A few months ago I had the honor of shooting a commercial called “Best of the Best” featuring Lebron James, Richard Sherman and Johnny Manziel. We were all supposed to be the BEST at what we did and lived in a secret club house. I was a cheerleader. It wasn’t the fisherman, karate man or swimmer that caught my eye. It was the beautiful woman that could spin six hula hoops around her body for long periods of time. She was impressive. After sitting down for lunch and getting to know each other, my new buddy and I immediately felt like we knew each other for years. She told me about her travels around the world and her aerial act with her friend Stephanie. We came to the realization that we were signed with the same agency and were shocked we hadn’t run into each other before. By the end of the shoot I am pretty sure we were best friends. We exchanged numbers and planned for coffee that week. This post is in honor of my now dear friend Naomi Grace and her equally incredible partner Stephanie. These two amazing women who are heading to Tampa to work on a show in Busch Gardens Theme Park. Here is there incredible act!
Anyway, after getting to know each other a little better we got on the topic of health and fitness and I explained to her that I always love trying new forms of workouts. I love Barre, Yoga, Swimming, Bootcamps…so why not circus school? They actually practice at a facility right near my house. I had a college friend coming into town and thought it would be the perfect time to schedule a private lesson. How hard could it be right? They make it look effortless. As soon as we got in and warmed up there was much work to be done.
We started with the trapeze then moved on to silks. This was one of the toughest workouts I have have ever done! Stephanie was so patient with us, but she make it look absolutely effortless. Let me tell you something…this takes effort. A lot of effort. Working with the silks is an intense upper body workout that targets biceps, triceps, traps, lats and deltoids. All these muscles were en fuego, and the silks were not as soft as the look. In fact they burn lol. I have to admit that that my little blond friend put me to shame. I am a hands on learner and total type B while she is super analytical. Our teacher would explain and show the steps and then I would get in and MAYBE make it to step two. Anyone who knows me knows my attention span is the size of an ants, but after she patiently walked me through there was many successful tries. It was a great hour and if you live in Miami I would definitely recommend giving it a try!
However, if you live in other parts of the country…did you know you can go to circus school too?
New York:
http://www.inshapecircus.com/outline_nw.asp?main_page=contact_us
http://www.aerialartsnyc.com
http://www.urbanaerialnyc.com/#!contact-us/c1cr2
Georgia:
https://circusartsinstitute.com/circus-contact
California:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-aerial-studio-ventura
https://www.facebook.com/aerialfitnessoc
North Carolina:
https://www.facebook.com/AirBornAerialFitness
http://aerialfit.com
Youth Program:
http://www.circusfit.com/General/Faq.aspx
The list goes on and on! find a school near you and become a lean mean flying circus machine!
Love and Fitness,
Taylor