"Show me what you can do," requests an inexperienced aerial artist of the more knowledgeable Alexis Shusterman '13. And Shusterman complies — pulling herself smoothly onto the static trapeze, the bar becomes a natural addition to her body as she twists and turns with ease. She is like a pretzel flying gracefully. The impressive stunts are easy, she claims, insisting that the new member will be able to mimic them in weeks.
Meanwhile, Zack Bodinger '13 hangs from the double static trapeze, acting as "base" while another aerialist hangs upside-down from his ankles. And Doug McDonald '14 — legs in the splits — swings five feet from the ground with only silk rope wrapped around his feet to support him.
It is a typical night of practice for one of the University's youngest performing arts groups, the Brown Aerial Arts Society.
Learning to fly
Together, co-founders Bodinger and Shusterman have roughly two decades of aerial arts experience. Every week they share this experience — with the help of a few guide books — with Brown Aerial Arts Society's enthusiastic members. The skill level in the club ranges from students who have never touched a trapeze before to those trained professionally by trapeze schools. As a visitor to the club, I fit into the first category and found myself warmly welcomed.
"If you just look, you can see who has experience," Harmony Lu '12 said as I watched the class. A beginner herself, she added that even those who just started last semester have already seen marked improvement.
Practice began with half an hour of stretching and warm-up led by Shusterman, peppered with jokes about the upcoming Oscars and groans of "why does it hurt so much?" I asked myself the same question as I examined my blistered palms during the 15 minutes of conditioning that ended the practice.
A strong sense of camaraderie between the young club's members was apparent from the start, but I only began to understand it when we came to the heart of practice. Each of the three instructors chose a piece of equipment — Bodinger on double trapeze, McDonald on silk and Shusterman on lyra and static trapeze. Members moved freely between the equipment, practicing new and old moves wherever they felt most comfortable.
Learning and practicing moves requires incredible trust in your fellow aerialists, as well as in your own body. As students climb, swing and flip their way over the various bars, Bodinger constantly reminds them to spot one another — holding their feet in place, gently guiding them onto the bar or standing ready to catch their heads. But the apparatus that demands the highest level of comfort between partners is the double trapeze, on which two aerialists work together on one bar and invariably end up with a foot or rear end to the face in the course of the trick.
So many choices
As practice began and the aerialists scattered to their preferred equipment, I debated which one would be best for beginning my awkward scrambling and decided on the silk. This elegant branch of aerial art consists of two long silk ropes hung from ceiling to floor that the aerialists wrap around their feet, climbing and swinging gracefully through the air.
Or at least, that's the idea.
After a dozen or so failed attempts with the smooth, slippery silk sliding through my feet before I could leave the ground, I decided to try something easier.
I moved on to the lyra, also known as the aerial hoop, and the static trapeze where Shusterman explained the importance of "feeling comfortable enough with your body to trust yourself." So I trusted Shusterman and myself as I was guided through such moves as the mermaid and the man-in-the-moon.
"This one is really cool!" Bodinger shouted with childish glee from the double trapeze. I watched as he and a fellow aerialist tried out a new trick where the base partner sits on the bar and the other partner hangs from the knees. Using his or her feet, the sitting aerialist pushes the partner's stomach so that he suddenly swings in an almost full circle to end up sitting where the base, now hanging below, was moments before.
"It's a good de-stresser," said Michelle Ting, a RISD student.
Getting off the ground
When Shusterman — an aerialist since age seven — discovered last spring that Bodinger was also an experienced aerialist, she contacted him immediately. They came to a quick decision."We should start a club," Bodinger said.
Finding interest in their club was easy, but then came the question of where to meet. "We (had) the Brown Aerial Arts Society but nowhere to practice," Bodinger said. It was more complicated than simply finding a free room, they explained. Aerial equipment requires a structurally sound ceiling with steel beams, a feature not commonly found on campus.
After being turned down at the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, they eventually found the Ashamu Dance Studio and an ally in Tim Hett, technical director for theatre arts and performance studies. Once they had gotten permission to use the studio from Body and Sole — the University's umbrella organization for dance groups who decides the schedule for Ashamu studio space — Hett helped them pick the necessarily strong structural points to install the group's equipment.
Next came the issue of purchasing equipment. There was no way of getting around how expensive aerial equipment is. Bodinger said he spent $1,200 of his own money "to get a trapeze and a lyra because I realized there was going to be no other way to get the club off the ground," he said.
But after a month and a successful performance in the Fall Dance Concert, the Brown Aerial Arts Society was approved as a Category 3 student group, allowing them access to a grant from the Undergraduate Finance Board, and Bodinger was eventually reimbursed for his investment.
The club now also has extensive safety equipment provided by McDonald, who later joined as a third experienced aerial arts instructor. They boast a regular membership of 15 to 20 students and spend four hours per week practicing in Ashamu, more time than any other student performance group, Bodinger said.
Looking forward
Despite its success so far, the Brown Aerial Arts Society is constantly trying to improve. From individual tricks — Bodinger asks each aerialist how comfortable each new trick is for their body — to suggestions for the layout of each practice, the club's leaders are always seeking feedback from their members.
Having already allowed two aerialists — McDonald and Perri Katzman '14 — in the Fall Dance Concert, Shusterman says they have "not hard plans, but dreams" for future shows. Bodinger said they want the focus for now to remain on improving form for their many beginners.
"We are not oriented toward a specific performance," Bodinger said. But Shusterman said they anticipate an informal showcase at the end of the semester.
