So, I finished off random sports month with the most random sport I could think of – trapeze.  I bought a Living Social deal for an Intro To Low Fly Trapeze Workshop by AWOL Dance Collective (www.awoldance.org)

I arrived at the warehouse, which is shared with a very open, very dangerous looking woodworking shop.  I had to follow a long and windy semi-enclosed pathway to the restroom.  There were huge power tools with unfinished projects sitting all over the place.  There was a carnival sign hanging from an overhead rafter.  There were piles of wood and sharp objects everywhere.  Just to give you an idea of how loose these guys play with safety, this is where I washed my hands.

The class started and it was awesome.  Just a bunch of girls in their 20s looking for a different kind of workout or just looking to try something new. We started with a warm up and some yoga to get flexible.  Then, they lowered the trapeze bars and we all took turns kicking our legs up and underneath them to swing upside down.  The bar was pretty high and the first time I tried to kick my legs up gracefully, I wound up falling short.  Really short.  Well, I wasn’t gonna let that happen again, oh no.  The next time I tried, I kicked the shit outta that bar.  Like, kicked it so hard it left huge welts which later became huge bruises on both my shins.  I got you this time, BAR!

After we did a few upside down tricks, we started swinging.  We pulled the bar all the way back and practiced control swinging.  This was my favorite part.  The pictures did not turn out awesome, but I’m still gonna share them.

Then, we learned ribbons.  I always thought these were so beautiful and graceful.  Turns out they are very smelly, actually.  And really freaking hard.  I was never one of the people that could climb the rope in gym class, so I didn’t really think this would be any better.  In fact, I was in the 30% or so that actually got off the ground.  Not very far off the ground, mind you, but off the ground nonetheless.  Booyah.

Here’s my teacher showing off.

A friend and I went back to see a live show in November and it was crazy awesome.  I would recommend it to anyone.  It’s really cheap and really entertaining.