The Seventeenth Class – Mary 14, 2009

I have decided that it really isn’t necessary for me to describe my Aerial Conditioning class, for the purpose of my Senior Project. If it becomes apparent that I am learning a significant number of tricks to warrant a write up, I will, but as for now, I will only be summarizing my Beginner Aerials B and Intermediate/Advanced classes.

Tonight was the first night of my Intermediate/Advanced Aerials class. Shana Kennedy, the owner of The Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, is my teacher. I was told that she is the best at breaking down the more complicated moves, so that is why I signed up for her class. I feel confident with the basic moves, but for the more advanced ones, I’m not so full-speed-ahead.

But today, Shana was out of town, so my Monday night instructor, Kate, was our teacher.

We spent the entire time on the fabric. My favorite. Clearly Kate and I were off to a good start since she bypassed all the parts I don’t like and went straight for the ones I do. After climbing with our left and right foot, we learned a new climb, the straddle climb. In this video, the girl goes up a few climbs. This will explain the move much better than I can, I’m sure. We followed that up with the “waist block”, “part 2”, “part 3”, and “flyer”. From the waist block, we learned a move called the “secretary”, which involves a wrap that starts from the “waist block”, and ends with you sitting on the silks as if you were sitting at a desk. The other move we learned doesn’t have a formal name, but Kate likes to call it the sumo wrestler because of the way the fabric ties around your legs. This is a picture of a similar move. In the “sumo” move though, there is an extra wrap around the groin. Cool stuff.

From the “upside-down descent”, we worked on “upside-down T” and “frog”.

Because I was sore and tired from the Aerial Conditioning class, and I somehow managed to injure my back doing the "upside-down X" during my Beginner Aerials B class, I was not able to do as many tuck ups as I had on Monday. I only managed 1 alone before requiring help. Hey, at least I tried and in the future, I will be able to do more because of my temporary pain right now.