anna's adventures
by anna hartley Images by crib creative
Flying high
Our intrepid 'have a go gal' Anna Hartley gets airborne with her first adventure of 2015 - flying high with the Twilight Flyers team.
With their lithe dancers’ bodies, death defying tricks and effortless grace, flying trapeze artists have always awed me, and I’m thrilled to be able to give this magical sport a try thanks to Access Circus and the Twilight Flyers team. Wearing leggings, a comfortable top and socks, I arrive at the outdoor rig at Scarborough beach and am warmly greeted by Mikey Halcrow, a circus arts and dance
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PRIMOLIFE | march 15
professional who will be my instructor for the day. After a harness fitting, a quick stretch and a safety talk which basically boils down to ‘don’t touch the high tension cables’ and ‘do exactly what we say’, we go over how to get onto the platform, which is more than 10m up in the air, and the moves I’ll be doing, on a static bar. Mikey makes it look easy as he breaks it down into a series of simple moves, which
I try to replicate. Hanging by my hands is easy enough, but pulling my legs through my arms to hook my knees over the bar is a trifle more difficult, with my toes and heels tending to get in the way. I’m assured that it is much easier in the air, as I’ll be doing the moves at the top of each swing where my weight is negligible, as opposed to at the bottom where forces of gravity and my speed make me almost twice as heavy.