Inside of a giant building hidden in the middle of a block of corporate offices for places no one has ever heard of is Lone Star Circus School...the only professional circus school in Texas I might add.
It may just be the best kept secret in Dallas, but I'm on a mission to share its wonders with the world!
Last Saturday morning I got up early, pulled my hair back, removed all my jewelry, selected an outfit abiding by the many rules, plugged an address into my GPS and headed off for my first day of CIRCUS SCHOOL...a little nervous about what to expect but totally ready to find out.
I arrived early enough to look around and get a feel for the place, watching the end of the children's class before mine. A dozen or so little kids scurried up the silk ropes as easily as a monkey would and contorted their little bodies into whatever shape the instructor happened to be requesting at the time and they all had huge smiles on their faces. Yup...I was in the right place. Now I was just hoping that it really was as easy as they were making it out to be. Seriously, they're all scrawny, uncoordinated 7 year olds...how hard could it really be?!
That was my first mistake...thinking it would be easy. I'll admit I had a fantasy in my head that because of all my years of dance that it would come so naturally to me and the instructor would compliment me in front of the class stating how she'd never seen someone pick it up so easily and that I was sure to be a star. HA! That bubble popped real quick.
The trampoline warm-up was cool, the stretching was easy, and the ab toning section was challenging but not altogether impossible. At that point I was feeling pretty good about myself.
We all chose a set of silks (I purposely chose the light pink to match my carefully selected outfit) and the assistant instructor came over to help me learn the ropes (haha! pun!)
Let me pause here for a second and tell you a bit about these instructors...2 of them are well over 50 yet have the best bodies I've ever seen in my life. They're in incredible shape and if they weren't so nice and friendly they'd be really intimidating. The assistant who helped me out a bit was maybe a year older than me, but still had that amazing body. I found out she got into the silks only a year ago, and came from a dance background like me...so there's some hope for me yet!
Ok, back to the story.
So the first thing I had to learn was to climb the silks. Logically, in order to do the pretty tricks, you have to get off the ground first. The move is simple to learn and looks pretty easy. NOT! Half of the move requires the person to sustain themselves on the silks using only their hands...I do NOT have that much arm strength! The other half requires a fairly simple leg maneuver that creates a "step" on which you can rest for a second giving your arms a break before they have to lift your entire body weight up a few inches again. It's ridiculously hard but I managed to get a few feet off the ground a couple of times and the instructors keep insisting I'll get the hang of it soon.
After I mastered the climb (or rather, my arms gave out and the instructor decided to give me a little mercy) I learned a few tricks on the loop and then learned how to make a stable base on which to balance enabling me to get into some more complicated positions that look really cool but don't require near as much effort as just climbing up the darn thing.
All in all, it was a blast. I was surprised how fast you can learn some basic tricks that look really cool with only one hour and a half class. I was not prepared for how sore I'd be the next few days though! That's one intense workout. They should be selling THAT on late night infomercials!
I can't wait to go back, and have already recruited a few friends to come along as well. So if my career in marketing doesn't work out...I can always run away and join the circus ;)
