Month: April 2017

Ceiling height:   approximately 20 ft

Address:            Carrer d’Espronceda 326

Cost:                  45 euros for 1.5 hour private session 

E-mail:               infogentecolgada@gmail.com

Rigging: 

The ceiling is vaulted and the building is made out of wood.  Straps attached to the silks and ropes are wrapped in a basket.  The beams are made of wood and the equipment is attached to the support beam.

Review:

Kat runs Gente Colgada.  Like any one-woman show, she also does the admin and answered my e-mails and facebook messages.  It was refreshing to have someone outside of London to answer my e-mails quickly since I had a hard time gaining new connections in Europe.

Kat learned her rope from Emiliano Ron and Nacho Ricci.  Since I wasn’t able to take Emiliano’s workshop in Chicago, at least, I could learn a few moves from one of his students.

She instructed the warm-up and really took the time to work on the shoulders.  I learned some flex-band and weight exercises.  She was quite thorough about the foundations in inversions.  I had an amazing conversation with her.  It was a shame that my video camera was not functioning properly and I only manage to get half of the footage.

I admire the fact that Kat is still willing to do circus after an injury that took a few years to heal.  For the life of a circus artist, it can be a cycle of injury and healing.  It is definitely frustrating to be in a position where one has to heal for more than a few months.  For someone who is training back to the rope, she is moving quite well.

Overall, the private session was a really good session as I learned 2 different variations of straddle climb, one variation from front to back balance and a different entrance to back balance.  I was so immersed in geeking out aerials that I didn’t take a lot of time to cool down.  

One day, I hope that I can go back to Barcelona again.  

Ceiling height:   approx. 35 ft

Address:            Unit 7A, Mellish House, Harrington Way

Cost:                   70 pounds – 1 hour private session

Email:                 aircraftcircusdocs@gmail.com

Rigging: 

The building is made out of metal sidings.  Some straps are wrapped in a basket, while others are wrapped around the beam a few times.  The beams are made of metal.

Review:

I purchased a speciality aerial private session on their website (www.aircraftcircus.com) after I communicated with Aircraft Circus.  I wanted to make sure that there will be an instructor that will be able to teach me bungee trapeze when I was available.  

I had the pleasure to have Alex Frith (one of the directors of Aircraft Circus) as my instructor.  Note: Alex has since stepped down as a director.

Warm-up is done on your own time.   I came half an hour early to do my warm-up and it ended up being postponed until half an hour later as he needed time to set up the bungee.  What administration didn’t know is that bungee trapeze is a fickle apparatus.  

Once the bungee trapeze was set up, it still takes about an hour of tinkering due to my weight and the elasticity of the cords.  The bungee needed an extra cord on each side of the harness so that I can get to the trapeze bar (which was about 30 feet up in the air).  Instead of a 1-hour private session, it ended up more than double due to the set-up time.  Luckily, I had some time and was able to stay for the entire session.  The only thing about staying in a harness for that long is that you tend to start losing blood circulation and feel numb in the thighs.  It’s not a comfortable position to be wearing diaper-like contraptions for too long.  So, be wary of it.

The experience was exhilarating and scary at the same time.  Imagine sitting on a trapeze bar about 30 feet in the air and someone tells you to fall back into nothingness.  There’s a lot of heart palpitation and cold sweat involve.  After you succeed with the first step, you start working towards a short sequence of tumbling that needs to be done at the right time and order.  I didn’t do the sequence very well, but there’s always the next time.  

Ceiling height:   10 to 11 ft

Address:            25A Ferdinand St, Camden

Cost:                   15 pounds – 1 hour drop-in

Email:                 astra@skylabstudio.co.uk

Rigging: 

The studio is located on the top floor.  The wooden vaulted ceiling has a few metal A-frames that goes along the ceiling.  There are 2 steel scaffold bars that connect the A-frames.  These bars are the ones that the aerial apparatus are hooked onto.  The hoops are set up between 10 ft and 11 ft.

Review:

I purchased a drop-in from Sky Lab online (www.skylabstudio.co.uk).  Just picked the available class, followed the prompts and paid for the drop-in.  It was easy.

I made a surprise visit to an old friend of mine, Jackie Le.  We studied aerials together at the BTS project over a decade ago.  When she was a student, she picked up things really quickly.  It was amazing to watch her move.  It was fantastic to see her again as she is still on the aerial path.  To read more about her,  please check out this link.

I really enjoyed learning from her.  I was still suffering from jet lag and was burned out from organizing a previous aerial event.  So, I decided to take it slow.  The warm-up was done together as a group.  Then, the conditioning was done at each own’s pace.   Since this was an aerial taster class, the students worked on their own goals.  Mine was a single toe hang and a reverse meathook.  

It was really wonderful to have a different set of drills to work towards these moves.  Obviously, these are difficult moves and requires lots of patience and time.  Thankfully, Jackie gave personal attention to each of her students to make sure she (everyone in her class were women) has the corrections that she needed.  This is definitely how I would like to spend an evening with my friend.  Definitely my version of fun.

Ceiling height:   25 to 29 ft

Address:            Unit 61, Cromwell Industrial estate, Staffa Road, Leyton

 NOTE:  The studio is now closed, but they are running programs on different location

Cost:                   65 pounds – 1 hr private session

Email:                 welcometogravity@gmail.com

Rigging: 

The centre is located in a warehouse in the industrial area.  The rig structure is a quadralite truss system.  For more details about the space, please click here.  

Review:

I had contacted Yam via e-mail.  She was really good at answering my emails and made sure things went smoothly.   I was impressed that she even took the time to follow up after my private session.  Please note that it’s best to contact a week before the private session.  With so much activity going on in their space, it’s hard for them to know their schedule and space availability.

Unless you want to waste precious minutes in your private session, warm-up and cool down is done on your time.  I was able to come half an hour early to warm-up.  My private session was with Kevin Aaron.  He was such a sweetheart.  He had a terrible cold and still came to teach knowing that I was only in London for a short time.  Regardless of his health, he was still very strong.

We worked on climbs and rolls.  I have been fascinated in working towards rolling up the rope from a back balance.   With that goal in mind, we worked on drills related to rolling and even, a drill for scissor climb.    Bonus!