Flying on the trapeze is an excellent metaphor for life. Long ladders to climb, scary vantage points at which you consider how far you’ve come, and of course, facing your fears and letting go! Only then can you fly with the greatest ease and reap the rewards of your bravery and perseverance.
And it doesn’t hurt to be surrounded by smart, kind people who know what they’re doing, which is certainly the case at Twin Cities Trapeze, where Katie, Russell and Taylor guided us through a quick training followed by trapeze basics including a ‘knee hang’ and catch by an instructor – Val gets all the way to this stage in the video above!
Here I am below facing my fears, although climbing up the ladder was by far the scariest part in my “process,” as the instructors called it. I wasn’t able to do the final catch at the end, but I did high-five Russell, and did the back flip instead! Russell made me feel better about not doing the catch by telling me I was a ‘fast flyer’ and he would easily be able to time it properly if we had more time. The truth is that I was already amazed at what I had accomplished. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything.
The most amazing part for me was watching Violet on the platform (the “board”). When she’s very focused (afraid?), her jaw sets firmly – you can kind of see it in this picture below:
Because kids are much smaller, they don’t have the luxury of grabbing the bar with two feet planted on the board. They have to literally leap out into the air just to grab the bar. I have to say, I’m not sure childhood me would have been able to do that. I was so proud when she jumped out and did this:
She even does the splits! So incredible! And then she did it three more times after that. Walker was up on the board with Violet before she jumped the first time and said that Russell was absolutely amazing with his psychological technique. Violet was clearly scared, but Russell kept just giving orders acting as if she was just going for it. “Here’s the belt….I’ve got you….hold here….hold out your arm….now grab the bar!” Walker said that by the time it was the moment to go for it, she was already there. Yay Russell! In his beginning training speech, he told us that he couldn’t teach confidence, but I think he can safely put it on his resume.
I’m so grateful to Valerie for organizing this whole adventure. Here’s Val doing the ‘on the ground’ training, learning how to push out her hips, lean forward, and grab the bar.
Here’s Walker climbing up the scary ladder. Russell told me that this ladder is a luxurious, spacious one compared to the perfectly vertical, even skinnier kind in the pro realm.
Here are Taylor, Russell and Katie, the owner who was telling me all about the interesting events they have there, such as a Dinner Lab pop up restaurant experience where people watched Katie and Taylor on the trapeze while they ate a fancy seven course meal. They also offer a static trapeze exercise course that sounds very appealing and other experiences, but their “signature offering” is the one we did yesterday, which I will never forget.
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