flying trapeze at circuz oz. smile.

I don't know how many of you know/knew/remember that when I was looking at different potential places to study in Australia I went on an is-there-flying-trapeze-anywhere? hunt. I did. And when I did, I found out that there is a place in Melbourne called "Circus Oz." And, among numerous other things I learned about Melbourne, that discovery was one of the things that drew me towards Melbourne over other locations. I've been on the Circus Oz mailing list for a couple of months; so, once I moved into my apartment I called them. I left a message saying I was interested in their flying trapeze classes, and seeing their space, and asking them to call back and let me know how to get there from where I'm living. A really sweet woman called me back and told me that there was one space left in the four week Friday evening intermediate flying class that was starting... two days later. (That was Wednesday. Obviously.) I wasn't planning on starting immediately... and Friday night wouldn't be my first choice of time... but since there is a three week break with no classes after this session and Friday night was the only class available... I figured the time was now!

So tonight I got myself on a tram and headed down to Port Melbourne where the Circus Oz' training space is. The tram ride is a little less than half an hour and then I get to walk along the bay trail for a few minutes... the pedestrian path that runs along the waterfront. Lovely. [And now is when this post becomes quite possibly uninteresting to many of you, but interesting to me and thus being written... you may remember that my very *first* blog entry ever said this blog was half for you and half for me... so there you go.] The space is similar to Trapeze Arts in Oakland in that it is just a huge warehouse filled with rigging. The flying trapeze rig itself, however, is smaller than the rig at home- it is a training rig, as opposed to a big-rig. This means several things: the platform is a board that is about eight inches deep, the ladder is like a wire that comes from the ceiling, the catch-trap is a structure that doesn't swing, and there are mats... no net. Also the length of the swing is shorter which I would feel more strange if I had been flying recently, but doesn't feel *too* odd because I haven't. (Things are smaller in size to fit in a smaller space which makes some things different for real and some things just feel different because they are miniatized (like the platform- I'm not really a fan).) Catches work slightly differently, as do returns, and you have to dismount to your feet instead of to your back. The dismount is the weirdest part because the most important thing you learn when landing in a net is *not* to land feet-first *ever.* So I'll have some body retraining to do. But the coach (Rita) explained to me that you can do anything on a training rig that you can do on a big-rig... so I'm all set. Smile. I also have to learn the ways of a different gym and the lingo of a different country. But those are details and all part of the adventure.


The moral of the story is: I'm flying in Australia. And that, as far as I'm concerned, is fantastical.