Sunday, September 16, 2007

CIRCUS SCHOOL WEEK 1

Monkey and I got settled in last week for our 4 month autumn adventure at the New England Center for Circus Arts. There are 16 people in our class- all amazing and talented ALREADY- I can't wait to see our progress! Our main teachers are Elsie and Serenity- the "Trapeze Twins"- pretty much the nicest, most graceful and pleasant people you could ever meet...until they make you do crazy things that are insanely painful! Our week consists of 3 group classes (3 hours long), a 1 hour private lesson (with Bill Forchion) and another 3 hour minimum of open studio time- we also have to start running on our own several times each week. The first few days were challenging, yet manageable- full of majorly intense partner stretching and conditioning exercises mostly with Elsie. But then on Friday, Serenity took it up several notches- probably waiting until the last day of the week so we would have the weekend to recover. By the end of the week, I was generally tender and tired everywhere- but we had to give 200%. Some of the more memorable difficult moments included 1.5 minute handstands, followed by 1.5 minute crow (an arm balance), followed by another minute handstand and ANOTHER minute long crow, 30 slow press up headstands- 10 tuck ups, 10 pike ups, 10 straddle ups. Then over an hour of tumbling drills, trapeze and fabric ab exercises culminating in even more abs! Needless to say, I have been walking like Frankenstein with actual tears welling up in my eyes when I encounter a set of stairs (up and down hurts equally) and even laughing kind of makes me want to curl up and die. Having been in the studio all week has been super productive for our partner balancing and my foot hooping has made massive improvements in just this one week- it's exciting!

6 comments:

Scotty the Blue Bunny said...

Oh my god - I wish I was there! I'm DYING to do a shoulder press. Nothing like that here in sweden - guess I should join the swim team. Glad to read it and see how BEAUTIFUL you are - gonna get back on that workout horse TODAY! I've been eating candy!

Unknown said...

sounds exhausting! and i can't even make myself get to the gym! glad to hear you guys are doing so well. . .xoxox

Pam & Irwin said...

Hey Guys glad to hear you are having fun. All that exercise sounds gruelling.Do you need a case of BenGay for the pain? Sorry I missed monkeys call this weekend. Hugs and kisses. Mom and Dad

Wayneski said...

Sounds like alot of hard work that is going to pay off well. I guess it isn't as fun as jumping on the trapoline and playing "cancel" and farting too much! Ha !!!! Did you ever do that Trixie? I've been thinking about you guys alot. I miss going to the gym and jumping around crazy. I've been bottle feeding my little Quindin and watching too many Charlie Chaplin movies. Good luck with strength and healing.

Unknown said...

You are simply amazing!!!!!!

restew1017 said...

So I'm going into the pro-track program in the fall... this entry makes me excited and terrified all at once. Imma go do as many handstands as my body will manage now.