Those are the lyrics to a song I sang along with my classmates during our Kindergarden Circus back in the spring of 1988. I remember being jealous of my friend who got to wear a cute, pink leotard and swing back and forth, hanging from her knees. I wore gray sweats and a paper grocery bag on my head that vaguely resembled a hippo's face. My song was also less flattering... "The fat, fat, hippopotamus, opens up his jaws. He has the largest, widest mouth I ev-ver saw." No emotional scarring there at all....
Anyway, back to the present day, and thanks to Meagan's awesome adventure planning, I finally got my turn as the girl on the trapeze.... minus the pink leotard.
For this adventure we headed to Quixotic Performing Arts Center in Midtown, Kansas City. From the street, you could never imagine what all goes on beyond the small, unassuming storefront. We walked in to a small lobby area that overlooked a spacious, lofty studio with various ropes, silks and metal apparatuses hanging from the ceiling. After signing our liability waivers and removing our shoes, we made our way onto the studio floor and began our "Beginner Trapeze" class with a rather rigorous stretching regimen. Naively, the difficulty and discomfort I had with the warm-up, gave me little concern for the intensity of what we were about to partake in. Our instructor, Jenny, explained that we would be sharing the studio space with an "Intermediate Silks" class (look for glimpses of them in the background of our photos), and that we would be working on static and dance trapezes (not quite the same as my Kindergarten dream, but equally impressive).
After stretching, the two classes seperated to different sides of the studio, and we received a basic introduction to proper body mechanics, hand grips and muscles involved in the art of trapeze. In the photos below, Jenny asked us to imagine we are holding a beachball while squeezing oranges under our arms. The point was for us to feel our back and shoulder muscles engage so that we recognized these as the proper muscles to use, rather than our biceps.
Jenny then went on to demonstrate for us the proper way to mount and dismount the trapeze bar; this would be our first task. As we got to work we were all surprised by the difficulty we had, and slightly embarrassed by our lack of upper-body strength. However, with the assistance of our "spotters," who ended up being more like "lifters," we all succeeded!
After working out the kinks.... pinched fingers, hand placements, weight distribution, and the fear of letting go.... we were all able to successfully complete each of the three tricks Jenny had us work on (even though we are missing photo proof of a few).
*In the following photo collages, please notice Jenny in the top left photo displaying what the trick is supposed to look like, followed by the Femmes' versions of the same trick.
Then came the final trick that Jenny had in mind for us. She said, "Now we're going to hang by our necks." Excuse me??? We all attempted, but Seabrin was the only one who was able to support her entire body weight with her arms, which is what the trick required. Again, we didn't get a pic of Seabrin's success, but you can see her working on it, along with some of the Femmes' failed attempts below.
By this point, we were all pretty tired, sore and hungry, so we spent the last 20 minutes of class "playing" on the dance trapeze.
Then we enlisted Jenny in one of our infamous group photos.
Look! There's Amy! Curious why she didn't participate? Well...
...she's recovering from a broken hand injury! Still a good sport, who didn't want to miss out on Adventure Club, Amy came to laugh at us encourage and support us. Wishing you a quick recovery Amy!
While there was plenty of awkwardness, discomfort and hesitation along the way, in the end our trapeze adventure was a HUGE success! It was both physically and mentally challenging, probably more than any of us expected, but still so much fun. I believe this ranks amongst our top adventures because we were all equally successful, no one had any obvious dislike for what we were doing, and it was just such a good time! Just look at these smiles.
*Not pictured are the multitude of bruises from our hips to our knees that we all developed over the days following our adventure.
Then came the final trick that Jenny had in mind for us. She said, "Now we're going to hang by our necks." Excuse me??? We all attempted, but Seabrin was the only one who was able to support her entire body weight with her arms, which is what the trick required. Again, we didn't get a pic of Seabrin's success, but you can see her working on it, along with some of the Femmes' failed attempts below.
By this point, we were all pretty tired, sore and hungry, so we spent the last 20 minutes of class "playing" on the dance trapeze.
Then we enlisted Jenny in one of our infamous group photos.
Look! There's Amy! Curious why she didn't participate? Well...
While there was plenty of awkwardness, discomfort and hesitation along the way, in the end our trapeze adventure was a HUGE success! It was both physically and mentally challenging, probably more than any of us expected, but still so much fun. I believe this ranks amongst our top adventures because we were all equally successful, no one had any obvious dislike for what we were doing, and it was just such a good time! Just look at these smiles.
*Not pictured are the multitude of bruises from our hips to our knees that we all developed over the days following our adventure.
