Category: Free Inquiry (Page 1 of 2)

After 10 weeks of practicing aerial acrobatics, I have felt a deep sense of accomplishment, nostalgia, and physical resilience. Returning to a sport I once loved has reignited my passion while also presenting challenges, particularly in rebuilding strength, endurance, and pain tolerance. I have experienced moments of excitement, especially when moves from high school came back to me, but also frustration as I worked through physical limitations and soreness.

After reflecting on this session of classes I have appreciation for how different aerial apparatuses connect, and how much I enjoy rediscovering old skills while adapting to new ones. The learning process has been both rewarding and demanding my body has faced bruises, fatigue, and soreness, yet I’ve pushed through, gaining confidence and refining my technique. I’ve also discovered personal preferences, enjoying silks and hammock while finding hoop and trap far more painful and challenging.

Overall, I feel incredibly proud of my progress, even as I recognize areas for continued growth. The journey has reinforced my love for movement, adaptability in learning, and ability to overcome physical discomfort to achieve graceful, controlled motion.

I am so excited for after spring break as I have already registered in beginners Silks classes for another 10 week session. I cannot begin to describe how happy I am being back in a sport I once loved!

This first move is one of my favorites. When I did silks in high school I used to do this move all the time. I found silks such a great support for dance as I didn’t have a floor under me holding me back. I was able to push my flexibility farther than I typically could in the studio. While my flexibility is nowhere near where it used to be it is still so fun getting to do moves I am familiar with.

While I unfortunately don’t remember the name of this move once I figured out how far I needed to twist in order to complete it, it was quiet a simple and straightforward move. Going forward I would love to see how far I could actually go, how may it look different as my flexibility gets better or as I get stronger. The additional thing I wanted to mention about the name, is that with silks you unfortunately can’t just look through a book of move names. There’s no universal dictionary of terms like there is with dance.

The final move I filmed was Tootsie Roll. For me this was an extremely easy move as it was one that I did almost every practice for warm up when I was in high school. It felt so reminiscent of my previous knowledge and just reminded me of just how much I enjoy Aerial Silks.

In this video I am doing a Thigh Roll. Once figuring out the movement it was quiet simple however it is a bit uncomfortable as with each roll the Hammock gets tighter and tighter. I think with practice this move will get easier, I will be able to gain better control and my body will get more used to the pressure of the fabric tightly wrapped around different body parts.

For the next clip I am performing a Stag. I really enjoyed this move as it really isn’t uncomfortable to get into. In this move you are able to position your legs in a number of ways. You can even add a little spin to it if you feel comfortable. I would love to try this move at a higher height and further experiment with it. I think this is a great beginner move to get someone comfortable with being upside down or even spinning.

The final clip I filmed was Divers Roll. This was also the last move I did before class ended so I was quite tired at this point. Being that I was quiet exhausted part of the move is bouncing back up, this step was hard to complete because in part of how tired I was. I also think with further practice I would be more capable to better execute the move. Overall though I did find it super fun and I would love to see how many times I could do it in a row.

Today we warmed up by playing a game called Volcanoes where there are small cones laid out around the floor. Some are face up (point up) are volcanoes, the ones that are face down (point to the ground) are eruptions. Thr group was split into 2 teams and the goal was to flip the cones to the side your team is. The volcano team is flipping the eruption cones and the reverse for the other team. We had 1 minute each round to flip as many cones as possible while the other team is basically undoing your work. Inserted below is an example of the game and the link to the website I found the video on.

Fit Kids Healthy Kids

Since last class I have developed some decent bruises, which is very common as your body gets used to the pressure of rolling, dropping, and hanging from different parts of your body you don’t typically use on the day to day. Additionally my grip isnt as strong as last week, my hands are still fairly sore and raw.

We reviewed a few of our moves from last class. In total between the 2 weeks, we have learned Delihila, Horse, Toe on Split, Horse to Star, Man in Moon, Amazon, Knee Hangs, Dragon Fly, Mermaid, Angel, and Lion in the Tree.

By the end of class I was physically exhausted, I had lost almost all grip strength by the end of class, my biceps and legs were on fire. Specifically the backs of my knees were killing me. After completing our 2 weeks of hoop I can definitely say aerial hoop is not for me. Regardless of bruises being common, I bruise very easy and they stay around for long periods of time which makes turn around for learning new moves or working on the same moves really tricky.

Today was our first week of hoop. My predictions were right about how painful it is. We started with a typical warm up on the floor, then we did shoulder shrugs and straight arm pull ups on the hoop.

For the first class we first learned several different knee hangs, how to mount and dismount the hoop and how to climb up to the different levels of the hoop (hang under, sit on the hoop, stand on the hoop, sit on top of the hoop, and stand on top of the hoop).

For the remainder of the class we learned a couple of different beginner moves to start us off, such as: Toe on Split, Horse, Man in Moon, Delilah, and Dragonfly.

Reflecting back on the class I can not begin to describe how sore my hands are from hanging and gripping onto the hoop. The backs of my knees are so sore and it feels like someone has punched me with all their might in my hips and thighs. I give huge props to people who not only choose to do hoop but make it look effortless and graceful. I could personally never see myself doing hoop myself but for the sake of doing silks it is a required part of ABC’s Aerial, which is a prerequisite for any high level aerial classes.

Today was our last class on hammock before we move on to hoop. We warmed up the same as last class.

During this class we learned and reviewed several moves. Some of which include spins, straddle, stag, gazelle, jolly jumper, divers roll, thigh roll, inverts, knee hooks, pullovers, and walking man.

I am already noticing that some skills from the first week are easier than last week. It’s interesting to see how I have to shift my brain from what I learned in silks in highschool and how easy it came to me. Where now 6 years later I am having to rebuild my strength and endurance and re toughen my skin as you hang and drop from weird parts of your body that you wouldn’t typically I other sports.

I found I really enjoy hammock, I think it is because of how similar it is to silks. I am definitely nervous about moving onto hoop as I have heard how painful it can be.

For the first class we went through the beginning rules and expectations. I am in a class of 7 students and 1 teacher. We did formal introductions, explained our levels of understanding and experiences. Wrapping up the introductions we went over safety rules.

To start the movement part of the class we warmed up our bodies, both stretching and small short exercises like planks and sit ups. This is to be the typical warm up. For the first class we are learning the Hammock, similar to what it sounds like it is a single piece of fabric tied to a metal loop that is attached to a carabiner on a hook in the ceiling. Once we were warm we were instructed to place mats under the Hammock for safety if we are to fall and then we began.

We started by warming up our shoulders doing 5 – 10 shoulder shrugs in a seated position, then 5 – 10 pull ups with straight arms and our legs straight.

From there we learned how to mount and dismount the hammock, we learned a couple of standing skills, and working on our balance in holds from both the sitting and standing position.

I found hammock very similar to the silks. It reminded me of skills in the knot. When I asked my instructor about that she explained to me how it in fact is similar, and that often circus schools will opt out of the extra expense and upkeep of an additional apperatice. In turn the will just use skills and tie them in a knot.

I definitely did not realize how much I truly missed aerial acrobatics. While there is a definite learning and re learning curve I am so excited to get back into this sport.

When thinking about my decision on what I wanted to do for my inquiry project I was tossing between a few ideas. Being that it is the start of a New Year I thought what a better excuse to check off something I wanted to learn this year. Going down my list of plans I had narrowed it down to 2 ideas that could withstand the criteria and time period needed for this assignment.

The first thought was learning to make sourdough bread. Learning the up keep process of a sourdough starter, how to make a sourdough starter, learning new recipes, and actually making different baked goods out of the starter other than just bread. I started to go down this path, I found someone who was willing to teach me, additionally give me a batch of their generations old sourdough starter. While this was definitely a viable option demonstrating a learning process I realized this was more so a project I wanted to learn on my own time and not be required to document on and be on a specific schedule.

I then looked into my alternate option which is re learning aerial acrobatics. I thought this would be perfect, I have a class every Tuesday night and I already have to document my learning as to remember what moves have what names and brief descriptions on how each move is executed.

In summary, for my inquiry project I will be learning how to perform moves on the hammock, hoop, silks, and trapeze.