More new things! Off the ground edition.
Today I was suddenly possessed by an imperative to carpe all the diems, and have, with something like half hour notice between the decision and the doing, proceeded with yet another new venture, which I'd been vaguely contemplating as perhaps a thing to attempt someday, but had never gathered the round tuits.
It's pretty damn rare that I get endorphins from physical activity, so I relish it when it happens. Dancing does it, of course, but dancing is much more than physical, and I've not been doing as much of it as I'd like. The one time I went wall-climbing, that did it too.
I fear I might have acquired a new un-cheap hobby, because this surely does the trick too: I went to the local circus school and took a class entitled "Adult Aerial Arts Workout". The class is an hour long, it starts with a warm-up, proceeds to 15 minutes or so of trapeze, followed by half hour on silks.
The proprietor instantly appeared welcoming, kind and encouraging. Once we got to the stretching this impression was reinforced: rather than (like I've seen in so many classes) showing the stretch full-out and then condescending to adjust for the clumsy, inflexible newbs, he showed a "can be done by anyone" version and mentioned what sort of a more strenuous approach could be taken if desired. This was perhaps the first warm-up EVER when at no point was I made to feel like the stiff lump that I know myself to be.
The class size tops out at 10; this time there were 7 (and the reg website lets one see that before one buys). There appeared to be 6 positions, so one pair of students who came together seemed to trade off with each other, and the rest of us had a rig to ourselves. The instructor showed an exercise that most everyone else seemed able to accomplish but that was a new sequence or combination that nobody had in fact done quite that way before, talked or assisted me through as much of it as was reasonable for a first go, sometimes suggested a thing to try, other times let me take a breather, and continued the rounds.
Which means that today I've hung upside down by my knees and perched sitting up on the trapeze, and also tried a good half dozen things with the silks - all of them no more than a foot of the ground, but some of them actual, y'know, moves, with names and things. I couldn't complete an upside down thing because my breath decided to dis-cooperate and I had to bail, but everything else went better than I expected, and my body gave me more than I thought it would. I certainly couldn't independently replicate any of the things I have done without someone talking me through them. But between the class format and the instructor, for once I can totally believe that I can manage to keep going in this.
I'm told I got farther along than average, which I attribute in even parts to dance, stubbornness and gleeful brain chemicals latching onto the novelty.
This thing comes in packages of 8 lessons to be used over the course of 16 weeks. Which means approximately every two weeks between now and June. Hmm.
It's pretty damn rare that I get endorphins from physical activity, so I relish it when it happens. Dancing does it, of course, but dancing is much more than physical, and I've not been doing as much of it as I'd like. The one time I went wall-climbing, that did it too.
I fear I might have acquired a new un-cheap hobby, because this surely does the trick too: I went to the local circus school and took a class entitled "Adult Aerial Arts Workout". The class is an hour long, it starts with a warm-up, proceeds to 15 minutes or so of trapeze, followed by half hour on silks.
The proprietor instantly appeared welcoming, kind and encouraging. Once we got to the stretching this impression was reinforced: rather than (like I've seen in so many classes) showing the stretch full-out and then condescending to adjust for the clumsy, inflexible newbs, he showed a "can be done by anyone" version and mentioned what sort of a more strenuous approach could be taken if desired. This was perhaps the first warm-up EVER when at no point was I made to feel like the stiff lump that I know myself to be.
The class size tops out at 10; this time there were 7 (and the reg website lets one see that before one buys). There appeared to be 6 positions, so one pair of students who came together seemed to trade off with each other, and the rest of us had a rig to ourselves. The instructor showed an exercise that most everyone else seemed able to accomplish but that was a new sequence or combination that nobody had in fact done quite that way before, talked or assisted me through as much of it as was reasonable for a first go, sometimes suggested a thing to try, other times let me take a breather, and continued the rounds.
Which means that today I've hung upside down by my knees and perched sitting up on the trapeze, and also tried a good half dozen things with the silks - all of them no more than a foot of the ground, but some of them actual, y'know, moves, with names and things. I couldn't complete an upside down thing because my breath decided to dis-cooperate and I had to bail, but everything else went better than I expected, and my body gave me more than I thought it would. I certainly couldn't independently replicate any of the things I have done without someone talking me through them. But between the class format and the instructor, for once I can totally believe that I can manage to keep going in this.
I'm told I got farther along than average, which I attribute in even parts to dance, stubbornness and gleeful brain chemicals latching onto the novelty.
This thing comes in packages of 8 lessons to be used over the course of 16 weeks. Which means approximately every two weeks between now and June. Hmm.