Iridescent purple, pink and green silks flow from the roof to the floor of the Silk Workshop, in an industrial park in Cape Town, where people come to try the aerial arts of the circus.
Aerial silks training, like dancing in the air, is a graceful way to become strong, flexible and fit. Even if you are clumsy on land like me, once you enter the weightless zone of silks you feel like Peter Pan. Or Tinkerbell. Or any other flight of fancy.
Former figure skater Nicky Slaverse ran away to the circus when she was 17. She runs the Silk Workshop with her oldest daughter Roxanne, another gifted performer.
Roxanne was my instructor that morning and started with the basics needed to execute poses: how to wrap my wrists, lift myself off the ground and hang; and how to wrap my feet and stand up high in the silks.
With these elementary skills I could "French climb" up the silks, a bit like climbing a swaying tree, which required arm and core strength. The silks drop about 7m down and have padded mats below them.
After that exercise I learnt to do a footlock, wrapping my feet in silks on top of each other, which felt slightly uncomfortable until I got used to the nip. But the benefit of the footlock is that it takes your weight off your arms, allowing you to strike an effortless pose. Think an exultant Kate Winslet at the bow of the Titanic.
Training my flexibility, I did a v-stretch upside down (the straddle) and the splits (upright) for my final pose.
Roxanne let me try two moves on the lyra (aerial hoop): the straddle mount and dismount, and then sitting in the hoop in the "man in the moon" pose.Roxanne, 26, was at the studio with her younger sisters of 11 and 14, who were doing gymnastic moves, while Nicky practised acrobatics with her partner, Maliko Chikaonga.
Another member of their troupe, 21-year-old contortionist Gigi Abels, executed some astonishing poses.
In December a 75-year-old woman had fun on the silks during her daughter's birthday party, demonstrating that it's a low-impact way to get in shape for anyone.Nicky said they have more female than male members but the silks, lyra, acrobatics and trapeze - "flying" is her favourite - have universal appeal and they have children, waitresses and lawyers in their classes.When they separated she and Roxanne started the Silks Workshop together and they do classes, outreach and shows.
"People start with baby steps when they come to us and before they know it they are doing their first drops (climbing high, releasing your hands and sliding rapidly down the swatch of silk head first)," she said.
THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF AERIAL SILKS TRAINING
Dr Mike Posthumus, head of Sports Performance at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, shares some of the health benefits of aerial silks training:..