Really I should have Bryan type this because that is how sore my arms and hands are. Let me say that this experience was nothing like what I thought it would be. There was nothing wrong with what I went through today, but I guess I thought it would be different. By different, I mean that I thought I would be a natural.
So lets start from the beginning, because like the Sound of Music says, it's a very good place to start.
The class started at 1:00. For my own benefit, I decided to leave my place around noon because I am still not completely acquainted with Kansas City and still need the GPS to get around. The area that the class was held in can only be described as industrial. The Union Pacific Railroad passes right by the building where the class was being taught, so there really is no great way to find your way to the building.
I finally got to the front door, and there were 3 women about 40ish standing there wondering what to do. I told them that we are supposed to call the teacher when we get there so she can come down and get us. So I call and we wait in a very cold lobby until one of the instructors comes to get us. While we are waiting for the instructor to come downstairs, I kind of do a quick scan of the people I am waiting with. These women, like I said before, were probably about 40 and in good shape. They must have used the Groupon available and decided to come try aerial skills on this Saturday afternoon. The instructor showed up downstairs and told us to follow her. So we did. She then opens up some wooden gates and tells us to step into the freight elevator. I don't know about you, but freight elevators are not my first choice of ways to go from one floor to another. She must have noticed our uneasiness because she told us that the elevator is very well maintained and they have never had any problems with it before.
We get up to the top level of this alleged abandoned building, and it turns out that it is someones living loft. There are white Christmas lights dropping down from the ceiling, random knick knacks like mannequins, a prosthetic leg, and bikes hanging on walls or from the ceiling. Someone very eclectic lives here. That kind of makes sense seeing as how you are an instructor of aerial skills. Going further into the "classroom" (if you can call it that) you can see that there are a few people already practicing on the silks. It was neat to see what more experience people can do on the silks. After putting my purse down and taking off my shoes, I really started to look around. Remember in my previous blog where I questioned the safety of this activity? Would there be nets or mats or something to catch us if we fall. Guess what! All that would be catching us if we fell would be a wood floors with some throw rugs strung around. Of course, the good thing is that we would not be that high off the ground in this first class, but could you imagine being almost 20 ft off the ground and swinging around knowing that there is nothing to catch your fall?
There were about 9-10 people in the introductory class. One of the students in the class is actually an intern who has only been on staff for a few weeks, but she is there to help with the bigger classes. We started off by doing warm-up stretches. This consisted of a mix of yoga and pilates to strengthen your core. I am all good with yoga, but pilates? Not so much. I don't like to count and hold my breath and hold a pose at the same time. It is just something that is not interesting for me. So we warm up for about 5 minutes. The warm up was so intense in the pilates area of stretching that I was worn out just doing the warm-up!
After the warm up, we split ourselves up into different areas of the room. They had four silk ropes hanging from the ceiling spaced out in the room. Each silk has two ropes to hold. You can do exercises where you put the two ropes together, or you can use them seperately. The first exercise we did was to wrap the silks around our arms and let our hips fall forward. Then you just kind of sway in a circle. This is to help you get used to holding onto the silk and to feel what it is like to use the silks to hold yourself up.
The next step is to pull yourself up in between the silks kind of like a pull up. Have you done a pull up recently? Me either. I cannot pin point the last time I did a pull up, but I think it was in 5th grade. This did not help me feel great about being a natural aerial silks performer. I could not hold myself up to save my life! I would go to do a pull up and would fall right down to the floor. The instructor came up to me and said that if I could not do a pull up, then maybe I should try to just lift my feet off the floor and hang. So I did what I was told, but while I did that, I looked around and saw that the 40 year old women I had waited in the lobby with were able to not only pull themselves up in a pull up, but hold it for a while too. By this time, the intern (her name is TJ) came over to help me. She reassured me that she had problems doing the pull up too and it just takes practice.
Next we were to put the silks together and put them under our right armpit and hold ourselves that way too. Guess what?!?! It's not that I just couldn't pull myself up having one silk in each hand, but I also can't do it using my right side. THEN she wanted us to use our left side! Well if I could not pull myself up using my right side, I sure as heck could not pull myself up using my left side. TJ and I rotated doing the exercises and she would give me pointers on how to maybe help get myself up off the ground.
Then came the tricky stuff. Next we had to learn how to wrap the silks around our ankle and stand in the air using the silk. This is easy for some, but for people like me with small feet, it is actually pretty difficult. I can wrap the silk around my ankle fine, but only once because my foot is too small to keep the silk around my ankle. You are supposed to wrap the silk around your ankle, extend your leg that has the wrapped ankle in front of you, do not put any weight on that leg that is extended, and bring your left leg up so your foot goes in between the silks you are holding onto and your right foot that is wrapped. Then you take your right foot and stand on your left foot and then you have a little knot to stand on. Whew. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds. Like I said before, wrapping my foot is hard because my feet are so small so it cannot support all of the fabric, but also, I cannot fully extend my leg out in front of me. I have just never been able to do this. Well I finally did it right after about 15 tries and with the help of TJ.
After everyone had done as best they could to make the knot, we moved on to some of the fancy poses. We did things like stand up and fall between the silks like this girl.
Then we would move onto other poses like the following:
I couldn't do the pose here. It looks like the easiest one, but I have never been able to fall backwards voluntarily. Plus at this time, I was getting really worn out.
This may come as a surprise, but I could do all of these poses (of course not the last picture like I have already mentioned)! The only problem I had was getting my foot wrapped and locked. After you get by that part, you can really do anything. I should mention though, that TJ left me half way through the class, so I had the silk all to myself. This is not the best scenario though because I was not giving myself time to rest in between. The instructor came over when we were doing the last pose (last picture) and said I should probably stop because I had not let my body rest and was bordering getting an injury. So I stopped. It was also time for class to end, so it was not like I had to miss anything.
Over all, the class was good. The entire time I thought that it probably would not be a terrible idea to either loose some weight so I can pull myself up, or go and work harder on my upper body strength so I can pull myself up.
I have a few more classes before I decide whether this is something I would like to continue. Even if it is not something I will continue after my prepaid classes, it was a great time and I do not know too many people who have done this before. If this is something you would like to do, I would suggest really getting into shape before the first class. You really need to be able to hold your own weight and even be able to hold on to something for more than a few seconds at a time.
-Dusti
