some stretching and had some instruction by a member of the "flight team." Basically you clip into the safety line, climb the longest ladder in the world, get attached to more safety lines, lean out into space while a woman that you are sure weighs 20 pounds less than you anchors you to the platform, grab onto a bar that you are sure weighs 20 pounds more than you and is doing its best to pull you off the platform long before you are ready, listen to someone shout out "HUP!" and that means it's time to propel yourself into space. When you hear "hup!" again you are supposed to let go and fall towards the earth hoping the net, that was fine before you went up the ladder but suddenly looks very weak and way too small, catches you.

And guess what...I did it! It was kind of like jumping into water that is too cold. You know how it feels like you can't breathe for a minute? That was it exactly. I actually did my little hop off the platform when I heard the first "hup," much to my surprise, and then my exhale sucked back into my body instead of going out. It wasn't until after the first swing back that I remembered I still had to breathe out and it wasn't until the other end of that swing that I remembered I was supposed to point my toes and have some kind of form instead of letting my legs flail around as I soared through the air. And yes, the caller had to say the second "hup" twice because I couldn't get my hands to relinquish their tight, desperate-to-stay-alive grip on the bar the first time she said it.

But I did it and it was so fun!!! I felt all electric and completely incredible. Throughout the post the pictures are all jumbled so I'd have some of all of us, just remember, Adam is in the light blue shirt (and looks like a man), I'm in the teal t-shirt and my sis in the black tank.
Next we were taught a stunt creatively called the "knee hang back flip" because you hang by your knees then you do a back flip and drop to the net. Clever name, no? So you jump off the platform, swing down, pull your knees up and onto the bar (like you used to do in elementary school on the playground bars before you did a penny drop), force yourself to let go and dangle upside down by the trapeze bar. Part of the knee hang is this long reach toward another trapeze on the other end of the net. Then you put your hands back on, pull your legs back through, hang by your hands, then kick your legs forward, back and forward, that motion, plus the movement of the trapeze, gives you the momentum you need to do a back flip down to the net. EEEEEEE! Fortunately they are calling the movements the whole time so you don't really have to think about anything.

I didn't know if I could do it. It felt like so much to do and I could barely breathe the first time and couldn't even let go, how was I supposed to do it all? But I forced myself to listen intensely to what the caller was saying. That gave me the focus I needed to just go and do it. And I did. I completely surprised myself! It was so incredible. I loved the feeling of flying through the air! Such freedom! We did that trick twice. The second time I even ended up on my feet after my initial drop to the net.
The last trick was a catch. Say what?! Yep, we had to use that reach I mentioned that was in the middle of the knee hang to grab onto one of the teachers who was swinging from the other trapeze, then release the bar from your knees and go flying off holding onto the catcher's hands. I was so scared I wasn't going to remember to let go with my knees! In the group of 10 that started out, only 7 of us were able to try the catch, the other three hadn't been able to get the movements or timing on the "knee hang back flip" right. Of the 7 that did it, only 3 actually got the catch.

Mostly the problem was the timing. It had to be perfectly on to get the catch right. For example, Adam's catch was just a little late so their hands weren't in the right place for the grab. By the time the catcher called "no catch," Adam had already let go of his knees, so down to the net he went. You are on belay the whole time, so he didn't get hurt at all in his slow fall, but he was pretty disappointed because we only got the one try. But my sis and I were two of the three that did catch, we got our catches right on.

It was amazing. Swinging through the air on the end of that pendulum was the most exhilarating feeling. I'd do it again, and again, and again! Not that my fear of heights is totally alleviated by this one event, but I felt so confident by the end, and by doing things like this I think I chip away at the fear I have little by little. So if one day, after a rough day with the boys, I am nowhere to be found, you may have to worry that I really have run off with the circus!