Aerial work

I have been doing a lot of aerial the last days. Yesterday, I did a ropes and silks workshop and today afternoon we had supervised aerial practice. My biceps really hurt and I am worried that I might soon catch a cold, so I didn't go to tonights beginners aerial class.

During the workshop we mostly focused on the basics, which I as a former figure skater now never can be trained enough. We did some experimenting with the Russian climb: big, small, straight or bent leg and with a twist. The teacher encouraged us to explore and invent our own versions, and I like how the course and everything is going towards inventing, create and explore your own things.

In the morning we had performance and we are now creating work for the show. Our group had been a little stuck, but at least we had less problems today than last time. We found that when we where doing different kind of games or exercises is was so easy for us to come up with ideas, but now when we can create freely we tend to make things a little bit to complicated when the key seems to be to keep everything as simple as possible.

In the evening there were the parcour class, where I tried hand spring for the very first time. I also did some more assisted back flips. I am still very bad at this but I wasn't even half as scared as I was last week which is a huge step forward for me.

Backflip - jump and hope for the best!

This day of CIP was filled with performance class, and now we saw what a progress we have done since the first weeks. We did many exercises with different levels of tension in the body, as well as more work and improvisation on "Obesession" which is the theme for the show.

At the parcour class we all tried to do an assisted back flip which was the first time for me. It was super scary! First, we tried it from a height down to a crash mat and then from the floor to a crash mat, but they where both equally scary. I don't think I tuck in my legs pr anything but just jumped and hoped that the teacher would spin me around and save me, which he did. I am very proud of myself though that I dared to do it and now it fells like I want to do it again!

Top tips for beginners of assisted back flips:

• It is easier to do it from a height down a to a crash mat, but it is scary since you are high up.
• When doing it from the floor, remember to jump up high in the air before you tuck.
• Commit to it! Believe that you can do it! It think fear is the biggest enemy when staring to to back flips, at least it is that for me.