24
May/Jun 2015
3
talking clichés we figured in for a penny in for
a pound and on an otherwise unremarkable
Wednesday evening we rocked up for our first
lesson unsure of what to expect.
Essential Bali on this occasion was male
and the rest of the class was made up of
flexible females who made the splits look like
something you did without thinking rather
than something you couldn’t ever remember
doing never mind pull off now. But none of
“My heart goes when I’m on the silks but I like it that
they help me conquer my fears”
Kenza, aged 10, Essential Bali guest reviewer
that mattered as we were welcomed and
encouraged – there’s a great atmosphere
of camaraderie here. We eyed up the
equipment on show: a climbing rope, silks,
trapeze and aerial hoop, wondering how any
of these would be of any use to us. But before
any of that came into play there was a warm
up. Which is just one way of putting it.
It immediately became apparent that as
well as the novelty of using all this different
equipment, this is a brilliant and also
challenging way of keeping fit. The serious
reality of the exercises we were to attempt
became apparent in the intensity of the warm
up as we went through push-ups, sit-ups, yoga
poses and more to ensure our bodies were
ready to embark on our circus journey. With
bodies fully flexed it was time to get into the
serious stuff.
A CLIMBING
ROPE, SILKS,
TRAPEZE
AND AERIAL
HOOP
3. Greatest of ease:
Students showing off
their technique
www.essential-bali.com
The first task was to shin up a rope. Now the last
time Essential Bali did this was as a small child
and it seemed easy then, but as we wondered
how it could have got so much more difficult
in the intervening years, we remembered that
the ropes in our school gym had regular knots
to help us; this one didn’t. But given some tips
on technique we were amazed and, it has to
be said immensely proud, to find ourselves at