#35 Aerial Silks!

On June 4th I went to my first aerial class ever! Aerial caught my interest the moment I saw Carrie swing from a trapeze in Sex and the City. Yep, that long ago. It took a while, but I am finally getting things swinging (literally). I searched for a swinging trapeze class in Houston so I could maybe try it out once just like Carrie but ended up finding something even better. There is a school that offers not only trapeze (flying and static), but hoop and silks as well. Oh! And a harness class where you dance on a wall! Naturally, I want to do it all, but neither my schedule nor my budget (or body for that matter) could handle doing it all at once. I had to focus and pick one to start with. I choose silks first because, in my eyes, it is the prettiest.

I walked into the studio a little apprehensive because I didn’t know anyone in the class and, as always, I didn’t feel prepared. I had started doing yoga a few days before, but of course that wasn’t enough. The warm up exercises nearly did away with me, especially the abs workout. Everything burned. Once we got on the silks though, the pain wasn’t enough to take away from the fun (note: when I say on the silks I mean by the silk since there wasn’t a lot of climbing being done by me in the first class).

I didn’t manage to do much in the climbing department at first, but by the second class I was able to get up pretty high. I didn’t really get any stronger I just understood the directions better the second time around. We practiced two different climbs: Basic and Russian (I might have gotten the names wrong!). From Russian you can sit on your ankles in a pose called Koala. Koala (if that’s the real name) is my favorite! You can actually sit like a koala and dangle from one hand when you lean to the side without much strain. You have to go back to basic for the descent though. The switch from Russian to Basic resulted in my first fall and rope burn because my mind was too slow to process the change and my arms were too weak to hold me while my mind caught up. I persevered though!

My second favorite thing next to Koala is Toga. You put the ropes between your legs, cross it over your arms (like a toga), move the rope to the side of your butt cheek and then flip yourself to the side. The hard part is trusting that the rope will hold you especially since at first it really didn’t and I ended up falling flat on my face. I learned that you have to make your body into a little ball, knees close to your head as much as you can, and make sure your head points down. Thankfully, we are still on the ground when we practice this. Oy! All this probably sounds really confusing. This is were pictures would have been helpful :/.

There are level two students in my class as well. Which is both good and bad. The girls are all really sweet and helpful and I love seeing them work on their more advanced moves. I get really excited when I see what they are working on. I can’t wait to start doing what they are doing but even though visualizing what I want in the future is all well and good I have to really remind myself not to dwell on it too much. I have a tendency to get overwhelmed and impatient way too quickly so I need to pull myself into the present as much as I can.

So this is what my past two Mondays have consisted off. I have four more classes, but I hope to keep going for much longer than that. And then try hoops, and trapeze, and the harness AND I have to bring myself back to the present now.

Sorry for the lack of pictures from the actual class. It is pretty hard to hold a camera while climbing and I am way too shy and awkward to ask people I’ve just met to take pictures of me. Maybe I’ll grow a pair for next class, if not, maybe I’ll get a chance to perform sometime in the future! (Back to the present, back to the present, back to the present).

Eh let’s dream a little! Check this video out. It is a student show from the same place I am taking classes now.