Testimonials
When I first started it was hard because I was unfit but was so happy that I still managed to learn so much in the first lesson and was hooked…Trapeze means a lot to me. It's my happy place and a constant personal challenge and has taught me a lot about trust and building confidence in myself. It has motivated me to get fit and be more creative.
Lyndsey Weave – Student
Trapeze is the best workout ever; it is guaranteed to put a huge smile on my face. Every class presents a new and welcome challenge, both physically and mentally.
Jon Gordon – Market/social researcher
Trapeze is now something that I cannot do without. It gives you physical, emotional and intellectual strength very rapidly because it makes you focus on every tiny step you need to take in order to achieve your next move – which in itself is something of infinite variety. It is utterly absorbing and is a journey which will only end when I can no longer get out of a chair!
Lorraine Boley – Education Adviser for Looked After Children
Trapeze is not only an amazing way to keep fit and strong, but for me it has helped me take more risks. I am a natural wimp and trapeze has made me stronger, not only physically but mentally as well. Trapeze has made me more interesting! It's a great conversation starter.
Laura Ferguson – Internal communications for an insurance company.
I love doing trapeze because it's different to the more conventional types of fitness and strength activities available at a gym. In trapeze you are always discovering new things and making new friends from different walks of life. It has made me feel better about what I can achieve and I'm having fun at the same time.
Bobby Youle – Plumber
I'm registered partially sighted so there are not many sports I can take part in outside of the gym and swimming pool. Trapeze is physically demanding and an interesting conversation piece that changes the usual conversation from ”how did you lose your eye” to ”oh my god, you really do that!”
Edward Hurley – Paralegal
Press
New Shopper
Learning the ropes: trapeze lessons in Beckenham
3:30pm Tuesday 10th February 2009
Looking for an aerial arts-infused hobby? After hearing trapeze lessons are launching in Bromley, Kerry Ann Eustice swings by a lesson, and loves it.
After scheduling in a trapeze lesson, I soon start conjuring up dreamy montages about running off to the circus and wearing sequins. It was a similar vision which inspired Bromley instructor and cabaret performer Amanda Miles to master the art. When taking in a particularly impressive static trapeze show, it struck Amanda just how how strong and glamorous these performers were.
Days later, as if by fate, flyers for static trapeze classes near her home came through her letterbox. That was 13 years ago, and now she’s launching her own classes at Cator Park Sports Centre, Beckenham.
After a hearty warm up of crunches and stretches, with lots of emphasis on core strength and loosening the shoulders, we were ready to go. It soon becomes clear this is as much about understanding, controlling and correcting your body, as it is looking fabulous mid-air.
“Elongate the body and suck in the stomach. Imagine yourself in a sequin leotard,” said Amanda. Fine posture-improving advice indeed.
Amanda then demonstrates with disarming ease how to mount, stretch and stand on the trapeze — our first, basic steps.
I grip the trapeze with my thumbs underneath, then hook my legs over into a pike-like position. To raise into a seated position, I climb the rope with my hands. It’s far harder than it sounds, and takes more strength than I have. But eventually I’m sitting upright, keeping my core as tight as can be to steady my balance. One leg at a time, I’m soon standing on tip toes on the trapeze and, I must say, it’s a little scary. Plus my feet and creases of my legs, unused to this kind of pressure, immediately disprove and I quickly wobble off. But the adrenaline is really coursing now and despite the mild pain and the fear, I’m really loving it.
Next Amanda shows us a moonfish, a trick where you twist the hips to become wedged in the swing and elongate the body gracefully to the side. It’s my second time on the trapeze and already I have more confidence and fluidity. “Your posture is already improving,” said Amanda encouragingly.
I have no idea how it appears to my onlooking colleague, Alison, but I manage this pose, just, and it feels fantastic.
Next the rope. As someone who has the upper body strength of Popeye sans spinach, I begin to worry.
“It’s more about the legs, not the arms” says Amanda, after forming a platform by wrapping the rope around her leg and balancing it on her foot then climbing with seeming effortlessness to the ceiling, five metres up.
My office-dwelling hands don’t take to kindly to supporting me on a rope and I manage just one pull up.
Our next task is to hang and then swing from a higher trapeze. Hanging, I wrongly assume, should be must easier. Alison is great at this and swings away happily while I nurse mildly calloused palms and aching arms.
It’s seriously hard work — it’s given me a new-found respect for the Z- listers on Cirque de Celebrite — but brilliant fun. Plus Amanda’s strength and flair are genuinely inspiring. So if you want to inject some adrenaline and challenging fun into your regime, this is the class to swing for.
Trapeze classes start Feb 21 at Cator Park Sports Centre, Lennard Road, Beckenham. 3.30pm. £75 (six weeks). 020 8464 9939.
Thanks to New Shopper, Dancing in the South East, Bromley Times and Express newspapers.
