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My first flying trapeze show!

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So - last week I got to be in a flying trapeze show for the very first time. It was the holiday showcase at the Espana Strep Trapeze Academy in Brooklyn. The lineup included the kid advanced fly team (they are amaaaazin), the staff fly team (#goals) and a few aerial acts. And then there were us. The workshop students. We were gathered from the different workshops since not everyone who do the workshops wanted to/could participate. They split us into two groups - the ones who were doing tricks in lines and the ones who was doing things out of safety lines. I was in the OOL group. And oh my, was I nervous! I had no idea how this was going to go with the adrenaline, lights, all that jazz. All I wanted was to catch my trick and return to the board. Not too much to ask, right? As the show was starting the butterfly colony in my stomach was going crazy. Ahhhhh! And then... we were up. We were five flyers in my group and I think only one of my fellow flyers had ever been in a show. So we were

Progress - it is indeed not linear

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Second post. Whaaat! I thought I would write a little bit about making progress in flying trapeze. It is after all...a journey ;) What I have found so far is that progress in indeed not linear... In your first few classes you usually learn a new set trick each class (starting with a knee hang, maybe a knee hang release after that, set split/straddle etc). And then you start to learn how to swing. Boy oh boy.. I have never felt less coordinated than when I started learning that... For reference, here is a video I put together of my swing evolution from April to August: And here is a swing from class yesterday: Still a million things to work on. My force out is not fast enough and I still arch when doing that most of the time. My 7 (the body position that looks like the number 7 as you swing back and kind of lean back as you rise over the platform on the back end - mine looks nothing like the number 7 at the moment.. work in progress...) And so many other things that I won&#

First post on le blog :D

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So here I am - creating a blog about flying trapeze (and circus arts in general). If you had told me I would do this a year ago I would have laughed hard! However, life takes unexpected twists and turns and here we are. Let me tell you a little about myself (if anyone ever reads this blog) I am a 31 (gasp) year old dancer who currently resides in NYC. I am from Norway but after visiting and studying in NYC I decided that this is the place that I need to be. And after a couple of years (and lots of $$$) I was finally approved for an O1 visa in 2016. This is the so called "artist visa" or "Extraordinary abilities" visa and it lasts for three years. Then you have to reapply (dreading that). After moving to NY, I got certified to teach AntiGravity - a form of group fitness which utilizes a hammock to hang upside down in, flip around and do lots of fun exercises. It almost does not feel like working out! I love being in the hammock and when a theatre company that I h