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| | Chains don't love you back
Posted on 05/15/2008 by Isabella
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Aerial fabric is hurty. Rope burns, wrapping up so tight you can't breath, sliding down too fast for your hands.
But hey, nothing says fun like a challenge. So I get a set of aerial chains. I've seen them around, tried Silea's in Germany, watched some acts on YouTube. You can hang two side by side and use them like Chinese poles, or hang two closer and use them like fabric, or string one or two up at both ends like a sling, or hang one and make it a rope. Transfer of skills, same wraps, same holds, just don't do the falls and drops or you'll regret it.
Suit up, jeans, shoes, my red winter gloves that I'm willing to sacrifice on the altar of couldn't find new gloves today. Short sleeves - why be too cautious? - but seriously, in the long run I'll do the act in a tank top, might as well get used to it from the start.
They're heavy. Stringing up the rigging, balancing on the tippy lyra and taking down one piece of rigging while hauling up another. Spike helps me, then says, I'm not getting back up on those.
Hanging low, nice thick mat, no need to start too hard. Grab the chains, pull over and flip into them. Front balance, roll over and straddle back. Standing, pull up, strike out the feet, find the X that make the chain a box around my body. Pull up again and flip into an upside down split, birdsnest, gripping with the gloves that keep the sweat from dropping me. Rotate sideways into inward angel, my one hand by my eyes, the other between my legs, pressing the body lateral, realizing I'm losing my grip. On the fabric, I'd wrap something around my body, slide down slowly, bail out gently. Here there is nothing that will cradle me without pain and I don't know them well enough to find a hold-until-I'm-OK-again position. So I unwrap my legs, swing down, lengthen my arms and bail to the mat, dropping to my face immediately to avoid getting hit by swinging chain.
Rest, repeat. Scissors is possible, hip key merely unpleasant, I wrap for star and find I can stay there but I wish my jeans had a higher waist. The chains are slippery, bits of my gloves stick between the links, I have to press into them hard, welcome the pain to keep from falling.
At the end of an hour, I'm sweating more than I ever have on silk, mostly from the sheer tension of having to hold my body from my hands while not knowing where it's safe to put another body part. I have perhaps four moves, none perfect or even solid yet, and not much understanding of how the chain *works*, how it becomes part of the performer, how I can work with it and not against myself. I have a ring of bruises around my left hip, another on my right ankle, and I can't tell if my left wrist is surface bruised (ok) or strained (not so good).
I think I'm in love. |
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