Trapeze School NY Raises the Bar in DC

What do you get when you mix a woman with questionable common sense, an ‘I’ll try anything once” wild side, and a name straight from Peter Pan?

You get me…flying through the air suspended by arms, legs, and a metal bar – three stories up.

Author Wendy Gordon grasps the bar.

TSNY (Trapeze School of NY – some may remember it from a Sex and the City episode) has set up shop at 9^th and H Streets, NW — providing its ‘students’ with an opportunity to literally suspend all fear and fly through the air with the greatest of ease…or something like that.

TSNY originally debuted in NY in 2002, and has since expanded its operation to five nationwide locations, from Baltimore to Boston to Santa Monica to its newest in DC. Classes are designed to accommodate beginners to the more advanced, with groups of up to 10 students each.  Private lessons, packages, and parties are also available.

My instructors, Mandy, Erik, and Lizzie had both grace in the air and the patience of saints. They act as instructor, coach, drill sergeant (in the best possible way), safety expert, and human encouragement. The class begins with each member of the group being provided with a harness belt for the safety cables and doing a practice run on a low-hanging bar—to get a feel for the experience and learn the commands the operators call to let the student know what position to assume for each stunt. Then it’s off to the actual high-flying apparatus.

Each student goes in turn, attaching cables to their belts both on the way up the 28-foot ladder to the trapeze platform, and then being reattached to cables once reaching the summit.  Safety is a priority here…and yes; there is a very, very large, very, very functional net.

Once up in the air, it’s time to put the brief lower level practice into actuality. As instructors call out commands, the trapeze ‘artist,’ in this case, this writer, goes from straight body hanging to knees around the bar to letting go, hanging from the trapeze like the proverbial bat. It isn’t easy—or so I thought. The fact of the matter is, as long as the student follows every command immediately and without hesitation, gravity does all the work. OK…mostly gravity…there is also perfect timing and a little fortitude involved. Although for some, fear was a factor and, more than once, they had to quietly talk some of the more nervous through it. They managed beautifully, as did the affected students.

It’s an amazing feeling of freedom – exhilarating, cathartic, and a real sense of accomplishment when you realize that you’re flying—straight up…and upside down… the culmination of which is a ‘catch’ when the novice flyer is actually caught by an instructor swinging on an opposite bar as you swing by your knees and grab his arms, leaving the dubious comfort of your own bar and grabbing onto wrists to become one flyer with him. It’s incredible. Flying through the air is one thing…but did I think I could do that? No. But I did. Twice. And it got better each time. I think I can safely say the same for every one of our group who managed this feat as well.

“If man was supposed to fly, he’d have wings,” some have said. Silly philosophy. Anything is possible. We can fly….no fairy dust required….just a little chalk.

Classes begin at $55 each. TSNY is located in a parking lot at 9^th and H right in the middle of Northwest Washington , DC It’s about 3 blocks from the Convention Center and about 3 blocks from the Verizon Center. For more information, class schedules, and to sign up for future classes check out TSNY’s Web site.