Eighteen Chai!!! – May 18, 2009

Today, Kate was absent, so Kitsie (who is in both my Aerial Conditioning and my Intermediate/Advanced classes) taught the Beginner Aerials B today. My back is still sore from the last class, but hey, you move on and deal with the pain. This past weekend, in fact Saturday night, my friends Laura and Sarah went with me to see the Barnum & Bailey Circus – Zing, Zang, Zoom. It was definitely fun to watch and I got excited because some of the move the performers did on the silks, I knew variations on. Yay!

Today, we climbed on both feet on the corde lisse. We also did the “foot block” moves: “elbow lean away”, “1-hand hang”, “squat”, “back arch”, “thigh side lean” and the “back of knee hang”. We did the “waist block” moves: “part 2”, “part 3”, and “flyer”. After that little review, we learned the “Christ moves #1 & #2”. They are variations on the “trapezius angel”, but without the “foot block”.

On the trapeze, we did the “rock and roll”, and then in order we did: the “stag”, “tuck up on ropes” and “birds nest”. We then moved onto the “mermaid sequence”: “mermaid”, “½ angel”, “back angel”, “one-hand one-foot”, “one-knee one-elbow”, “candlestick” and “fireman’s hang”. After that, we did the sitting moves “splits”, “trapezius angel”, “gazelles”, “crucifix”, “upside-down X”, “coffin” and “tree creature”.

We finished with the usual toughening and strengthening exercises. Today, I managed two pull ups on my own and three tuck ups. I guess the three class overload schedule was beginning to work.