After being a professional ariel performer for over ten years, she took the plunge to share her Ariel skills with the public, and founded Skylab Studio. It was our instructor, Astra, that really made the class what it was. But if you're not there yet don't worry - Skylab also hosts an array of Fitness sessions, designed to build up your strength, core and grip, meaning you can walk into the Ariel Class with the confidence to nail those poses! Astra does recommend that ideally you should be able to complete a full pull up before coming to the class, simply because it means you can get more out of it. Having said that, as each move is broken down step by step, the classes do cater for all levels and abilities. Because if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right?! As Astra explains, it's all about the challenge- which makes it feel all the more satisfying when you make it into the air and start to smash out those bad-ass tricks! I've got to admit, ariel is a LOT harder than it looks, but that's the point - you have to work at it to build strength, balance and flexibility. One you feel comfortable, the positions and moves quickly progress and become more advanced, as you move into inversions, beats, and general flying around in the sky! Effectively the hoop is slightly easier as, once you've made the pull up onto the ring, you get to sit down and do a few beginner poses from there. Tucks, pikes, straddles, hocks, inversions - you name it, we did it!įinally, it was on to the hoop - probably my favorite of the three. OK, so as a taster session we weren't quite up to THAT level, but what Astra did show us were some great beginner poses to work up to the full circus performance. With your full body supported in the hammock, it's a great way to build flexibility and core strength in a 'relatively' easy manner.īut the easy side didn't stay long, as we were soon onto the next part of the class - up into the air working on a heck of a lot of upper body strength and grip! Bringing out the silks (literally long strips of fabric suspended from the air), the idea is that you climb up the fabric, using it to wrap, suspend, fall, swing and spiral your body into and out of various (planned!) positions. Basically you pretzel yourself into something that looks fabulous.You'll know by now, I'm all about getting the fun element into fitness, so I was invited along to a special blogger session at Skylab Studio in Camden, I was there in a heartbeat.Īs Skylab offers a range of classes and courses (from Ariel Yoga, to Stretch, to Silks, Hoop, and everything else you can do in the air!) we went for the 'Ariel Taster', which gives you a feel for all the disciplines.īeginning with a full body warmup, we went straight into the 'Stretch' section. Using the yoga style hammocks hanging from the air, this was a gentle introduction to get us used to a few of the Ariel principles - mostly, hanging upside down in the air. Like I said, it’s quite difficult to describe. Lever yourself up and soon enough you’re sitting in the hoop. Pop a crash mat underneath and swing yourself upside down so your feet go over your head, touching the bottom of the hoop above you. In the biz it’s also known as ‘lyra’ though you probably know it by its French name, ‘cerceau’, right? We started on an aerial hoop, which is basically a metal hula-hoop suspended from the ceiling. I still wasn’t sure afterwards but I’m glad I went and I’d recommend it to anyone seeking some sort of circus/dance/fitness mash-up. It’s difficult to describe exactly what that means but, believe me, you should be impressed.īefore the session I wasn’t sure if this was a basic circus skills class or an out-there fitness class. Within an hour’s taster session at SkyLab’s tucked away studio in Chalk Farm, I managed a ‘man in the moon’ on the aerial hoops and a ‘Russian climb’ on the silks. T his circus lark isn’t as tough as it seems.
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