.

   Building endurance, deciphering balance, learning to dance, and nursing my weird little double jointed thumb. While working on a transition between back balance (first below) and another balance, I went to grab the rope midair and my thumb flexed at the extra joint and pulled way back. ouch.

  Otherwise, leaning slowly toward smooth, familiar, movement.  Climbing and going from trick to trick is fine, but dancing between and even staying up in the air for 4-5 minutes at a time is still just a thought. I imagine it's possible, but effort eclipses ease and presence for now. In the meantime,  at around 20 ft. off the ground mid-class, I paused and realized I was holding everything with my own two hands. Upside down, hair uncoiling slowly, sweat soaking in, body swaying, hot still metal air, bird view.

  On the ease note, yoga has been especially sweet and good.  Starting to really enjoy the flow of movement, and breath with less unnecessary tension.  I keep laughing thinking of Rodney Yee on this point.. in class he asked us to move our leg..  we did.. he watched then said.. I asked you to move your leg, not your jaw. Direct action, simple.

Balance

Variations on handstands after class.
This one takes me a while to find, but once I'm there it's easier to balance in than handstand. 
Still figuring out how to breathe (see red face.. heh) and bring my chest up more.  Think my feet could actually touch my head, but I'm cautious about being bendy with my lower back and opening my chest is more of a challenge than I thought.
You can see...
upper back more bendy.. then lower back more bendy.. finally a bit more balanced.

Also enjoying hysterical laughter with everyone from attempts at other randomness. 
Working on adding an a different arm balance into a press into handstand at the end of this.. right now it's just a thought. 

Tissue play

   Walked in before class to see Rain (Rainanya.com) do a run-through of an aerial piece on chains.  Amazing, surreal, and definitely stirring in the back of my mind as something else to eventually try.
In the meantime, definitely going to yoga 5 - 7 hours/week. My shoulders are getting built and my body understanding is shifting to find out what the muscles need in order to relax.  I feel like I could just stay in downdog allll dayyyy longgg, feels so good.

Otherwise, we've had quite a few new ideas to play with, especially since we've been slowly gravitating to the tissue. New one below... " taaa-ddaaaaa".  I can see how having full middle splits would make this look amazing.

First time trying a new drop. Lots of hoo-ha figuring out where the tissue goes,  what to do,  and trying to relax my racing heart.  But so fun!!!!!!   

The performer

   We've been hammering away at endurance, line, and technique but never on performance. Finally dug in and blasted the music today for a mini rope/tissue improv.  How in the world do you move with grace when you're lifting your body over and over again, twisting, dropping, sweating, and flying.  On top of it, I'm usually on the production/visual end so performing feels completely awkward.
  So, I'm pondering performance and those I've had the pleasure of photographing over the years.   Dancers especially capture my heart; surrendered, ruthless, fierce, sweet, and in the moment.
I can easily end up with 8 gigs from a short shoot because I start dancing too.... following thier breath with the shutter, aching to click everything into permanence but also wanting to preserve the ephemeral. 

You inspire me. 
   
Circo Zero
photo: Luiza Silva

Dandelion Dancetheater
photo & set: Luiza Silva

Sideshow Physical Theatre
photo: Luiza Silva

balance play

   Class today was packed with a tribe of strong, amazing women; fascinating to see the diversity in who is drawn to circus. Somehow a few of us ended up with a bit of extra energy and went on to do a little flexibility and hand balance workout.  Several classes back, we started working on a balance that really captured my imagination. Ideally the body bends upward on one hand in a sort of diagonal, arched moon shape.  At this point I can balance for a moment before I fall out to avoid a face plant.

  
 Going.....

  















going.....

 

gone....  complete with laughing baby bird fetal position.

1 step forward, 2 steps back

After a long spell of fever, chills, and other sickie symptoms I'm back to training this past week.
It's amazing how much I lost in terms of endurance during the down time.  Today was especially difficult, but looking back over the past 5 days I see why.... I've trained and/or taken 8 hours total of class (9 by the end of today). *whew*  I'm at my goal of 10 climbs per class, but by the last climb my forearms are in knots.
We went back to the ankle hang today, and I managed to actually hang instead of just plopping on the mats. As you can tell, I'm still super tense, trying to brace against the discomfort of all my weight pulling around my ankle. The silly thing is, the rest of my body actually feels released and relaxed upside down, it's just the squeezing around my ankle that makes it seem otherwise.
Another tiny life lesson in this practice. We spend so much energy struggling to brace against discomfort rather than sinking in and just being present. Often the discomfort is nothing more than a single point, but with all the flailing &tension it seems like much more.  


Trying single ankle hang... eep.

pull over.. muuuch less painful.. I'll even smile.