See What Happens in a Trapeze School Class
with
Jonathan Conant
Ever wonder what it's like to fly high, circus-style? Take a peek into a trapeze school class, and it might get tacked on your list of adventure travels.
Related Articles
Vintage Inspired: Trapeze DressesQuadriceps Stretch - Walking Warm-up StretchesPeople clip art of children including a girl dressed in yellow and a boy in jeans holding hands plus the same image with a drop shadow*Additional Articles for MayPeople clip art of children including a girl and two boys holding hands plus the same image with a drop shadow
Transcript: See What Happens in a Trapeze School Class
Hi, my name is Jonathan Conant and I'm president and co-founder of Trapeze School New York for About.com. Today were going to show you what its like to fly on a trapeze for the very first time.Trapeze School New York was founded back in 2001. And we looked around for quite a while actually before we found our space in the Hudson River Park. People at the Hudson River, just after 9/11, asked us to come in, and got excited about having us down there.
How Scary Is Trapeze School?
Our slogan is forget fear, worry about the addiction. But the truth is we don't actually forget fear here we actually expect people to be a little nervous.And it's actually a process of working through your nervousness and other feelings that might come up. And actually pushing through to something where you can manage that and so something pretty exhilarating that’s one of the most amazing things about flying.
Trapeze School Beginner Routines
Today we are going to be doing the knee hang and the back flip, and it's pretty much what it sounds like. We're going to have you swing out, your going to put your legs over the bar. You're going to swing back and take your hands off of the bar and swing by your knees, pointing your hands at the catch trap which is where the catcher sits. And that's the first thing you're going to do to get caught by the catcher. So knees up, hands off, point your hands at the catcher.Benefits of Trapeze School
Everybody comes a little bit scared, some people very scared, but once they've done it they realize you know I wonder what else in my life I've let fear keep me from doing. And what I might go out and challenge myself with.Basic Trapeze Instruction
You will be asked to put both of your hands out on the bar. The key at this moment for the perfect takeoff is hips forward, shoulders back. At this point Audrey will lean you wait out into space so the only thing on the platform is your feet. She’s going to say ready, you'll bend your knees and then she’s going to say 'hep.' which means go in trapeze lingo. You're going to take a tiny bunny hop off the board, hep. Well, who would like to go first?The line with the rope goes on your left, you walk over to the ladder and put your hands on the rungs and climb right up.
Typical Trapeze School Classes
Every class is a little bit different. You never know who's going to show up and your going to discover pretty quickly that the skills on the rig aren't that different then skills that you've used in your life before. You know like putting your knees over a bar or swinging on swing at the playground. We will teach you how to do a knee hang and a back flip and maybe even get caught by the catcher.We're continually getting people saying that was the best time I’ve ever had and we've had some very dramatic experiences as well. People who have actually gone out and made major changes in their life based on the ideas that we're trying to teach here which is that you know, frankly you can do anything you put your mind to and you're probably capable of a lot more than you ever imagined.
Thanks for watching. To learn more visit us at About.com.