http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoLVWvqEwzs (play and read while listening to the music)
After four classes, and months of waiting, the moment had finally come. I walked into the studio to begin the warm-up and to stretch out. I busied myself preparing my mind and body for a workout climbing the corde lisse and maybe, just maybe this week I would be strong enough and brave enough to reach the top. That’s when Jackie looked at us, and told us that if we felt comfortable, we could try climbing the silks. It did not matter to her which we did, but she did want us to try climbing at least once on the silks to get used to holding and climbing that much fabric. We were to learn moves on the silks today instead of the corde lisse. I was so excited that I could hardly contain a squeal. Today was one of those days that where I learned many new and exciting moves.
We of course began by climbing with both legs. It definitely felt different than climbing on the rope. While the rope was course and a bit hard, the fabric was more flexible and slippery. It was more comfortable on the feet, and less rope burn occurred, but the slipperiness required me to pinch the fabric differently than I would hold onto the corde lisse.
Having successfully climbed the silks, we began to learn simple moves. First we tried the “inverted hang” and from there we went to the “birds nest” then the “birds nest, 1-leg between” and then “inverted hang splits”. The “inverted hang” is when you reach up, grab one hand onto each strip of fabric and flip upside down. Your body should be hollow (meaning back and legs are straight with pointed toes) and your arms are straight and held close to your sides. The “birds nest” is done the same way that it is on the trapeze, with one foot on each rope, but you get there from the inverted hang move. To do the “birds nest, 1-leg between”, you simply leg go with one leg. The “inverted splits” are in the same vein, starting the in the “inverted hang” position, split your legs. The inverted moves were not challenging, the only hard part was that my hands kept slipping since the fabric is much more slippery than the corde lisse. To fix this problem, there was some resin that made your hands sticky to grip the fabric better.
We finished our lesson on the fabric with some moves that we learned on the corde lisse. We did the “foot block”, “arch thru”, “stag thru”, and the “split down”. The “arch thru and “stag thru” can be equated with the “back arch” on the corde lisse, except you hold onto each piece of fabric with each hand. The “split down” is simply, holding onto the fabric very low, with one foot in the “foot block” and splitting the legs. It looks very elegant and shows off the strength and grace of those that do it. Something to mention about the “foot block” on the fabric…it is so much less painful. Instead of putting pressure on three points on your foot to hold all your weight like the corde lisse, the fabric wraps your foot, for the most part evening out the pressure points.
I wanted to spend all day on the fabric, but unfortunately for me, Jackie and Mary Kelly thought it would be valuable for us to finish learning the “mermaid sequence”. We did the moves we had already learned last week, the “mermaid”, “½ angel”, “back angel”, and “one-hand one-foot”. It was good review because I had clearly already forgotten how to do them. We then learned two more moves, the “one-knee one-elbow” and the “candlestick”. The “one-knee one-elbow” is similar to the “one-hand one-foot”, in that from the latter move, your pull yourself up and bend one knee and one elbow around the trapeze instead of just one foot and one hand. When done correctly, the move looks like you’re a shirt on a clothesline, just chillin out. For the “candlestick”, your simply bend the free knee over the knee bent around the trapeze and let go so that you are suspended only by your bent knees.
That position looked a lot scarier and unstable than it actually was.
We finished the lesson with the same “toughening” and “strengthening” exercises that we have been doing. One of the students, Anthony, who is training to become a professional ballerina, noticed that I was having an easy time with the sit-ups. So he suggested that I try them from an “ankle hang”. It was definitely more challenging and worked a different set of abdominal muscles. We got to talking, and we realized that we knew many of the same people. Shulie Shmaters, who goes to the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and four other girls who are or were in the same dance company as him that I knew from school.
During today’s class, my mom decided to pop in for the end of it. She was beside herself by the time I was finished. She kept saying that she wanted someone under me to catch me if I fell. Right…like that would help when falling from the ceiling to the floor. Having my mom there however made the whole post-lesson explanation easier. Previously, I would come home and my parents would ask me what I did, and I would tell them that it’s very hard to explain and they would get very upset that I couldn’t tell them anything for all the money they were spending on the classes. So my mom agreeing with me when I needed to explain it to my dad made the whole thing easier.
After four classes, and months of waiting, the moment had finally come. I walked into the studio to begin the warm-up and to stretch out. I busied myself preparing my mind and body for a workout climbing the corde lisse and maybe, just maybe this week I would be strong enough and brave enough to reach the top. That’s when Jackie looked at us, and told us that if we felt comfortable, we could try climbing the silks. It did not matter to her which we did, but she did want us to try climbing at least once on the silks to get used to holding and climbing that much fabric. We were to learn moves on the silks today instead of the corde lisse. I was so excited that I could hardly contain a squeal. Today was one of those days that where I learned many new and exciting moves.
We of course began by climbing with both legs. It definitely felt different than climbing on the rope. While the rope was course and a bit hard, the fabric was more flexible and slippery. It was more comfortable on the feet, and less rope burn occurred, but the slipperiness required me to pinch the fabric differently than I would hold onto the corde lisse.
Having successfully climbed the silks, we began to learn simple moves. First we tried the “inverted hang” and from there we went to the “birds nest” then the “birds nest, 1-leg between” and then “inverted hang splits”. The “inverted hang” is when you reach up, grab one hand onto each strip of fabric and flip upside down. Your body should be hollow (meaning back and legs are straight with pointed toes) and your arms are straight and held close to your sides. The “birds nest” is done the same way that it is on the trapeze, with one foot on each rope, but you get there from the inverted hang move. To do the “birds nest, 1-leg between”, you simply leg go with one leg. The “inverted splits” are in the same vein, starting the in the “inverted hang” position, split your legs. The inverted moves were not challenging, the only hard part was that my hands kept slipping since the fabric is much more slippery than the corde lisse. To fix this problem, there was some resin that made your hands sticky to grip the fabric better.
We finished our lesson on the fabric with some moves that we learned on the corde lisse. We did the “foot block”, “arch thru”, “stag thru”, and the “split down”. The “arch thru and “stag thru” can be equated with the “back arch” on the corde lisse, except you hold onto each piece of fabric with each hand. The “split down” is simply, holding onto the fabric very low, with one foot in the “foot block” and splitting the legs. It looks very elegant and shows off the strength and grace of those that do it. Something to mention about the “foot block” on the fabric…it is so much less painful. Instead of putting pressure on three points on your foot to hold all your weight like the corde lisse, the fabric wraps your foot, for the most part evening out the pressure points.
I wanted to spend all day on the fabric, but unfortunately for me, Jackie and Mary Kelly thought it would be valuable for us to finish learning the “mermaid sequence”. We did the moves we had already learned last week, the “mermaid”, “½ angel”, “back angel”, and “one-hand one-foot”. It was good review because I had clearly already forgotten how to do them. We then learned two more moves, the “one-knee one-elbow” and the “candlestick”. The “one-knee one-elbow” is similar to the “one-hand one-foot”, in that from the latter move, your pull yourself up and bend one knee and one elbow around the trapeze instead of just one foot and one hand. When done correctly, the move looks like you’re a shirt on a clothesline, just chillin out. For the “candlestick”, your simply bend the free knee over the knee bent around the trapeze and let go so that you are suspended only by your bent knees.
That position looked a lot scarier and unstable than it actually was.We finished the lesson with the same “toughening” and “strengthening” exercises that we have been doing. One of the students, Anthony, who is training to become a professional ballerina, noticed that I was having an easy time with the sit-ups. So he suggested that I try them from an “ankle hang”. It was definitely more challenging and worked a different set of abdominal muscles. We got to talking, and we realized that we knew many of the same people. Shulie Shmaters, who goes to the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and four other girls who are or were in the same dance company as him that I knew from school.
During today’s class, my mom decided to pop in for the end of it. She was beside herself by the time I was finished. She kept saying that she wanted someone under me to catch me if I fell. Right…like that would help when falling from the ceiling to the floor. Having my mom there however made the whole post-lesson explanation easier. Previously, I would come home and my parents would ask me what I did, and I would tell them that it’s very hard to explain and they would get very upset that I couldn’t tell them anything for all the money they were spending on the classes. So my mom agreeing with me when I needed to explain it to my dad made the whole thing easier.
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