| | Posted by Gwyneth

A few days ago I headed to the Hudson River Park with some of my dancer colleagues to participate in a rather unique form of cross-training -– we took a flying trapeze class! The Trapeze School of New York holds daily classes in a great location that overlooks the Hudson River, and we all had an amazing time learning how to swing, hang and flip from a trapeze that was suspended 23 feet high in the air!

Of course we were attached to a harness the entire time, so there was no risk of falling or hurting ourselves. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t at all frightening! On my first attempt, I was so busy trying to combat my shaking legs and trembling fingers that just getting a firm grip on the trapeze bar was a challenge all in itself. I barely had time to register just how high I was above the ground before the instructors gave me the cue to jump, and suddenly I was flying through the air, trying to pointe my toes and remember how to breathe all at the same time!

Once we all got the hang of it though, we began to have an absolutely incredible time. Our instructors were eager to teach us increasingly difficult maneuvers, and soon we were practicing our own specific aerial tricks! At the end of class we even learned to “catch”, meaning that we swung off of one trapeze into the grasp of one of the instructors who was hanging from a separate trapeze across the net! Not one of us got the catch on the first try, but being the determined ballerinas that we all are, we attempted it until we succeeded.

Here’s a picture of all of us with our three fantastic instructors.

And here are some pics of us “flying”!

I think I can safely say that none of us have plans to join the circus anytime soon, but needless to say it was an amazing experience and hopefully we’ll all be back again. If anyone wants to take a trapeze class, the school has locations in New York, Baltimore and Boston. I highly recommend it, and you don’t have to be a ballerina to try!