Sunday, October 05, 2008
Life, Health + Fitness

Circus act

Who says getting in shape can’t be a ridiculous amount of fun?

By Colleen Oakley

I remember my first circus. Well, parts of it. I was 5 years old. But I do remember thinking the two things that probably every kid thinks when they go to the circus: 1. “I think I’m going to throw up from the cotton candy, jumbo Coke and popcorn I just inhaled” and 2. “I want to do that when I grow up.” For me, “that” was the flying trapeze. The women were beautiful, graceful and completely uninhibited by heights.

I’m terrified of heights, so that dream quickly diminished, and writing (on a firm desk, close to the ground) replaced my circus fantasies. But years later when I attended Cirque du Soleil, I was still in awe of the daredevil performers.

That’s why I only hesitated for a second when I found out about the Circus Arts Institute in East Atlanta, before signing up for a class.

Carrie Heller, the founder and owner of CAI, is also a psychotherapist and uses circus training methods (juggling, tightrope-walking) as part of her therapy for kids and adults. She introduced herself to me when I entered her studio, and I immediately felt at ease. It looks like a big indoor circus playground, with a few hanging trapeze bars and some long sheet-ropes called webs.

The class of about five students and four teachers slowly trickled in, and we began warming up in a circle with some stretching exercises. “This is probably a good time to tell you I’m terrified of heights,” I said to Carrie, eyeing the trapeze bar over my head.

“We’ll take it easy,” she assured me. “You can start on the low bar, and only if you feel comfortable move to the high bar.” The low bar is only about a foot off the ground. I thought I could handle that.
Kate, an instructor, took me to the low bar and showed me how to sit properly on the bar, move to a standing position and do some graceful “lean backs” while holding on to the sides of the trapeze with both hands.

Then she tested my arm strength by having me lift my legs into my chest in an “egg position” and hold my body weight using only my arms. I was able to stay up for a few seconds, which she said was good.

Then I moved on to the web. Blake, another instructor, showed me how to properly use my arms and legs to climb up the rope and lower myself back down. “You make it look so easy!” I said to him.

“You try it,” he responded. He held the web steady for me at the bottom, and I maneuvered my way halfway up the rope. When I looked down, the ground was about 10 feet below me.

“I thought you were scared of heights!” Carrie yelled up at me.

“You make it look so easy,” Blake jokingly taunted me as I made my way back down.

On the ground, I wiped the sweat from my brow and beamed with pride. I wasn’t terrified of heights here because I was in control of my movements—and it was all really fun.

The rest of the class flew by as I practiced the tight rope (only a foot or so off the ground), the hula hoop, juggling and then finally moved onto the high trapeze, where Carrie and Kate helped me get up on it and practice standing and leaning back.

At the end of class, my arms were sore, I was shaky and sweating a bit, but I had never had more fun working out. I felt like I was 5 years old at the circus again. And while I might not be flying through the air with the greatest of ease yet, I feel sure that given time, I could be. SP